I wrote these articles to help office workers understand how they can survive corporate life in both large and itsy-bitsy companies and because I am a corporate maverick. You peruse, I feel that most workers are smart and are major contributors towards the success of their company. But, sometimes, the boss gets in the device of success. Some boss’ are truly dumb and some are outstanding leaders and still some are somewhat profound in their ignorance. I’ll bet you know of a few, right? In businesses everywhere, there is a tendency to place labels on workers. Labels like, “she edifying”, “not a team player”, “poor performer” and so on.

While we all want to have good things said about us by the boss, we can’t always be perfect, we develop mistakes, lots of them through out our careers, It’s not the act of making a mistake, it’s how you and your boss deals with it that can kill your chances of promotion. Just remember this, life is not fair and it was never meant to be comely. We do not live in a perfect world. We must always try hard to improve.

Boss’ always seem to have a different view (and some are right on target) of you than you have of yourself. It’s most always best to admit your mistakes and take the consequences. On the other hand, if you feel that it’s a matter of opinion and settle to debate it with you supervisor, you may win the semantics game, but forget the promotion and or salary increase. Words not said are the ones that affect your performance review. Why? As you read on you will gain a though-provoking insight on how to build a stronger interpersonal business relationship with your leaders, co-worker and peers. You will learn how to get an exemplary performance review and generally fit in to the organization as well respected employee.

I’ve entitle this collection of articles “Fair Weather Friends” for one very helpful reason…You don’t have friends in business, only business associates. As you read further you will understand why. You may not possess this if you are inclined to develop personal relationships outside of your work environment. What’s at issue here is how you conduct yourself while at work. Needless to say that, your social friends can’t achieve your job. Only you can!

I am not implying that you should not develop working relationships, which may be interpreted as friendships, with co-workers, only that you keep your guard up at all times and be aware of the pitfalls. I have many to present you.

Before you proceed onto the next segment, I want you to consider today’s business culture. You need only to peer the news to hear about it. That is: Businesses are moving away from pension plans/funding, pink slips are being issues everyday by the thousands, jobs are moving offshore, health care benefits costs are on the rise, employers don’t show employees loyalty but you must prove you are a loyal employee and on it goes.

Both public and private companies must show a profit or die. Every country wants a major piece of the US outsourcing market and its jobs. How do you keep your job?

Part Two: Know Your Fair Weather Friends

Imagine this:

You’re sitting in your well decorated cubical working with your desktop and playing email warrior. Suddenly you have a visitor. A very trusted peer walks in. One in which you traveled extensively with, enjoyed her company and shared some of your personal experience with. You know this person very well. You want to share something with her that you have been working on for months. You caution her not to tell anyone as it could approach back to haunt you.

You’re so aroused that your findings could lead to a very big raise and quite possibly a promotion. Your gut tells you that you can trust her with this very sensitive information. You have an overwhelming need to share it with her. After all she is your friend! So you rush to print out your email to display to her that you’re on to something really big. She smiles at you as you hand it to her. A little quiver appears on her lips as she anxiously reads your email. You are so pleased with yourself that your ego takes over. So off you go explaining how this new deal would work and how the company could profit from it. No detail is spared as you explain to her how you have been secretly working on this deal.

You both decide to talk more about it later in the week. She departs your office. She meets up with her boss. She is so very excited that she can hardly contain herself. She wants to pass on the good news to her boss. Her boss gets furious and asked her for a copy of the email she has in her hot little hand. He quickly spots an opportunity to gain some points with the CEO. He calls the company listed in your email sets up a secret presentation for his CEO and from unhurried closed doors the deal is done.

He gets a big raise and a promotion. You my friend are on the outside wondering what happen. After all she is your friend and would never compromise you. When it comes to the work place you don’t have friends. Oh, they all appear friendly in front of you and in meetings. But the fact of the matter is that when it comes to protecting your pay check and your advancement within your company you will be wise to not share indispensable information with your peers. It’s sometimes hard to know who is competing with you for a promotion.

I know that you have heard this saying before, but knowledge is power. Use it wisely! When you make a discovery that will have a certain impact on the company’s profits and productivity, it is only natural to get excited about it. When this happens – share your excitement with your boss, not your friends. You get the credit and your fiends will be in terror.

Be advised, this also works in the same plan when you express ill feelings towards your boss with a co-worker! People love to pass the word (good or bad) to co-workers – you can’t stop it. But you can avoid falling victim to it. Always have something good to say about your co-workers or say nothing! I know, you’ve heard this before, but it’s a safe bet because your words will not echo around the office.

If you’re the boss, you are always being watched by your subordinates. What you say to them will disappear like wildfire through-out the office and your employees will get the best of you and you may not see it coming.

Portion Three: Your Employer Is Not Your Friend

Think about it. Your company is in business to turn a profit, not to make friends with you! You, like me are just human tools installed in various jobs to meet only one goal…to earn profits. When companies fail to meet their earning projections what do you deem they do? Most of them cut payroll expenses, which translates into Force reduction, reorganization, and so on. HR has developed many new metaphors to deceive you into thinking that you are not on the list. You see, your company does not want you to leave until they decide to “let you go”. If you are smart enough to see it coming, crank out your resume now and keep it updated.

If you put your resume on a job posting site, keep this in mind, make distinct it’s not a dwelling your friendly HR recruiter uses as they are notified when new resumes matching their requirements are posted. You NEVER want your employer to know that you are looking for a job. This could put you in the number one position on the dreaded pink drag list.

I have always been concerned when companies decide to cut expenses to gain up for revenue short falls. I have been in many executive meetings to discuss remedial action plans. I usually leave dumbfounded. It just amazes me that the first item on the agenda is “cutting payroll expense” (also includes your health insurance).

I have yet to witness a revisit to the sales and marketing plan to determine what went wrong. Typically the finance department reports the revenue shortfall and calculates a “Target Number” This number comes in two forms. The amount of revenue needed to get back on track and the amount of money needed to be cut from the annual budget to make up for the shortfall. These numbers are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Either increase sales, cut expenses or both.

Guess what? You’re caught just in the middle and you may not even know it!

Just remember this; your performance review comes into play at this point. You will be stacked ranked and assign a survival number and place into one of two categories “Keeper or Looser”. This process keeps going until the TARGET NUMBER is reached. Are you a KEEPER?

Just because you have a high obtain on your performance review, it does not necessarily or automatically put you on the keeper list. Your business relationship with your boss and his or her boss will ultimately determine your survivability.

Conversely, you could have a mediocre review and be a keeper. You eye, your supervisor mostly likely will not tell you that he or she does or does not like you. You could be ego driven; strongly motivated with a great performance review and those very qualities could work against you.

A word about your ego. Ego is suitable, it’s what puts the fire in your belly and causes you to make great things happen for your company. It can also kill your career if you fail to keep it in check with your boss and peers.

Look, you will never know when your name is heading towards the looser list. But, there are strategies you can use to wait on avoid the pink slip. Your performance review is key along with your people skills and your perceived value to the company. It’s always best to seek a key position in your company. Check job posting and look for a position in a non support role. Non back jobs are ones that generate revenue, such as sales, customer service (up-sell), telesales, and order fulfillment.

No one can guarantee continuous employment within your company. That is why you should keep your resume updated and work to establish a conclude network of business associates from other companies. I’ll explain how to build your network later. Companies are no longer loyal to their employees, those days are over, but they expect you to be loyal to them. Always speak highly of your company, even if you are not a exact employee. Hold your negative opinions to yourself. Your fair weather friends will pass your negative words to others.

Part Four: Email Spies

There is a trend forming among employers to spy on employee emails. CNN did a piece on this and I for one found it disturbing. It seems that a woman wrote an email to a co-worker complaining that her boss was a jerk. A few weeks later she was fired! Her former employer said that her negative email was one reason she got canned. Quite frankly, I don’t peep what the fuss is about. So an employee sends a personal email to a co-worker. How does this impact company operation? How many of you have called your boss a jerk? It’s about controlling your actions while at work.

It’s really quite simple; don’t write bad things about your co-workers in an email. Its best not said. Let’s face reality; we all have said bad things in the work place. When it’s the written word – it can have a powerful impact on the reader.

How did her employer find out about her email? Email see software! It’s everywhere. Here’s how it works, the spy software has a listing of keywords that are not standard business terms. Like “joke’ name calling like jerk, swear words, and alike. When you use any of these keywords the spy software sends your email to your friendly IT, HR or your boss.

Just remember, that you are being watched and Uncle Sam said it’s ok. That means you have no email privacy and your words and intent can, and most likely will, be misconstrued and be interpreted as negative. It’s one thing to hear someone say awful things about their boss, but when it’s in writing it becomes very powerful and you can’t run from it. Even if your email is not being watch – you can’t be sure that your fair weather friends will not pass it on.

What can you do to protect yourself? Well, simply put – don’t do it. But if you must, use an Internet email client like Hotmail. Even then, your sterling IT department may have shadow software where they can view your web pages. I will tell you that the last thing an employee does, is to consult the company’s email policy. Don’t over look it, get a copy of it and use it to protect yourself. Just remember, your employer is not your friend when you violate company policy. All the great work you have accomplished will be wiped-out. You do not want to burn a bridge with your boss.

Just remember this: When you send or receive a negative email you can’t really delete it. What? Oh yes I can, I just press the delete button. No, it does not work that way. THEY will find it.

Part Five: Networking For Success

Networking for Career Growth. It’s all about harvesting business cards. You know the ones you have the rubber band around and never look at. There, in your desk draw. Oh I see you have a PDA, I’ll bet you seldom up date it. Oh, you put them in your Franklin Planner. Then what?

Business cards are your key to building a successful career. But, most people never exercise them to build their network. The next time you attend a vendor meeting, trade association meeting or any meeting with business associates. You need to make darn positive you request the attendee’s business cards. If he or she has run out have them write their contact information.

Hey Tom, what’s this about – I always collect business cards from vendors, what’s your point! Contemplate about this. Vendors and service providers come in contact with a lot of companies within your industry segment. Just before the meeting starts you may hear them chatting about which companies are laying off and what companies are hiring. Who just got promoted and who got canned. It’s called industry gossip and it can help you steer clear of sure companies. But most importantly relieve you accumulate a job.

I have collected business cards from every business person I’ve met. Here is how I organize them. I have collection of over 300 cards sorted by company name. I placed them in a 3 ring binder with definite plastic pockets. I also exhaust alpha tabs.

Okay, when do we start on building our networks? After you organize your business cards, page through them and reflect on the last conversation you had with your contacts. What you’re seeking is a business relationship that has already been established. Meeting your contact one time does not, at this point, qualify. The reason is that you need to first build a business relationship with this person.

When you find a contact(s) that you have done some business with, call them. Arrange lunch or golf, or informal meetings. The objective is to preserve your relationship alive. Okay, so you have decided to have lunch, what do you talk about? Whatever you talk about don’t start out with “Hey, I need a job, do you know of one? ” Bad approach, most people will think you’re desperate, instead try simply discussing industry gossip.

Just remember this, never run your company or co-workers down, even if you despise your job or your boss. As sure as you are taking a mouth burly of food, it will recede like wildfire and eventually get support to your employer. Beget a clear attitude through-out your conversation. Don’t let your ego take charge.

After several of these informal meeting, you can begin to probe by inferring that you have been thinking about changing jobs. Something like “I heard that Harry just went to work for XYZ Company”. Let the dialog retract you there. There is a big however here. If you know that you are likely to gain downsized or simply have to move on then ask directly. This come assumes that you have a good comfort level with your contact.

You will need to quit in touch with all of your contacts through out the year, even if it’s impartial a phone call. You don’t want them to say something like “refresh my memory but, when did I meet you? ” This is how personal networks work – you must end in touch. If you are desk bound with no chance of meeting business associates from other companies then try this: Most everyone makes business phone calls. Try to develop a network of phone contacts. Make a list of their contact information. When you’re done transacting your business, start chatting about your industry. Learn who hiring and see if you can glean a recommendation for employment.

Honest remember this: Build your list and stay in touch. If you want to begin your own business, you will surly need to develop network contacts that can help you build your business and raise funding to keep it going. Networking is an important part of your career growth and employment survivability.

Part Six: Is HR Your Friend?

Your company’s HR department does not work for you. They are your fair weather friends. They are governed by rules, regulations and policy. They are not in business to form you feel good. They do not champion employee loss causes or grievances. Although, it can be argued that they want you to be a member in worthy standing within your organization. Their goal is to help develop the company’s human capital.

That does not mean that you can’t take a grievance to them for resolution. You can and should. But don’t be surprised if they rule in favor of the company. Your key to success is in your documentation. A well thought -out and well written complaint can mean that you will gain support from your HR representative. You should always document “who, what, where, when and how” Use this as your guidepost when starting to write your concerns.

There is absolutely no reason to covey madden and name calling. These will surly kill your cause and credibility. You want to develop a professional relationship with your HR representative this will support you avoid being labeled a complainer. If you supervise people you know that a verbal complaint will not carry much credence as a well documented one.

As a supervisor, I am sure you know that your employee’s performance review should reflect your proper evaluation, but, experience as shown that most supervisors expend the employee evaluation as a means to serve his/her annual salary increase rather than its intended purpose. This is to fairly and objectively evaluate their performance. Most supervisors choose their salary budget by reviewing the salary policy and guidelines. Then prepare a spreadsheet and perform a stack ranking. When that’s done they prepare the employee’s performance review and add up the points such that the total points interpret the salary increase. This, of course, prejudges the employee based on the supervisors’ spreadsheet stack ranking, budget limitations and perceptions of your performance.

What does this really mean? Judge about it. If your supervisor prepares your review first and your review is point driven as most are, then there is a very good chance that he or she will be over budget. Once the budget is tied to the individual’s total points it is then tested by using the “bell curve”. That means that the majority of employees will be classified as average while a few will be classified as poor performers and still yet a few will be classified as above average performers. Where you tumble on the performance scale will depend on two factors, your total points and the HR point ranges. That’s how your co-worker gets 6% increase while you may obtain 4%

Each budget year HR determines the average salary increase say 3 – 4 percent that translates in to a salary budget for the company. Say, 4% times the total payroll excluding overtime. Your manager will take the 4% times the total outrageous wages for the department. The results equal the salary budget.

Okay, back on track.

Since your performance review is considered when your supervisor wants to take disciplinary action against you it’s is wise to keep a copy at your desk. But there are some additional materials that need to be supplied to HR if your supervisor wants to build a case against you. You know the rule book, right? That old adage, “Three Strikes and You’re Out!” What this means is that each time you cause an infraction, your supervisor will document it. You may or may not know what was written about your actions. It depends on the HR rule book.

But let’s just say you’re lucky and your supervisor shares his view with you. Will you be strong enough to take the pressure? You may want to request that your friendly HR rep sit in. You see, a third party will help keep the formal record straight and will be more objective. Retain this in mind, when your session is over, both the HR person and your supervisor will make a value judgment concerning the severity of your actions. Your job is to regain out what their conception of you is.

Request an appointment with your HR person and ask for feed back and what you need to do to improve your performance. Keep your anger at bay and don’t let your ego take charge. Once this is done, visit with your supervisor and explain that you are willing to fully cooperate and be a team player. Never engage in a heated conversation with either your supervisor or your HR person.

Okay, how do you deal with infuriate? I can’t tell you how to manage your anger, only how I manage mine. When I accumulate angry at work, I go for a walk around the building several times and I may section my feeling with my spouse (via my cellular phone). I try never to share my feelings with co-workers, for I might say something that I’ll regret. Co-workers love to hear your sad stories and pass them on to others. Retain them in the dark and you will have no regrets. Remember, co-worker are Fair Weather Friends (I know, there may be some exceptions).

To deal effectively with your HR department you must develop sure that you have read and clearly understand the rules. Most companies prepare an employee handbook. Read it and keep your job!

Part Seven: Email Warrior

Confessions of an email warrior.

So you spend your day believing that if you generate emails and reply to emails that you are doing your job. Right? Well let’s see. Hmmmm, how many hours a day do you spend reading and writing emails? Do you know? I know how I spent my work day. Two thirds of my day was spent replying, generating emails and going to meetings. I never answered my phone so, off to voice mail you go. I never seem to have time to work on my projects. I struggled to preserve one third of my time to design real work. Needless to say I did most of my work at home. What a bummer. Oh yes, Saturdays at the office was my only real work day.

Got the inbox cleaned out (we don’t really use inboxes any more, it’s just a place to put the papers when you need more desk space) read my USPS mail, complied my project site reports, prepare employee performance forms, built a process flow chart for an up coming marketing project. I left the office with real accomplishments and boy, did it feel good knowing that I can play email worrier on Monday and work again on Saturday!!

What’s great about emails is that you can create an elusion (or make co-workers think) that you are hard at work. I once had a boss who managed his department mostly through emails. He once bragged that he was traveling via “air” and plugged in his laptop to the “air-phone” to read his emails and to make sure his direct reports were hard at work by issuing a long list of “things to do” for us. It’s amazing the amount of clarity and clairvoyance your brain receives at 30,000 feet. As I reflect on his emails I think he just wanted to let us know he was hard at work in the first class cabin and thinking of us.

Well if you are truly an email warrior you know how to deal with a boss who communicates his instructions via email. One phone call, one hallway conversation with your subordinate and BANG you fire off a reply that kills his query. It may have taken you all of 15 minutesor less to satisfy the boss. But the boss is also an email warrior! He may suspect that you replied to swiftly and really did not do much work. So, what do you think your boss will do? He cranks off a scathing email probing your response. He too is swift and BANG you study his email pop in to Outlook. Well, now what? Okay, I’ll fix him. And at the end of the day you have a rather long email thread a mile long.

You know what so aggravating? A simple phone call would have saved you a bunch of time for real work! We email warriors avoid walking in to the boss’ office for a friendly chat nor do we like to use the phone. Hey, have you ever noticed that when people send you emails that you sometimes seek information from the tone of their emails. I have read a lot of emails that appear to be confrontational, yet when I called them on the PHONE they were really nice to me.

Well, here is one more warrior story: this one is from one of my Fair Weather Friend who just happens to be a peer. We both reported to the same type “A” boss. We first started battle during a project meeting with each of us trying to prevail over the other. At the extinguish of the meeting we agreed to disagree. Then we went to our respective offices sat at our desktop cranked up Outlook to continue the battle of words. But wait, it gets better. As I was collecting my thoughts and reviewing my notes up pops an email from my survey. In a matter of minutes he cranked out a scathing email. I looked at the distribution and assumed he only sent it to me. What a dummy I was. BANG! Holy crap an email from the boss same subject. Now what? If you ever had a type “A” boss then you know that whoever gets to him first wins and you play defensive ball. That’s the power of a blind cc. You will never see it coming. So off we go to meet with the boss to settle our outstanding issues. Guess what – I lost he wins and that’s what it means to be an email warrior!

I am sure that you may have experienced this sometime during your work history. I use to think email was really cool, if it is worn to communicate useful information. But, as you may know it has become a weapon to kill off the competition. It has also become a tool for the ego driven boss to keep you inline.

Don’t fall victim to it and become a slave to Outlook. Try walking around the office and have some face to face discussions with your peers and subordinates. Instead of sending an email two doors down, take up the phone and ask your seek information from or answer to an email by phone. Part of playing email warrior is that you never answer your phone, just like email you rather listen to your voice message and then reply with an email. You will impress many callers when you answer your phone before voicemail kicks in. Playing email warrior will sap your time and keep you working nights and weekends. Don’t consider so? Unprejudiced look at your email threads and ask yourself what’s the first thing you do when you arrive at your desk? What’s the last thing you do when you’re almost ready to go home?

Oh, I almost forgot – the new nemesis, that cell phone you have on you hip, I bet you just esteem text messaging!

You will never be able to avoid dealing with emails, but you can manage it by not playing the email game. Try this: when you receive an email from your boss, peer or subordinate give them a phone call and answer their query. The average business phone call last about three minutes. It will take you much longer to compose a written response and in the process you gain a better working relationship. Try to plot a time when you can send and receive emails. I traditional a time slot of 4:00PM to 5:00PM. Why that time slot? Most office workers are preparing to go home, there are less walk in distractions and I can go and go home too and yet still have time to make a few phone calls.

Piece Eight: The Dreaded Staff Meeting

Don’t tell me, I know. You hate attending staff meetings, unless you are a real hard core corporate type, But if you are the one chairing the meeting, let’s face it – you really don’t care how your staff feels. Well, after all you’re in charge, right? Most folks dread attending staff meetings. Some of us spend days preparing for the meeting. We often feel that these meetings are a complete waste of time.

Staff meetings can be fruitful when they are use to disseminate important information and to obtain some feed back. The reality is that most staff meetings are information dumping ground. There are so many ways to communication with the staff like memos, emails and alike and of course take less time. I am not implying that there is no need to discuss important issues, but, most often the information sharing takes all the time.

Most staff meetings are conducted by the boss, which has the effect of limiting the dialog. Boss’ can be intimidating even if they encourage open dialog. I have attended many staff meeting in which the boss does all the talking and controlling. Most of us just tune it out and catch very little interest. I have also attended meeting at starting 6:00 AM and ending 12 hours later. Okay, what did I learn during the 12 hour marathon? A sudden realization of why I hate staff meetings. In fact I hate all meetings, except the ones I chair. The ones I hate the most are the ones with two page agenda items with little input from the staff. So you are guaranteed not to be prepared and be totally bored.

Okay, rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of staff meetings, let’s switch to the more obvious aspects. My most cherished rule is to avoid conducting staff meetings. If you have to have one, always establish a basic staff meeting methodology. What’s that?
Meeting guidelines. For example: Limit the meeting to one hour. Only invite direct reports. Prepare and disseminate a short agenda (say 5 to 8 items) of really important stuff. What’s important? Any issue that could possibly impact the company’s ability to earn revenue. Any issue that affects employees. You get the record? No, not mundane project status reports that could be reported in an email. Conduct one – on – one meetings with your staff to review progress reports.

Carefully prepare meeting minutes new agenda items and assign follow up responsibilities. All follow up items should be reported and all resolved action items prior to the next staff meeting. Closed action items should be removed from the agenda as those item were reported via email. Don’t consume your staff meeting to instill fear or otherwise berate your staff. You’re the boss, they know that. Your goal is to help make them all be highly productive and to move the company forward.

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Picture

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Image

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Picture

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Pic

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Picture

Workplace Survival Guide To Fair Weather Friends Image