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Seeing the big picture

In my very first experiences of interning or doing part-time work, I usually get placed at the very bottom of the food chain. One summer I was an administrative assistant, and now I hold a part-time job as an accounts receivable clerk. Since I mostly come inexperienced, I would have to get trained and mentored by the employees there. Most of the time, I get paired with an employee who introduces me to their daily tasks. After a few times experiencing this, and having the position of an outsider who is given a glimpse of the inner workings of a company, I've started to notice something that companies have in common. Most of us are missing the big picture.

As an employee starting a career in a specific company, in a non-decision-making position, we are often given a set of instructions for our daily tasks. These are the things that need to be done (by us) in order for the organisation to run well. It could be creating clippings of real estate advertisements from the newspaper. It might be processing a payment by following a detailed set of instructions. It could be very tedious stuff that might lead you to start to think: "Why am I doing this?"

I completely understand that sometimes there just isn't enough time or resources to explain everything to everyone in the team. But here is why I think understanding the big picture is great for everyone in the organisation.

First and foremost, not understanding the significance of what you are doing kills motivation. When you are stuck repeatedly doing the same things, for weeks and months... no matter how good of an employee you are, you will get bored. Especially if you don't understand the contributions that you are making as you work. When you lose motivation, then the quality of your work will automatically decrease. This is bad not just for you, but for the entire company as well — because now you are inefficient.

On the other hand, if you understand the reasoning behind your tasks why it has to be done, you will feel that you are important to your organisation — that you belong, and that what you do matters. Most of the time, the quality of your work improves if you are motivated.

For example, everyday I have to input the page numbers for the ads in our school paper. It's tedious work. At first, I didn't know why I was doing it, and I was getting frustrated with having to do it every day. After a while, however, I realised that this was important because it was the only way for us to make sure that the ads were there, and that we can always use the page number that we've inputted to track an advertisement from weeks , or months ago, when needed (e.g. when a client requests to see a screenshot of the ad as proof.) After realising this, I started to take this daily task more seriously. Well, I didn't, become super passionate about it either, but I see the importance.

I feel like entrusting this knowledge to interns, admin-level employees, the newbies, in a club, or other similar positions, is beneficial for both the organisation and the individual. By doing this, you are educating them about the bigger things going on at work, and also reminding them that their efforts matter. You are encouraging them to become problem solvers, and to look at things the way you would look at things.

I've seen a lot of people complain every day saying things like, "I don't understand why they can't just do it properly! It's not that hard!" If that's the case, maybe take a step back. You might know how to do it perfectly because you know the big picture. Maybe, they don't know how to do the tasks properly because they're only seeing a small part of the picture, and that's not enough.