Lack of high standards

January 17th, 2024

I don't accept a lack of high standards in others. I slowly learned to tolerate it and deal with it, but it still bothers me a lot. Of course — I hold myself to very high standards in all I do. You might say I strive for perfection. Or maybe the constant need for perfection might be a driving force behind my expectations of high standards in myself — but that is another subject to talk about some other time…

Let's then talk about the lack of high standards in others. Let me present here my disappointment with other people and their various but always not high enough standards — especially when dealing with others. Today, at 11 am, I was told that I was invited to a dinner with some management people who just arrived from different cities and countries at my place of work and wanted to meet me and others from my department outside of the workplace. And that dinner was for tonight at 7 pm. I thanked them for the offer, but said that I would not be participating — there was not enough time for me to take care of or postpone the things I had planned for tonight. I had nothing planned for tonight, to be honest, but I am not on call after hours of work to be ready to do things on such short notice. Even if that is doing things with management.

I see it as a very low standard from their side, to let me know about going out after work hours without advance notice. If I plan anything that involves other people, and their time and attention — I will do everything possible to let them know well in advance. I will check if that will work for them, I will make arrangements and adjustments to fit everyone’s schedule and I will keep planned hours to start and to finish. But I guess that is just me, others might not care about that. And in this case, or any other case like that — I will no longer adjust my schedule and rearrange my time to fit their plans. For much too long I was too meek, too considerate not to offend in cases like that. Not anymore.