“Clichés Galore”, that’s the first thought. C’mon all ye readers, you didn’t actually expect me to come up with some new tricks, a miracle cure that will make each a superb manager/scientist/administrator/student or whoa if I start listing it out then I would be the first one accused of wasting my time as well as yours. If that’s what you were looking for and I am sure most people who know me wouldn’t actually expect something as spectacular, let me get on with what I think can be done to improve the situation- bad, worse, worst or good fair….However.
These will not catapult you to where your super boss sits in the next one week but just might make you a lot more tolerant about other’s work ethic and a lack of it on those rare occasions when our mind gives up.
1) Do NOT keep reworking priorities.
I have seen people mistaking me for the person having the lowest minimum IQ humanly possible when I say this. But frankly, if this gets my job done I could not care less about anything. Why does one need to keep erasing tasks on post its or to do lists with such amazing regularity? Just imagine the scenario when you had spent 3 out of those 4 hours you spent contemplating on priorities. You tend to like the job of rubbing off a few of those jobs but frankly, you don’t get paid for it and you’d do well to concentrate on what you are getting paid for.
Occasionally, when the situation demands that you do some serious thinking and all hell breaks loose, its understandable for you to spend some time on how you are doing your job but if that becomes a passion, your boss’s passion is to beat the living daylight out of you.
2) Do NOT expect people to be punctual and sincere.
People are people. Yeah you might nod your head and thank me for stating the most obvious but half of your troubles would vanish if you stop expecting people to submit their work on time and wait for bated breath for the next one you have for them to accomplish. Time is how you deal with a job and what YOU do with it so stop passing the buck like nobody’s business and do what you can.
You somehow get a lot more time when you expect the worst or at least stop expecting anything and just keep working at something. It’s equivalent to minting time.
3) Do NOT depend on others and look for alternatives of getting the work done.
There have been a zillion books written about TQM, Kaizen and several other Japanese theories of working right from Toyota Production systems to operations management which stress so much on interlinkages of different processes. Just one point to make- If you could make your set of tasks mutually exclusive and independently getting done, you would have a peaceful life.
4) Remember that the only thing that makes your presence worthwhile at your workplace is your WORK.
Switch off once you are done with a given set of tasks and move on to the next one like it’s the only thing that matters on earth. The only way you can justify your existence wherever you are is through your work.
Mind you work is not dumb.............
It speaks and when it does, people shut up and listen like its all that matters.
Gossip does not nor do plain soft skills. All skills that human beings possess are ones that can be made to work only when work gets done. Otherwise its useless. Empathy is a fine trait but without being backed by work-performance, success as far as your job goes, its as good as trash and mind you I am talking about the one that stinks.
Ok Ok enough of Gyaan you might call it and get back to your work. And I so appreciate that. Yet I would definitely appreciate comments.
Keerti