Gradvice: Major At-Work Do Nots

August 3, 2009     Posted in Reality

young-woman-at-desk


By CC Staff

I’ve been in the workforce for a while now (I know this because I can no longer sleep past 8 on weekends, a sign that my body is on a real-person schedule). Long gone are the days of opting out of my responsibilities in favor of nursing a hangover and staying out late on weeknights. Instead, I am in bed by 10pm and hunched over a desk for 10 hours a day no matter how crappy I’m feeling.

Besides the paychecks I’ve been depositing for the past 3 years, I’ve taken away quite a few things from my time on the job. Namely, a few very important lessons (learned the hard way) of what is and is not acceptable in a professional environment.

You starting a new job soon? Keep these few things in mind:

1. Your boss is not your friend.
When I started working for a company owned by some family friends, I got pretty tight with the boys in charge. We’d shoot the sh*t during the day, grab drinks together after work and got really close, really fast. It was nice having friends in the office as it gave me something to look forward to every day, but no matter how many shots we took together, those boys were still my bosses and it got increasingly difficult to remember that. As time went on, it got extremely difficult to work together in a professional manner and everything eventually went to hell…. And I had to quit. It is fine to have a jovial relationship with your boss, but there is a line and you better be careful not to cross it.

2. Going to work hungover is not OK.
Happy hours are fun, but holding back the vomit while on a very important conference call is not. Be careful with the weeknight drinking. In this economy, you don’t want to give your bosses any reason to give you the boot.

3. The people in charge aren’t as dumb as they look.
My BFF got me tickets to a concert out of town on a Thursday night. I really wanted to go, so I decided I’d skip town after work and just call in sick the next morning. I woke up early, put on my best “I’ve been up all night with food poisoning” voice and left a VM at the office. Those guys saw right through it, which they let me know in a very serious one-on-one meeting on Monday morning. Lying doesn’t pay, so suck it up and take a personal day/vacation day if you’ve got something better to do.

4. They are always watching.
Thanks to the wonders of technology, the big men in charge can see what you are doing all the time, regardless if they can see your screen. Just be aware of that as you blog about how much you hate your job (guilty), spend 3 hours shopping on Zappos (guilty), or look at some questionable content online (sigh…guilty).

5. You are on their schedule, not the other way around.
It’s hard getting used to the daily grind of real life and when I first started working I tried tirelessly to fit everything into my schedule. When an after-hours work meeting meant I wouldn’t make it to my Spinning class, I kindly asked the boss if we could reschedule for the next day. Apparently, that wasn’t an appropriate question (as made evident by the desk-pounding, loud voices and advice to look for another job). You work for them, woman, no matter how inconvenient is for your life.  Don’t forget that.

    8 Comments on "Gradvice: Major At-Work Do Nots"

    1. indi says:
      Mon, 3rd Aug 200912:52 pm 

      2.1 Going to work drunk is not okay

      Ugh, and really not fun either! NEVER AGAIN!

    2. Casey says:
      Mon, 3rd Aug 20095:36 pm 

      Shouldn't all of this be common sense?

    3. Kristina says:
      Mon, 3rd Aug 20096:35 pm 

      Um, duh?

    4. Emily says:
      Tue, 4th Aug 20097:29 am 

      Casey, it is common sense, but so is He's Just Not That Into You. Sometimes we need a more-than-obvious statement from someone else in order to get it into our heads.

      I have another:

      Never appear you can't handle the job. There's this girl in my building who comes home every day with dark black raccoon eyes because she sweats off her makeup. She really needs to get it together. If they think she can't handle her job because she can't even keep composed, she probably won't get re-hired after her internship. Appearance is HUGE.

    5. Johnnie says:
      Tue, 4th Aug 20097:33 am 

      It's probably good advice if your first job is after college graduation. Most of us learned this much earlier though.

    6. erin says:
      Tue, 4th Aug 20099:51 am 

      WOW Johnnie GOOD FOR YOU. Not everyone is as grown up as you! (sarcasm) For many people they may not have held professional jobs or jobs where the employers cared if you could handle the job, do the job well, or came into work sober. Not all of us are super smart when we graduate college and need time to adjust to being adults. Although I have only done one of the things on this list, calling out of work, it's easy to get into bad patterns in college and continue that attitude and laziness into your professional life. It's easy to get annoyed with your employer because it feels like they are taking your time, wait until you get laid off or fired then you realize your on their time, and not worth it for the company. Yes it does seem like common sense but then so do alot of things.

    7. Jes says:
      Fri, 14th Aug 20098:23 am 

      Well being one of those college kids who actually had to work to pay for my tuition (lol, definitely some bitter sarcasm there, but I'm not hatin' too much) I have to agree that most of this SHOULD be common sense (especially if you DID just graduate from college), but I can understand that some people might not have held a serious job until now and takes a reality check to transfer from the college atmosphere to the professional.

      All of these make sense to me excpet #1. This is generally true except in some situations you can be friends with your boss. You just have to know when not to cross that line.

      Ie.. your boss is having a bad day or some kind of drama- dont press the issue and stay out of it unless they explicitly ask for your opinion… or if you're upset with your boss, just because you're friends doesnt mean you're allowed to smart off to them or do as you please. Remember they're still your boss before your friend, and will absolutely fire your ass if you get out of line. lol

      Also best advice! (and I still see this from people who've been working a LONG time) YOU ARE ON THEIR TIME!! You're not doing anyone else a favor by showing up to work on time, doing extra assignments, etc… They're paying you to do a job and if you cant manage to do it correctly, then your butt's out the door!

      And lastly, just becasue you work for someone does not mean they get to run all over you! There's a difference in knowing your place and taking shit off someone. If a guy is approaching you in an inappropriate manner, deal with it. People will take advantage of newbies who take people's flack so dont be scared to stand up for yourself!

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