You give and give and give. You do your best to say, “Yes” to any reasonable request from them. Then one day, you have to say, “No.” That’s when things go south quickly. While it may sound like I am describing my experience as the parent of teenagers, I am actually talking about entitlement among employees and coworkers!
Entitlement In The Workplace
Have you ever experienced this kind of situation before? Maybe your experience with entitlement is limited to one or two employees or coworkers over your career. Maybe it is something you learned how to correct long ago. It might be something you are dealing with right now.
Whatever the case, entitlement is an attitude or mindset that is prevalent in our culture these days. Most likely, you have had to deal with this disease at one time or another in your career. While I wish I could say our society has improved in this area, I actually think it has become more of a problem than ever before.
In fact, I have heard multiple conference speakers talk about how the new generation of young adults (Gen Y) coming up has this problem worse than any other generation in memory. I know we have seen our share of entitlement show itself in our business. I am betting you have as well.
Answer This Question
Now that I have you worked up and thinking about the specific employees or coworkers that you think have the most extreme cases of entitlement, I want you to answer one question…
When did YOU last get frustrated when something did not go your way?
Wait a minute! Weren’t we just talking about all of those other people who have the problem with entitlement? Weren’t we all agreeing how bad our society is and how tough it is to deal with entitlement in the workplace? How did the focus turn back to us?
Remove The Log
Well, I guess those are fair questions. My answer is that we must first eliminate entitlement in ourselves before we attempt to address it in others. If I recall, Jesus said something about removing the log in our own eye first (Matthew 7:5). I think that applies here as well, don’t you think?
In case you need a refresher, entitlement is defined as the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. At first glance, you may not see this behavior in yourself. That’s understandable. However, I would like to linger here a moment and let you think on a deeper level.
Taken For Granted?
Think about the daily conveniences that you (might) take for granted. When you flip the light switch, the light should come on. When you go to shower, there should be hot water. At least, there should be water, right? Your “fast” food should be fast…and hot…and available. I could go on…
To be fair, I must admit that I just returned from a 5 day mission trip to Haiti.
On this trip, I witnessed the worst poverty I have ever seen. I was not only shocked at the depth of it. I was completely and totally overwhelmed at the breadth of it. I saw almost nothing but extreme poverty. If you have never experienced it, you will not truly grasp what I am saying. I thought I knew what poverty looked like, but I had significantly underestimated it.
Joy In Harsh Conditions
You want to know what else I saw? I got to spend four days with 34 orphans that lived in the toughest conditions but exhibited more joy and gratitude than those who live in the luxury of the US. I cannot adequately describe to you the distinct difference between their mindset and that of American children their age – even American adults of ANY age.
In fact, their attitudes would blow your mind.
As I said, I cannot possibly describe my experience in a way that completely communicates the experience. Instead of attempting it, I will simply move on to my main point for this post.
Self Assessment
We are all spoiled and, to some degree, guilty of entitlement ourselves. Forget the employees or coworkers that frustrate us with this behavior. There is more than enough opportunity for improvement right here in the mirror to last for a while. If this is not true for you, then I congratulate you. You are better than me.
However, if you have a sneaky feeling that you might be guilty of entitlement, then I encourage you to stop and take an inventory of your feelings. Pray about it and ask God to reveal the truth to you…slowly, so you can handle it. If He dumps it on you all at once, it can be difficult!
Where do you see entitlement in your own life?
Do you see the need to remove it?
What do you see as the antidote to entitlement?
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