I had never heard the term “work like a gentleman” before, but it has changed my approach to doing things.
Over the summer I had a boardroom style table I had to assemble for a not-so-large room. The facilities manager briefed me to “go ahead and pull some of the furniture out into the hallway so you can assemble the table in the room. Work like a gentleman.”
I thought how with a lot of things, physical, mental, emotional, work & personal…I’ll have a task and not give myself the proper “space”…be it time, logistics, gathering of what’s necessary, even just actual physical space. More times than not it is 100% worth slowing down, gathering thoughts and goods and essentially preparing for twice as long as the actual task will take. But the task is then pulled off flawlessly and with a lot less frustration. It takes discipline and patience, but to do things properly and to not have the later-on-you pissed off at the earlier-you, you work like a gentleman.
If you google “work like a gentleman” nothing like the context of how it is used here shows up. I don’t know if this is an industry-specific saying, or if my supervisor uses this routinely as a personal saying. I have worked with/for him for three years at this point and have never heard him say it.
Reminds me of Craig Newton. If you’ve perused some of my blogs, read my book, or worked with me, you’ve heard of his legend. He’s the one that instilled the “if I dug ditchers I would dig you the prettiest ditches you had ever seen” work ethic in me. And like working like a gentleman, I don’t think the “grab your shovel” speech Craig gave me was a go-to motivational talk. I think he happened to say the right thing to the right person at the right time with the right words. And nearly thrity years after Craig dared me to take the utmost pride in whatever it is I choose to do, I still carry that moment with me.
And will also carry the idea of working, and living, like a gentleman with me.
Give yourself space. Allow planning. Gather your tools. Clear out the mess. Make sure you have enough time. Look around for any potential butterfly effects. Take your time.
Work like a gentleman.
And dig the prettiest ditches that you possibly can.