How do you define a "good job"?

[MJ5150]

I got to thinking about this the other day as I watched several people telling a friend of mine "good job" on a public reading he had just finished. I thought it was terrible, but maybe I was being a snob about it. I have been speaking and reading publicly for over 25 years, so I consider public speaking something I am very good at.

So I thought to myself.....well, he did do a "good job" according to his usual standards, but not a "good job" according to mine.

When you decide to tell someone "good job", what do you base "good" on? How good you would have done, or how good they did compared to what you know they can do? I suppose each situation would be different too. I certainly would not hold a child to my same standards of "good" in many things, like public speaking for example.

-Mike

[bluewine]

Well for perfoming art or commercial artist. I play Rock music which is a commercial art, it's anything that turns me on.

If I'm turned on by something someone creates, executes and delivers then it's a "Good Job". It all relative I guess.

blue

[NJL]

i don't tell anyone they did a good job unless I believe it's a good job. period.

mike, quit being a baby, man up and just kick him in his nads and tell him how horrible he is.

[mike_v_s]

As you stated, it depends on the situation. In the situation you described, I think it fitting to tell the individual "good job" based on their standards (as you are obviously more proficient, it wouldn't make sense to hold him to your standards). I've told people good job based on the effort (as opposed to the results) in an effort to keep from discouraging them.

...and of course there are times when I tell someone "good job" and we both know I mean the exact opposite.

Mike

[kesslari]

My favorite scene in the movie....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1bV5D9E3e8

[klokker]

A White guy walking through an Indian Reservation one day saw an old man sitting on his porch with his dog.

The White guy walks up to the old Indian and says, "Hey, what kind of a dog is that?"

The Old Indian said, "Its a good dog".

Western thought is messed up man. You can't define goodness.

[popinfresh]

Umm, working 3-6 hours a day, two days on, two days off with free accommodation and spending the rest of the time at the beach. $200 cash every week for spending. Best job i've ever had in my life.

[Wesley R]

day at work (get layed off Monday), the job I have.

Peviousely, my def. of a good job wold be one that pays the bills, is kinda fun, and allows for personnal pride in work.

Best of Luck,
Wesley R

[PSPookie]

My cat's breath smells like catfood.

[L-A]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

When you decide to tell someone "good job", what do you base "good" on?

Originally Posted by popinfresh

Umm, working 3-6 hours a day, two days on, two days off with free accommodation and spending the rest of the time at the beach. $200 cash every week for spending. Best job i've ever had in my life.

Originally Posted by Wesley R

day at work (get layed off Monday), the job I have.

Peviousely, my def. of a good job wold be one that pays the bills, is kinda fun, and allows for personnal pride in work.

Good job.

[Vorago]

Originally Posted by klokker

A White guy walking through an Indian Reservation one day saw an old man sitting on his porch with his dog.

The White guy walks up to the old Indian and says, "Hey, what kind of a dog is that?"

The Old Indian said, "Its a good dog".

Western thought is messed up man. You can't define goodness.

[sarcastro83]

something that affords me to live comfortably, and doesn't drive me nuts.

[PSPookie]

Originally Posted by sarcastro83

something that affords me to live comfortably, and doesn't drive me nuts.

Dude, I think this is exactly what the OP was getting at.

[wilser]

obviously a lot of people didn't read the original post

when I started working here on my first week there was a disaster. the database for one of the apps (which I knew nothing about at the time) crashed. the DBAs recovered from a backup but there were 400k records out of 1.6M missing from the main table. The managers started gathering all the "experts" on the application, people that had originally written much of this stuff. They went on for about a week supposedly coming up with solutions on how to recover the lost data which involved some crazy and complex loading, reloading, comparing, deleting, etc. I left the "war room" with a hard copy of the scripts and went to an empty office to reverse engineer it. Two hours later I came back to the room and said "we don't have to do anything, the data will repopulate itself from the source system automatically, here see it in your own code!". After about 5 hours arguing my point against all the proposed work and me betting my head on a guilloutine that it was gonna work, finally I just told them "just query prod and see how many records you have, they should all be there now". All the data had "fixed itself up" and I was told "good job".

Of course, when you compare what I did with what the others were proposing you would call it a "good job" because I saw what 6 other "experts" weren't seeing, but I just replied "hey, this is my job, that's why I'm here". To me receiving a "good job" or any kind of compliment for my work means going above and beyond your responsabilities.

[steve21]

facepalm.jpg

[Phalex]

I think the "good job" and a slap on the back can be used as a bit of an affirmation / ego boost. If the guy is seriously freaked out by public speaking, having people tell him he did it well may make him less nervous when he does it in the future. I think public performances are a lot like golf in that you are really trying to better your own own performance each time you do it.

So to say "I could have done it better" is kind of irrelevant. If the guy is ****ing a brick up there behind the microphone, but continues on and finishes what he set out to say rather than actually ****ing a brick, or passing out, or running off stage, I would call that a job well done. Not to say that he can't improve (and who can't) but a third party has no bearing on the personal struggle the guy who is uncomfortable onstage is going through.


I've been on stage in front of people for years. I've even looked incredibly stupid in front of several hundred people on more than one occasion. For me, looking stupid may be part of the job, but I don't consider it a job well done. I can certainly do better than that myself, but how someone else may have done doesn't really matter in the context of my own performance.

Tell the guy he sucked ass, and I betcha his next time up on stage is worse, not better.

As per the usual disclaimers YMMV, and IMHO.

[sarcastro83]

Originally Posted by PSPookie

Dude, I think this is exactly what the OP was getting at.

damn... my early-morning dyslexkia strikes again...

hit me with a fail pic!

[popinfresh]

Originally Posted by wilser

obviously a lot of people didn't read the original post

Was way too long maaan.

OK, i'd define me finding that job a good job on my behalf.

I like my idea better, OP's is boring.

But to answer the original, depends on the situation. I wouldn't pay some dead beat to do carpentry work when his idea of a good job when there's gaps etc. Same for panel work on my car, i'm really picky as people will say 'oh that's impossible blah blah' when it's not. They're just not doing a good enough job.

However if it's something generally not involving my money (speeches, music performances etc) if they personally did well for their 'standards' then i'd say good job.

[MakiSupaStar]

A good job inspires others to do better.

[funkybass4ever]

I think as a society sometimes we say "good job' the way we say "good morning" we don't really mean it but we say it anyways without a lot of feeling behind it. I think we overuse it in education