Anonymous wrote:Work smart, not hard (my dads mantra, regularly said to me literally as young as I can remember).
Be value added, drama free for your boss. Everything you do is solely to make the boss’s life better - so every project you do, every email you write, Every five minute convo you have with her, should be from the perspective of how will this make my boss’s day easier. If you do this AND don’t have drama (No whining, neediness, intra office problems etc), you are ahead of literally 90% of employees, even if you are not a superstar at your job content If you do this one right, you are “working smart” and can get away with working less hard.
Anonymous wrote:Perception is often more important than reality.
This is SO SO SO SO true.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Work smart, not hard (my dads mantra, regularly said to me literally as young as I can remember).
Be value added, drama free for your boss. Everything you do is solely to make the boss’s life better - so every project you do, every email you write, Every five minute convo you have with her, should be from the perspective of how will this make my boss’s day easier. If you do this AND don’t have drama (No whining, neediness, intra office problems etc), you are ahead of literally 90% of employees, even if you are not a superstar at your job content If you do this one right, you are “working smart” and can get away with working less hard.
So important! Yet, so rarely done.
Anonymous wrote:It’s generally about fit, connections, and pedigree, rarely about merit or skill.
Most of us won’t live the American dream and move up a class from our parents without some extraordinary good fortune — just not a thing for the average striver.
Anonymous wrote:I had a boss tell me he wanted an executive summary short enough to read on the crapper. Yuck but years later I still get kudos for writing succinct summaries.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is a timely thread. My youngest daughter is entering the career field in 2021, as she plans to graduate in December. She told me she wishes she had more real-world advice. I’m thinking I’ll buy her the parachute book, but I’m open to recommendations for more contemporary/helpful books to get her started. She doesn’t know what she doesn’t know.
Tell your daughter to make friends with the receptionist, the janitor, the copy room people, the secretaries. Remember their kids names, their birthdays. These are the gatekeepers and the people who will whisk away your garbage pail when you've puked into it, the people who can tell you when and where to run into the high-level person you're desperate to speak with, the people who will save your ass when you thought you needed 2 copies but now realize you need 22 copies in 2 minutes.
Tell your daughter to find the truly cool girls at each job. Not the popular ones, but the genuinely cool ones. The ones who agree they will all help each other out, will amplify each other's ideas in meetings, will always give credit where credit is due. I worked at a law firm full of women like this, and it taught me so much about the people I wanted to hang out with at work. If you put it out there that you don't gossip and you like to support other women, the other women who feel that same way will find their way to you.
I agree with this. People in the service and administrative positions are the foundation of a successful business. Yet, they get ran over and talked down to. Treat them with respect.
Add the doorman/security of the building. Say hello/good morning and goodbye/have a good night. Bring them a coffee or pastry once in a while. I became friends with the security guard at a building I used to work at by treating him with respect and not acting like he is a prop. He ended up helping me get a parking pass, which was nearly impossible if you weren't high up in the company. He also turned a blind eye when I stopped in occasionally on Saturdays, despite the building being closed on weekends.
x1000 for the advice above. Being nice to the people at the bottom of the hierarchy is good manners and brings good karma.