When the Doorknob's, uhh, Wabblin' (It Might Be Time to Admit You Need to Learn Finish Work)

I want to chat about work ethic for a second. I just finished taking a door off one frame and putting it onto another, all in an attempt to change the doorknob of the first.

The first doorknob was ancient and drilled two sizes smaller than the second door. However, the first doorknob was broken and couldn't be turned, rendering privacy impossible to maintain.

The second door hole wasn't drilled properly. The knob on that door didn't sit flush and was loose. Those are your hard facts going in.

Because of poor work ethic previous to my venture, I found myself doing the work of two men; myself, and whoever mangled the doorknob hole the first time. ("knob hole", say it twice)

Now, two things: 1. I'm not writing this to brag. I've been a handyman for years, after learning from my father. I do 95% more work than I've ever talked about. Let me be blunt there.

2. The work I performed to both partially fix the hole and eventually rehang the door outright took an invaluable minute-and-a-half of my time.

Now, I'm knowledgeable about being too close to something. I can lose focus, and have a problem seeing the way to solve said problem, simply because I've stared too long into that abyss.

I can safely assume (and give provision to) the person may have been too close to the work, and couldn't see a way to fix the doorknob. The doorknob wasn't sitting flush with either side of the door.

What I found was, when the hole was drilled for the doorknob, the drilling was done poorly and obtuse in a spot. The flat spot in the hole caused the doorknob to sit half-assed and cockeyed on the door frame. Once I figured out where the flat spot in the hole was (that's what s/he said), I chipped away that part and the knob sat perfectly against the door.

My dad would've likely had something to say about the poor craftsmanship, as I am being used as a conduit today to let you know he'd have something to say. Now, instead of throwing a fit when I hit a last-minute snag in what I thought was a quick repair, I made provisions for myself to take the time to solve the problem and to fix instead of letting missed work get a pass to save me another ten minutes.

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago when editing a film, only I'd caused the issue, and I also tasked myself to solve. I mis-colored a scene. Seeing that miscoloration bugged me, and I decided I needed to correct the scene instead of seeking a quick end.

Up to that moment, I'd had the project loaded up and ready to send to the client. For all they knew, it was done. BUT! The knob was crooked on the door, as far as I was concerned.

Cutting corners to save a minute-and-a-half is what bad contractors do who have too many jobs and too little time. Or, it's the work of someone not versed in repair. Or, it's someone whose minute-and-a-half was worth being spent elsewhere in their mind.

But, here's the whole point: if you're cheating the work, if you're not going back to check if the doorknob is sitting flush in the work that is your life, someone will eventually see how little you cared for what you were doing. You have every right to be this person, no doubt.

However, it'd be a lot cooler if you weren't. God's not the only person(sic) watching. Others will eventually watch the work you did, or didn't, put into your job, including everything, plus that extra minute-and-a-half. Allot yourself that extra time, for the sake of your work, and your reputation. Someone's going to see what you didn't do, and you will be judged.