10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE A BETTER EMPLOYEE
I know most employees don’t want anything to do with HR. If possible, they would love to avoid talking to any member of HR if they can. I sincerely hope I have managed to breakdown some of these barriers with at least the people I have worked with (Its honestly not ALWAYS bad people! We’re cool. We can be fun too….. Ahem, yes I understand how uncool just saying that is).
But given the stigma, its possible, people haven’t thought to ask their HR person advice on how they can be better, or do better, as employees. If nothing else, how they can avoid ever being in HR’s office for a ‘bad’ reason. Here are 10 things you can do to be a better employee:
1. BE ENERGIZED AND ENTHUSIASTIC
I get it. Its work. Synonyms for the word is literally labour, toil, grind, exertion, slog and (my personal favourite) drudgery. It’s hard sometimes to have enthusiasm and energy. We like to reserve the energy and enthusiasm for our personal lives. But try a mindful approach to work. Just decide to have a good day, decide to be into work. You will be amazed at how the balance starts to tip and work doesn’t seem like as much effort as it was.
2. ASK FOR MORE WORK
I’m not asking you to ‘suck up’ to your Manager. We aren’t at school, when ‘only idiots put their hand up for more work’ when they have finished the lesson. Its work. It’s your career. The people who put their hand up for more work do more, go further, get promotions and earn more money.
3. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND WHY YOU ARE DOING IT
Think about every task you do and identify why you are doing it. Where does it go to when you have finished it? Who does it help? Why is it important? How does it impact the end customer? If you can spend some time understanding this, you will absolutely excel. This simple technique will help you identify possible problems, avoid issues, improve processes and make your life much more efficient and productive.
4. SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Share your experience and skills with people who are less experienced that you. Hell, they may be more experienced than you that could benefit from hearing what you know. If you know the background, a shortcut, a hack or have an easier process, then share, share, SHARE! You can make a difference to someone’s day with a simple tip which you may take for granted.
5. HAVE A CAREER GOAL
If you don’t have a career goal, then you can’t complain about work. Ever. Full stop. Not having a career goal means your job is perfect and you would change absolutely nothing about it.
It doesn’t have to be a huge career goal geared towards a promotion. Perhaps you quite like where you are at and it sits well with you personally. If so make a goal about what you don’t like about your job. Have a career goal geared to proactive initiatives, something which will make the frustrating elements lessen for you over time.
6. BE NICE TO YOUR COLLEAGUES
As the saying goes, you can’t choose your family. Well you also can’t always choose your colleagues. You may not always like your co-workers but you do need to be able to work with them. Even if they are the worst, be the better person. Be polite, professional and pleasant to them. Make it your armor against them. If a formal issue does arise in the future , your behavior needs to be without question and 100% above board for your Manager or HR to do anything to hold them to account.
7. RECOGNISE YOUR MANAGER DOESN’T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING
Your manager doesn’t always know the answer. They don’t always know what to do. Aaaand they also don’t always know it’s okay to SAY they don’t know the answer or what to do. Super frustrating when it’s impacting your ability to do your job. But try and be patient. Sometimes they will need to come back to you. Sometimes you will need to help them out. Sometimes they need you to tell them if they aren’t going in the right direction.
8. RECOGNISE YOUR MANAGER IS HUMAN
Your manager is human. While sometimes they may resemble the devil incarnate placed on earth purely to make your life miserable, they have feelings. They laugh, cry and grieve the same as everyone else.
Keep personal attacks out of your work issues. Calling your Manager a fat cow when she doesn’t grant your leave isn’t you expressing your frustration, its you being a rude, insensitive bully who needs to grow up.
9. ACCEPT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK GRACEFULLY
No one likes negative feedback. And sometimes we don’t agree with it. Take a moment to recognize what the feedback was. Don’t change the feedback into something that fits your narrative of being outraged. “John – you need to work on reducing typos in these agreements” is not “John – your agreements are unbelievably crappy and I think you are a useless employee”. Turn any negative feedback into a personal goal to never encounter it ever again.
10. ENJOY WORK!
If you don’t like your work, job, colleagues, manager, customers or company. Leave. Go find a job you enjoy! You will be a much better employee somewhere else. While it may feel like it sometimes, no-one is chaining you to that desk. No one is stopping you from leaving. It may be work, but life is short. You spend over 220 days a year at work, make it something you can feel good about.
Do you manage staff? Read this next:
10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BE A BETTER MANAGER