Holding On to the Job That You Have - continuation
June 30, 2009 – 7:22 amWelcome back!
- Cultivate work relationships. While office gossip may turn you off, office politics is one arena you can’t afford to ignore. As with networking outside the office, the onus is on you. Ask colleagues to lunch, those who work both beneath you and above you. You may be surprised how a friendly conversation turns into an invitation to join an important meeting. Don’t think your boss isn’t watching how you perform on this score: the best managers are able to get along with all types, and the more you can demonstrate this at work, the farther along you’re likely to get.
- Don’t get yourself into trouble. Sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many people sabotage their careers by saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Be careful of what you zap over your e-mail. Likewise, if your boss is the buttoned-up type, but your off-the-job lifestyle is anything but, keep that part of your life quiet at the office. Alarmingly, workplace privacy rules are so scant that your boss can legally monitor your every on-the-job move. This means everything from searching through your office file cabinets to browsing your “confidential” e-mail to tapping into your phone calls. To be safe, don’t send anything over e-mail that you wouldn’t want to fall into the hands of your boss. And unless you have a physical disability that may affect your job duties, use discretion when discussing your medical history with your supervisor. You never know what bias your boss may have against, say, someone seeking psychiatric help or relief from a substance abuse problem.
If all this sounds a bit scary, remember that you do have some rights, and keeping your job may, at some point, depend on your defending them. To find out about the cornucopia of information that may be contained in your employment file (anything from salary history to suspected drug use to your political bent), call your state attorney general’s office and ask if your state is one of the 18 that has laws in giving you access to your employment files. For more advice on exactly what types of issues your boss can raise on the job, phone the American Civil Liberty Union’s National Task Force on Civil Liberties in the Workplace at 212-944-9800. The ACLU can also help you interpret state privacy laws and dispense on possible legal actions.
- Make the most of the job review process. Most medium-size and larger employers have formal review policies for their workers, appraising their deeds annually. Yet in the fast-paced workplace of the ’90s, where situations change with the blink of a computer screen, a once-a-year report card may be inadequate. Your manager, in fact, may not have a handle on how valuable you’ve been over the past 12 months -unless you make a point to show him or her. By asking for feedback (and this often means volunteering for extra work), you set yourself up for special notice. You can take control by asking to get together with your boss, say, once every other month to informally discuss your progress, goals, and short-falls. Consequently, the annual review will hold few surprises and will be far less daunting.
- Don’t disappoint your boss. Keep yourself from taking on more work or responsibilities that you can reasonably handle. Otherwise you’ll have one unhappy boss. Unfortunately, one bad break can stick in your boss’s mind for months or years and could be used against you if he or she needs to lay off staffers.
If you like this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed to get latest updates on this blog. Thanks for visiting!
