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I learned the hard way NOT to do anything I couldn't see myself still doing down the road. For example, when I first started my current job, I would stay a little later if I was in the middle of something and knew I could finish it within an hour or so. I did this for the first three months, often working for 9 or 10 hours. My boss was all, "wow, your work ethic!"
And then I got pneumonia from running myself into the ground, so I stopped doing that. My work still gets done, but my boss noticed I was leaving on time and she has been a passive-aggressive snit to me ever since. It's to the point where apparently my "only" working 40 hours a week and not working 45, 50 hours a week means I don't have enough work to do and she wants to double my workload. (Yeah, she's off her rocker. And apparently bad at math, too. Regardless, ain't happening, for all kinds of reasons I won't get into here, not the least of which being that others have pointed out to her that she's being unrealistic.)
Point is, whatever you do in the first few months of your employment anywhere sets an expectation, and people can and do notice when you don't live up to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwaysBeachin
This 100%! Be careful going in and don't set unreasonable expectations. It only sets yourself up for problems. It's more along the lines of do exactly your job, and do it well. Set a good balance of not overdoing it because doing something too well too quickly will then you get piled up with more work or take on the work of slackers. Leaving on time from the start may also raise eyebrows, but it shows assertiveness in that if you get your work done, you leave---plain and simple. No dog and pony show "just to look good".
You have to balance it all out and play the game. I've been a doormat by trying to be too efficient and take on more. I don't do that anymore.
^^ Another 100% agreed. When you are good at your job, you just run it smoothly (I mean anyone). You don't need to try too hard or pretend to make extra efforts. People around will notice and realize the real you anyway.
At the beginning, you give your 100%, that's very good already. Your manager will push you to give your 110% at least. If you give 110% at the beginning, your manager will push or expect you to give 120, 130% for her to get all the credits. You will be exhausted. You may die, nobody cares. LOL
BTW, I really hate the efforts to rah rah, hooray and azzkising.
When you attend a meeting with a superior or supervisor present, make sure you take a note pad. When that person speaks, lean over your notebook and take some notes, even if just copying some of his sentences or a few words from his sentences.
Even better, if you have a hard copy manual or process that involves your job, bring it. We had a guy that did that and would lay it down on the table even if he never used it. I thought that was brilliant. He got the reputation of being one of our top guys.
In zoom meetings, if you have a camera in those and are visible, take out the notepad, lean over and draw small squigglies on the note pad as people (especially superiors) are talking. Just make sure you aren't in a position to be asked a question. These work really well in meetings where you are background. Do the squigglies and my favorite was to look focused and run my fingers through my hair in the single swipe method as I picked up the notepad of squigglies and stared at it in intent focus. I had to not bust out laughing as I watched myself in the image.
If you don't know a topic, learn to nod, look interested, maybe wear reading or clear glasses and above all keep your mouth shut. You can rephrase some sentence someone else made to make it sound like your own comment
To rephrase the above, beyond all else, regardless of if you feel you have an idea or have no idea of what is going on as a new person on the job and may feel stupid and clueless, follow this advice (Mark Twain) “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt”
LOL. No matter sarcastic or genuine, it is a piece of brilliant advice. Just cannot stop laughing. Hilarious!
When you attend a meeting with a superior or supervisor present, make sure you take a note pad. When that person speaks, lean over your notebook and take some notes, even if just copying some of his sentences or a few words from his sentences.
Even better, if you have a hard copy manual or process that involves your job, bring it. We had a guy that did that and would lay it down on the table even if he never used it. I thought that was brilliant. He got the reputation of being one of our top guys.
In zoom meetings, if you have a camera in those and are visible, take out the notepad, lean over and draw small squigglies on the note pad as people (especially superiors) are talking. Just make sure you aren't in a position to be asked a question. These work really well in meetings where you are background. Do the squigglies and my favorite was to look focused and run my fingers through my hair in the single swipe method as I picked up the notepad of squigglies and stared at it in intent focus. I had to not bust out laughing as I watched myself in the image.
If you don't know a topic, learn to nod, look interested, maybe wear reading or clear glasses and above all keep your mouth shut. You can rephrase some sentence someone else made to make it sound like your own comment
To rephrase the above, beyond all else, regardless of if you feel you have an idea or have no idea of what is going on as a new person on the job and may feel stupid and clueless, follow this advice (Mark Twain) “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt”
Not doing this is not an option for me, in part because I have a terrible time taking verbal instructions but also because doing things in my line of work is often complicated and may require many many steps. I absolutely have to take notes and write things down. I was training an E.I.T. at my last firm and he never wrote anything down and would have to ask me the same things over and over, often weeks later about the same subject. The owners fired him after 4 months of employment for this, and several other reasons.
This 100%! Be careful going in and don't set unreasonable expectations. It only sets yourself up for problems. It's more along the lines of do exactly your job, and do it well. Set a good balance of not overdoing it because doing something too well too quickly will then you get piled up with more work or take on the work of slackers. Leaving on time from the start may also raise eyebrows, but it shows assertiveness in that if you get your work done, you leave---plain and simple. No dog and pony show "just to look good".
You have to balance it all out and play the game. I've been a doormat by trying to be too efficient and take on more. I don't do that anymore.
Setting to high of an expectation in regards to quantity doesn't seem to be a problem in my industry. You certainly cant be a slacker but in general it's more about the quality of a persons work. I mean, you do your best each and every day not matter what but I've never worked at a firm where people worked an exorbitant amount of hours. 40 hrs is typical. Even at my last firm during covid when construction was really really busy and my list of projects to get done was over flowing I only worked 40hrs. I did get pressure from contractors and developers but the owners understood that we all had families and/or hobbies and lives outside of work (and so did they, often taking multiple days off to go hunting) so they never cared. Once I even overheard a heated meeting between one the owners and a developer in which the developer was getting upset that the work wasn't getting done. Our owner, calmly at first, explained to him that we had everyone available working on the project and that we were doing our best but the conversation escalated and he eventually told the developer to F off and get the F out of our office. It's typical in my line of work for firms to have business then they can handle so owners have the freedom to say no to a client if they so choose.
But I do understand what you're saying and that for most people, there is a lot of pressure from management to work extra hours to get things done. There are a few things that I dislike about my industry but having a good work/life balance seems to be a major plus.
Last edited by CCS414; 04-15-2023 at 11:37 AM..
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