Phoning It In

I recently had a disastrous run-in with tech support, and it reminded me of a time when I was waiting tables and the phrase “phoning it in” was popular. As opposed to “dial it in” which has the opposite effect, phoning it in is all about a lack of focus, about doing the minimum and avoiding the real work.

It’s entirely possible, of course, to wait tables on autopilot or by muscle memory—I’m sure we’ve all been on the receiving end of that lack of service. But as any restaurant worker will tell you, when you’re that disengaged, you’re not making any real money, anyway. You might get away with it for a table here or there out of exhaustion, but for the long haul you’ve got to be present.

On any given night in the restaurant, there would be a bunch of us in the server room, dashing about with trays of silverware, or coffee fixings, or wine glasses, and one or more of us would be told we had yet another table to greet. At that point someone would inevitably say, “Guys, I’m just going to phone this one in.” I’m sure you had to be there, but it was comical. Every single time. For a split second, we all pictured ourselves kicking back, with our feet up, and just getting done what little we could.

But I wonder if that’s one of the things that happened to us? I’m talking about the offices, businesses, what have you, where someone’s distraction causes rookie mistakes or even their purposeful lack of thinking makes us question our own sanity, moments where you glance from one corner of your eyes to the other and think, “Am I on TV?”

I’m talking about when somebody’s given the wrong medication even though their chart clearly says allergy, or the lug nuts weren’t completely tightened before you were allowed to drive away. Or a company’s “award-winning” tech support keeps telling you a mistake has happened but they won’t tell you what mistake or how to fix it. Or company systems that are so fractured that Person A sees the issue but doesn’t know it’s a problem. Person B knows it’s a problem but doesn’t see that that the issue has occurred.

On the flip side, each of us can likely name instances where someone went above and beyond, and really came through for us. Whether that’s because the person did their job--and that alone was a refreshing change--or because they really did do something outstanding, connecting the dots and foreseeing a problem before it became one, saving time, effort, money, lives… Stories like these remind us that goodness is out there and people are paying attention.

Maybe we took our mental break a little too far. Or maybe I’m just sore about tech support. (Ding, ding! We have a winner!) But the whole situation reminded me that change starts with us. We get to choose to dole out bad service the way it was given to us, or to break the cycle and pave the way for better.

Here’s to no more phoning it in. Today we dial it in. It’s time we bring back the notion of a job well done. This is our time to shine.