Today there are more people walking on eggs at work simply because they are always watching their back. They know they can be replaced and they are more nervous than ever before. However, it seems that people still do some crazy things as if they don’t have a care in the world. This can be attributed to the resentment that people feel when they are scrutinized. This happens often as sort of a rebellion against micro-management. Employees know that employers are spoiled for choice at this point and can dismiss an employee for any reason. In fact, they always could in right-to-work non-union states. The only difference is that they have a thousand people that they could hire to replace them. Though we cannot do much if anything about that, we can steer you in the right direction so that you can keep what you have.
First, get to work!
It is a sad situation when people have to be told to show up for work, especially when they are on the edge at all times. But alas this happens for the reasons we stated earlier. There are more callouts and absenteeism than ever and a lot of lax work being put out by those that feel conspired against. The passion in people’s careers just is not present and we are not telling you to love it but it is a job and until you land your dream job or open your own business I suggest you get to work, on time and complete your tasks like you mean it.
Be a team-player and someone your boss can trust
Yeah, we are telling you to make your boss look good, that’s right. You may not want to but remember if you are the one he or she can go to, to advise them, then you are invaluable to them. This however, does not mean be the company snitch or the president of the brown nose club; it means stand behind them and be on their side. Don’t buy into the ‘us’ against them attitude or you will run the risk of being targeted as the one they “have to watch”.
If you deal with clients; watch the company money off-site
If you are on the company dime, then you need to make sure they don’t have to explain why you had 6 martini lunches in a week. Make sure you target your expenditure and can show what came out of those meetings. You don’t always have to ‘do lunch’ you can do coffee at Starbucks in the morning if it is for anything less than a million-dollar deal that you need to close. You know what I mean? Make the expense match the offense so to say. There is an old saying that a wife is there to protect two things; her husband’s money and his name. The same goes for a good employee. Protect his rep and his wallet and go far.
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