As I was riding the elevator down from my apartment this morning, a girl got on carrying her lunch with her. While this is pretty mundane, what wasn’t so normal about it were the contents: Two cans of lite Red Bull and a Lean Cuisine. I can honestly say that this is the first time that I’ve ever seen this combination, and it got me to thinking about an interesting workplace subject: How we seemingly work against ourselves on a daily basis.

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With today being Friday (TGIF!!!), I thought I’d put together a list of five things that are ideal to do on a Friday.

Here’s the list:

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This is a situation we’ve all run into at one time or another, be it at work, the mall, or any virtually any other setting: We have a hard time understanding someone because of their accent. While they may be speaking perfectly fluent English, it can be really difficult to understand someone with a thick accent. While it may only cost you an extra pair of socks at the mall, or make you return your dinner because you got the wrong dish, at the office the cost of such a misunderstanding can be much greater. The problem is some people don’t want to ask for clarification from someone if they can’t understand them, because they think it’s rude. This leaves them in a self-made catch-22 situation: If they don’t ask, then whatever they are working on with that person probably won’t be done right, but if they do ask they feel they’re going to offend them.

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In the bathroom as we’re both “hard at work”….

Random work guy: “Hey, how’s it going?”
Me: “…..good…”
Random work guy: “Yeah, so, what a day, huh? Pretty busy.”
Me: “…yeah…”
Random work guy: “So what are you doing this weekend?”
Me: *sigh*

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It’s 6:00, and time for you to head home for the day. Just as you’re about to shut your email down, you get a new message. It’s one of your co-workers, and they need a few documents from you ASAP. In this situation, you have two choices:

1. Ignore the message and pretend you didn’t get it until tomorrow. It’s a completely possible scenario, as it is the time you usually leave everyday.
2. Take 10 minutes and find those documents for them.

Which route would you take? At first, choice number one might seem to be the best option. You’ve had a long day, right? They know you leave at this time, and should realize you probably wouldn’t get the message until the morning. However, this is the wrong attitude to take. You should take the time to help them out. Not only is it not going to kill you to stay an extra 10 minutes, but I assure you they will be grateful. Hopefully the next time you need something ASAP from them, they’ll return the favor. Even if it’s not emergency help, they most likely will be more inclined to help you in the future when you need it.