Do a coffee run in your office only if you have a great memory – because you will be fetching latte, soy without sugar, skinny weak cap with extra hot water please, espresso and two sugars – the list goes on.

Listen to the different ring tones of the mobile phones in your office – you could find they are all different. Multiply different, as some will have programmed ring tones unique to some of their contacts.

Have we gone too far?

Offices rarely have a radio on now. We are not going to have someone else tell us what we will listen to – we all plug-in our earphones and listen to our own music collections.

Last week on a flight, I listened to two business people complain that the plane we were flying only had the screens that drop from the cabin ceiling – and not displayed on the back of the seat in front. Their misery was caused by not being able to choose from 27 movies and 64 television channels – they had to watch what someone else had decided they were to watch!

Definitely! We have gone too far!

Gone too far maybe with personal choice and opportunities to make an impression by upping the ante.

Conversations about coffee, mobile phone ring tones, how many movies can you not watch at once – harmless. At work, though many question whether we have also gone too far.

Comments like:

“What – I have to be respectful to everyone?”

“I like this part of the position description – but I do not do reports – so we can move that to someone else can’t we?”

“I have a doctor’s certificate saying I can’t work with Frank, Rochelle and Geoff.” “Has the doctor met with Frank, Rochelle and Geoff?” “No.”

When we consider these comments – we seem to be looking at different expressions of concern about “going too far”.

Is it going too far to expect all of us to behave well to all of those around us? Is it going too far – an oversimplification of the building-strengths movement perhaps – to allow employees to cherry-pick the parts of the position description they can choose to perform?

Author: This post is by Joe Moore the founder and principal of Kimber Moore & Associates. Joe and his team are highly skilled in helping leaders, managers and staff deal with uncertainty, complexity and conflicts before they escalate into situations that are more volatile. You can contact Joe here