For one reason or another, it seems women in the workplace are guilty of crying at work. Ever had one of those days when you just find your eyes brimming with tears? You know a good cry is in the offing, but you know crying at work is a sign of weakness. If you cry, other people think you’re not cut out for the business world. Or they think you can’t handle stress and pressure. What can you do?
Lois Frankel, author of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers, advises saying something like, “You can see I’m having strong feelings about this. I’m going to leave for a few minutes to compose myself.”
Other articles dealing with tears in the workplace include “Tearing up at work could dampen career” and “True Stories of Crying at Work“.
May 11th, 2008
Here’s another book worth reading: Be a Kickass Assistant: How to Get from a Grunt Job to a Great Career
.
The title’s pretty good and says what the book is all about. No reason to lose hope. There’s a great career waiting in the wings for you.
May 10th, 2008
You want to be seen as a team player and to show you’re willing to take on responsibilities. But sometimes, other people are so good in delegating - also known as “passing the buck” - that you end up doing work that they can very well do themselves. When you find yourself constantly “putting out fires” in the workplace, so to speak, it means you’re taking on more than you can and more than you should. It can also mean that people are delegating to you way too much.
Try to identify what really are your responsibilities and keep things in check. Others will try to make it seem like it’s your responsibility. If you don’t put a stop to it, you will be saddled by more stuff until you can’t handle it anymore. Don’t let it reach that point. You’ve got your own workload to think of and do, after all. Even more important, you’ve also got your own emergencies to focus on.
May 9th, 2008
Voice mails are one of the best inventions for use in the workplace. However, it’s also a source of stress for most people in the office. From the moment you enter your office/cubicle and you see that blinking light on your phone, it seems to signal a bad day ahead for you.
If your line of work exposes you to a never ending barrage of phone calls, voice mails can be your best friend. You can make it work for you. If you don’t, it can surely take over your work life. The key thing to remember is: use your voice mail smartly.
- Do not check your voice mails immediately when you get to your desk. Remove your coat, turn on your computer, and settle down completely before attending to your voice mails.
- Schedule your voice mail checks. Ideally, twice a day should be enough - once in the morning, once in the afternoon. If that’s not enough, then make it thrice a day - once in the morning, once around noon and once in the afternoon. When you keep a schedule on your voice mail checks, it prevents voice mail from overrunning your life.
- Keep a notepad while listening to your voice mails. Note down the calls requiring your action, including urgency level. For calls requiring other people’s attention, forward the voice mails immediately. Don’t let it linger on your voice mail any longer than necessary.
- Once done checking your voice mails, start returning the phone calls. This applies to messages that you know the status of. For those that you don’t know the status of, you can also return the call to let your caller know that you’re looking into the matter.
- Keep your own voice mails short and sweet. Plan in advance what you plan to say and stick to it. Short and sweet still does the job after all.
You can control your voice mail, so it doesn’t add more stress to your work life.
May 8th, 2008
There’s always at least one person in the office who tends to put down other people.
You can hide from this person, but the strange thing is, this person knows where to find you. This person also knows how to push your buttons - be it by putting down how you do your job, how you don’t do your job the way they’d do it, how long you take your lunch, how you have no idea how to unjam the network printer, how you look, how you don’t keep your files filed properly, etc. - this person will not say anything constructive. Instead of being helpful, this person will simply focus on the negatives…your negatives unfortunately.
“What’s the point of all the putdowns?” you may ask.
Honestly, it’s not really about you. They put down other people to make themselves feel better. They tend to be intimidating. They want to make you feel powerless to make themselves feel powerful. They’re afraid that if you realize you’re powerful, then you’ll exert power over them too. They don’t want that. Better you than them.
It becomes about you when you sit and take it like a victim. You can tolerate it. You can let them get away with it. But that won’t stop the putdowns. It will just escalate it.
Sure, your job is important, but so is your self-respect. No one should treat you that way. Stand your ground, without being rude or impertinent. Don’t apologize. If anything, they should be the one to apologize. Use their putdowns to put them in their right place.
May 7th, 2008
Some things in life are best pursued with the goal of perfection. In the workplace though, constantly aiming for perfection can result in work overload. If you quibble and nitpick over every single matter you need to work on, nothing will ever get done.
A colleague once told me, “it doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s just needs to get done.” Appalled though I was at the thought, eventually I saw the merit of that statement. Work can easily pile up. Allowing one task to consume you for days is definitely not a good use of your time. What can you do?
Identify the tasks that require perfection or near-perfection, such as high-profile and/or high-impact projects. Perhaps you can get promoted for it, you can network significantly or you can learn more. These things are worth spending time on because you will clearly benefit from them.
As for completion, dead-end assignments fall in this category. What’s more, every job has its routine tasks. They have to be done as well.
You will have to rethink your work ethics, but changing the way you think will definitely help you manage your workload.
May 6th, 2008
It’s so easy to dream about quitting work. It’s even easier for other people to just advise you to quit your job if you’re so sick of it. But you know it’s not that simple. For one thing, there’s the matter of having to survive every month. There’s bills to pay, a family to support, basic needs to meet. It’s no wonder practically everyone is unable to give up a horrible job. No matter how loathsome it is, it brings in money.
We’re not going to say it’ll be easy for you to quit your job; it is a tough decision, the effects of which you will be responsible for. To make the sudden absence of regular income easier, you need to take note of some important things. The important first step is for you to save money, and this is on top of whatever monthly savings you put in. You need to be able to live on savings for a few months at least; this will entail some sacrifices, however. For starters, cut back on whatever you can spare, like perhaps those cups of coffee you have every day or those newly released DVDs.
You must also have a fallback, whether it’s a new part-time or full-time job (hey, not everyone who hates his or her job automatically hates working altogether–more on that in another post) or a business you’re trying to get off the ground. This is particularly important if you absolutely, positively cannot afford to be idle.
Don’t forget to consider what your loved ones will say. Quitting a job that seems to comfortable may be challenging enough for you, and at the same time, it will throw everyone else in a tizzy. Be prepared to explain to them why you’re doing this and why they shouldn’t fear for your future and finances. Now, more than ever, you need their support as you go through an exciting new phase in your life.
The important thing is for you to always be prepared when planning to quit your job. Everyone wants to just up and quit on an impulse, but this definitely won’t be a smart move if you’ll end up feeling completely nervous and unprepared the day after.
May 5th, 2008
When you started in that job, you wanted to make a mark. You wanted to make a difference. In the world. At your workplace. You wanted to be the Dependable Worker.
You wanted to show that you can work on your own, and you can get along with your colleagues and clients.
You wanted to show that you can follow directions, and yet are independent-minded enough to make your own decision.
You wanted to show that you work fast and accurately.
You wanted to be punctual - always on time for work, always there.
But then, you do such a good job of presenting yourself as the Dependable Worker that it backfires.
They end up relying on you, especially in a time crunch (and there’s always a time crunch). You feel like you’re being tugged in different directions. Like you’ve got loads of arms like an octopus or a squid. There are too many demands on you, too many demands on your time that you have no idea how to prioritize anymore - and you’ve always been the type who knew HOW to prioritize!
You can only do so much in one day. You can try to be constantly on your toes, never letting anything fall in between the cracks. You can try slowing down. Maybe if they see that you can’t do everything, they will ease up on you. You’re aware the things that go on in the office are sometimes nonsensical. You also know that work will always be there. It’s starting to seem like endless drudgery.
It makes you realize that you must’ve made such a mark for these things to happen to you. Is that the price to pay for being The Dependable Worker?
May 5th, 2008
Here’s a movie that a lot of us working people can relate to - Office Space - Special Edition with Flair (Full Screen Edition). Organize a movie night with group of friends (from work or outside, it’s up to you!) and watch this movie. Good for laughs, you’ll see that you’re not the only one undergoing workplace tribulations.
May 4th, 2008
Nowadays, a lot of workers give up their right to go on breaks. Too much work to be done. Too many meetings to attend. Too many phone calls to attend to. With too much going on in such a short amount of time, your mind is constantly whirring, churning and processing information.
When you’re tired, it’s harder to focus. You get irritated and annoyed easily. You’re not paying that much attention to detail because you’re only thinking, “this HAS to be done!”
Give yourself time to unwind, even for a short time. Go out for some fresh air. Take a quick walk around the office, better yet, the building. Look out your window. Take your lunch break. Schedule 5- or 10-minute mini-breaks every two hours.
Stop treating breaks as optional. Stop treating breaks as negotiable and subject to change. Note it in your calendar. Act like your break time is set in stone. Think of your break time as an actual appointment with yourself.
Use technology to your advantage. For example, Microsoft Outlook has a Calendar with an Appointment feature that can send you reminders when to take breaks. You can also set up your cellphone’s alarm to remind you of your breaks.
You spend eight hours at work. If you take one hour-long lunch break, plus three 5-minute breaks, that’s a break of an hour and 15 minutes for your mind and body. Too much time to be on a break? Well, the benefits will outweigh the minutes spent on a break.
You have to focus your attention elsewhere. Take your mind off things. Recharge your batteries. Even for a short time. When you take your breaks, you’ll find that you’ll actually become more productive. Your productivity increases because of the breaks you’re taking.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “well, if I’m THIS productive with 6 hours & 45 minutes, I bet I can be more productive without taking a break.” That’s just the prescription for decreased productivity.
May 3rd, 2008
Previous Posts