If the director thinks that I don't work hard enough. What to do if your boss criticizes you all the time? He constantly calls you on weekends
What should you not do to avoid losing your job? Let's consider the main mistakes of subordinates, simulating situations on the part of superiors and employees. So what are 7 mistakes that could cost you your job?
Greeted by clothes
You:“I have always believed that you don’t have to dress nicely for work, the main thing is to have a responsible attitude towards your duties. Therefore, I put on what came to hand in the morning.”
Boss:“I doubt that a person who treats his appearance with such carelessness can fulfill his duties responsibly; after all, it is simply indecent to show up to work in sneakers and jeans!”
Appearance is an important part of your career. Follow the dress code, do not allow negligence and sloppiness.
But here, the main thing is not to overdo it. Put off overly expensive clothes and jewelry until the corporate party, so you won’t put your colleagues and boss, who can’t afford to wear top-of-the-line items, in an awkward position.
The importance of chain of command
You:“I always liked my boss as a person, and I planned to become friends with her. Recently she called me into her office to help her with her computer. I decided that it was time to get closer to her and told her about the quarrel with my husband. For some reason, she did everything to make me leave her office quickly.”
Boss:“I recently asked a subordinate to help with the computer, and she told me such a personal story that I had to blush. But we only have a business relationship with her! She turned out to be extremely shameless.”
An important rule of a good employee is the inadmissibility of familiarity and respect for subordination. Leave stories from your personal life for your colleagues.
Don't get caught in our own webs
Boss:“I have always been unpleasant about girls who display their “beauties” for everyone to see. And, I was upset when I saw too revealing photos of my employee on her page, I’m disappointed in her.”
Don’t forget that your bosses may try to find your profiles on the Internet, so it’s better to make them available only to a certain circle of people.
A spoon is good for lunch
You:“I often allow myself to run away from our boss and do not consider such actions bad. I manage to complete my work in less time than the time allotted for it. So, why not leave earlier or come later, I’m still doing the work!”
Boss:“I think I’ll have to say goodbye urgently to one of my subordinates. I began to discover his disappearances from his place of work a long time ago, but I was loyal to them. Recently, I urgently needed to gather all the employees in the morning, as some important people had arrived. Woe-subordinate I had to wait half an hour. Besides being late, he ruined the company’s image.”
Leaving during working hours or being late without warning your manager is a big mistake, very often punishable by dismissal.
Even if you are one of the best employees, be punctual and do not abuse the trust of your superiors.
Own goal
You:“I left my previous job with a real scandal. Having got a new job, I gladly and colorfully told about the scandalous dismissal. I thought that such a story would arouse sympathy towards me, but after this story everyone began to look at me in a bad way.”
Boss:“I hired a girl and at first I was pleased with her. But the other day I heard her talk about the reason for her dismissal from her previous job, she poured a huge amount of dirt on this organization. And she did not hesitate to insult her former boss, touching on very personal details. It's disgusting"!
In a new job, you need to be careful what you say: do not criticize the previous management or place of work. Trying to decorate yourself in this way can have the opposite effect.
I don't want to and I won't
You:“I am a straightforward person, and if I don’t like something at work, I’m not at all embarrassed to tell my boss about it. Especially if it asks me to spend extra time or do something I'm not getting paid for. Therefore, if I don’t want to work, then I say so directly.”
Boss:“I think that the dismissal of one of my subordinates is inevitable. Firstly, he refuses to do everything that I don’t pay him for. I understand that work is work, but you need to try to remain human and help! And secondly, he ignores even important assignments, for which he receives money, and does not hesitate to refuse in a rude manner, although I am the boss here!”
Refusing to work in a categorical manner: “I can’t”, “I won’t”, “I don’t want” is a bad idea. If you are not happy with something, you need to explain it delicately.
And, if you don’t like your job, it’s better to give it up altogether so as not to torment others and yourself.
It's time for business
You:“My work is monotonous, and I receive a salary for it, so I often allow myself a break for a cup of coffee and a personal conversation with a colleague. The boss doesn’t tell me anything, and I consider my behavior to be the norm.”
Boss:“Recently, I went out into the corridor and saw a line of indignant customers. It turned out that the employee was absent from her workplace and was chatting pleasantly with a colleague in the next office. I had to remind her that there was a technical break established by the regulations for rest. Next time I’ll deprive you of the bonus!”
An action that will lead to dismissal can be considered shirking from work. At work, you should try to do only relevant things.
Everything personal should be put aside until the break, even if no one reprimands you.
Criticism is not a useful phenomenon for everyone. It helps some to improve, while for others it only hinders personal development. But you can’t live without it either. I propose to analyze the “typology” of business criticism and learn to respond productively to it.
Types of Business Criticism
Empty criticism
Criticism that has nothing to do with your business success. It is caused only by the personal problems of a colleague, in our case, a manager: tyranny, the desire to throw out negativity, revenge for unrequited sympathy, envy, projection (you remind the manager of a person with whom he had a strong conflict), impoliteness (the manager appreciates you, but encourages you to work not entirely humane ways).
It is difficult to draw conclusions from the flow of such criticism, since it is unstructured and contradictory (either the manager does not like the fact that you work slowly, or he is infuriated by your haste), contains only nit-picking (I don’t like your voice, your frequent blinking, you looked at it wrong, the papers on your desk are at the wrong angle). Empty criticism is usually presented in public, on various occasions, with arrogance, contempt and obvious pleasure on the face of the critic.
How to behave?
Under no circumstances should you have “pro-life” conversations with such a leader, talking about family troubles and victories, or say anything bad about your colleagues. In general, have less confidential conversations, because if necessary, such a leader can blame someone else on you, frame you or fire you, saving his reputation.
It is also dangerous to demonstratively confront such a leader and discuss him in a team.
Stay calm, don't let them unsettle you. Politely and confidently let your manager know that he can only evaluate your professional qualities. When he calms down, you can clarify the work issues that were affected by the conflict: for example, deadlines for completing work, labor discipline, dress code, your specific responsibilities, etc.
Professional criticism
Contains indications of specific mistakes and outright misconduct. Perhaps you have received such criticism from other colleagues (which means you are definitely doing something wrong). Professional criticism is reasoned (many examples, evidence), expressed in private. But the option of presenting professional criticism already depends on the intelligence, upbringing of the leader and how frequent your mistakes are. For example, if you constantly make the same mistakes in reports, even the most diplomatic top manager will explode.
A manager who criticizes you professionally understands that “he who does nothing makes no mistakes,” and therefore he is satisfied with your knowledge, skills and abilities; only part of them should be corrected.
How to behave?
You absolutely cannot remain silent, “bury your head in the sand,” or pretend that everything is fine. Because if you remain silent or cover your tracks, the manager’s trust in you will decrease. Let him learn about the mistake from you, and not from that harmful accountant. It is also not recommended to shift responsibility to others too often. Yes, sometimes our work suffers from the disorganization of our colleagues, but if we constantly complain about them, we will not be taken seriously either.
If you made a mistake in any task, next time do the same task 100%. Work on your mistakes - find the real reason for your mistake. For example, you had high blood pressure and were “floating” at work - take care of your health. Or you are constantly distracted by phone calls - create a diary and enter all the necessary information there to plan your day.
Or maybe you should just start taking your responsibilities more seriously?
If you and your boss have different personality types, but don't think about it, it can really ruin the lives of both of you. However, this can be avoided! How? Read simple, like all ingenious, recipes.
A lot of advice on the topic of finding mutual understanding boils down, in essence, to the recommendation to become so white and fluffy that you can speak to everyone in their own language and behave in such a way that the interlocutor feels comfortable.
I suggest going a different way. We need to understand where we differ from each other and find easy-to-follow rules that will allow us to work together. But at the same time, everyone must remain themselves, that is, work in a mode convenient for themselves.
The fact is that absolutely all people, without exception, are divided into planned and situational. Planned ones are those for whom it is normal to carry out all their actions only with preliminary preparation.
Situational ones are those for whom it is normal to act without preparation, according to the situation. They do it better this way. At this moment, all their senses are heightened, and they can better take into account all the nuances of the situation in their decision. If you force them to write plans and prepare in advance, the result will be much worse.
Now let's imagine that one of them is the boss of the other. Let's see what problems arise and how you can deal with them. Let’s immediately make a reservation that in this article we consider everything only from the position of a subordinate. Recommendations on how bosses should behave is a topic for a separate personal conversation.
A situational boss with a planned subordinate
Typical problem situations:
- First I get overwhelmed with work, and then I get scolded for doing something I wasn’t assigned to do.
A situational boss calls a systematic subordinate and discusses one or several problems with him. He never prepares in advance to perform an action. For him, now the process of understanding the problem is the action being performed.
But in the eyes of a planned subordinate, the boss behaves as if he had begun preparations for solving the problem. That is, he began to solve it.
What is the result?
After discussing several different issues and ending the meeting, the boss thinks that the action is over and the issue is settled. And his subordinate left the meeting in full confidence that he had received instructions to solve all the problems discussed.
After some time, having compensated for the lack of resources with labor exploits, the subordinate will bring the boss a report on the tasks completed. And, most likely, instead of praise for his diligence, he will be punished for an initiative that no one needs. Because the boss had absolutely no intention of ordering all this to be done. He was simply consulting. No more.
- I regularly have projects that I have already fully prepared canceled or changed.
A systematic subordinate had been preparing some project for a long time. Developed, prepared solutions, coordinated with other participants, etc. And now, finally, the project is completely ready, and all that remains is to approve it and launch it for execution. He came to the boss for formal approval, but the boss cancels the project altogether or changes it so significantly that all preparation actually needs to start over.
The attitude of the subordinate (especially if he understands this functional issue better than the boss) - all the work is down the drain for unknown reasons. After all, everything has already been agreed upon with everyone. It is especially offensive if the subordinate could make all decisions with his own authority and came to the boss for formal preliminary approval only out of a sense of subordination.
Solution
A systematic subordinate can significantly facilitate his work with a situational boss with simultaneous use the following rules:
- Three nails rule.
- Do it first, then report.
First about nails. This rule was coined in an old Soviet joke in which the successful chairman of a collective farm never followed all the instructions coming from the region, but first hung them on a nail driven into the wall. After another reminder, he moved it to the next nail. And only if he was required to fulfill what was already hanging on the third nail, did he begin to carry out the instructions. Most of the instructions did not reach the third nail; they were forgotten about earlier.
The rule is old, but it suits us quite well. Nails can be replaced with folders, desk drawers, or anything else. The quantity must be determined experimentally, depending on the speed of change in the situation and the personal qualities of the situational boss.
With this approach, the boss cannot change anything at the last moment - after all, the job has already been done. When trying to accuse a subordinate of doing something without permission, you need to carefully remind that the problem has already been discussed with the boss many times (in terms of the number of reminders). And that it was during the last discussion that the boss ordered to do just that.
Expected Result
A systematic subordinate will get rid of a huge amount of unnecessary work and will have the opportunity to freely exercise initiative when carrying out assignments.
Situational subordinate versus planned boss
Typical problem situations:
- I am constantly forced to work when I have no strength, and in moments of high activity they do not allow me to work, and then they scold me for not doing what I was assigned
The fact is that physical performance manifests itself differently in systematic and situational people.
The activity graph of a systematic person will resemble a straight line or a very smooth curve. That is, its performance will be at approximately the same level with minor fluctuations. And it will almost always be positive.
In contrast, the situational activity graph will resemble a sine wave. There will be periods of increased activity when he will be able to work 16 or more hours a day. But there will also be periods of complete decline, when he will be able to work only a few hours a day, or his activity will be generally negative.
Now let's see how this manifests itself in work. A systematic boss methodically and regularly gives orders to situational subordinates. Moreover, from the point of view of the boss, these are precisely the orders that must be executed.
A situational subordinate does not always perceive these instructions as orders. And then he is quite sincerely perplexed why he is scolded for non-compliance, because he was simply consulted (see the situation described in the previous section). Moreover, he receives some orders during periods when he is in a state of decline. He might be happy to fulfill them, but he doesn’t have the strength. And when he is in a state of recovery, he is not allowed to work much and is sent home from work on time.
- I get scolded for being late on assignments.
It is much easier for a planner to calculate his resources, especially temporary ones. Therefore, as a rule, he is rarely late and completes his projects on time. But a situational person acts according to a situation that changes frequently, so it is very difficult for him to calculate his strength and he is much more often late.
Solution
The performance of a situational subordinate can be significantly improved, and he can facilitate his interaction with a planned boss while simultaneously applying the following rules:
Switch to performance evaluation based on results.
Set project deadlines no less than the full cycle of your activity.
Write down all the instructions and complete them when you have the strength.
First of all, by washing or rolling, you need to achieve an assessment of your activities only by results. The process style is focused on a strict sequence of actions. Do it once, do it twice, do it three... and in the end you will get the desired result.
For example, it might look like this. Everyone in the company comes to work at 9:00 and leaves at 19:00. And the average working week is 9 x 5 = 45 hours. Then the proposal to the boss should look like this: “Allow me to come to work between 9 and 10 o’clock, and sometimes stay after work, and I promise you that taking into account all the late arrivals and my overtime, I will work on average at least 48 hours.” hours per week, i.e. 3 hours per week more than others.”
And one last thing. You need to get yourself a notebook in which to write down all the instructions you receive. Especially those that are given to you during a decline in your activity.
That's it, let's put all the rules together - and see how it works.
As a result, all long-term projects will definitely fall into a period of increased activity and will be completed during working hours or through overtime. Small orders are completed immediately. If we don’t have the strength, we do nothing; if we have a lot of strength, we work until we complete all the written instructions and everything that was unfinished during the decline.
Thus, at the moment of loss of strength, the situational one carries out only the most urgent tasks, and only accumulates the rest of the work. And at the moment of strength, he carries out all the accumulated orders. That is, it works in a lazy, emergency mode that is convenient for itself.
Expected Result
A situational subordinate will have the opportunity to do everything that is assigned to him in a manner convenient for him, while simultaneously getting rid of the stress associated with deadlines. Its productivity should increase very significantly. Just like job satisfaction and reputation in the eyes of superiors.
Based on materials from E-executive
Here we will talk about how to approach work correctly. The following tips will help you worry less about failures at work, learn to assert your rights as an employee, not be afraid of your bosses, and find a balance between life and work.
I was prompted to write this article by the negative experiences of many of my friends who take their work too seriously and are too emotionally involved in the events that happen in their office. And therefore, intrigues and incidents at work make them worry a lot, thinking about work even in their free time.
My past work experience also provided the basis for this article. I once allowed my employer to exploit me, stayed late at work and saw it as a priority over my personal life. Now I have stopped making this mistake. And I want to tell you about the rules that help me protect my personal life from work, stop worrying about mistakes, about the attitude of my superiors, and consider my work activities as serving my own, and not the interests of others.
This post is mainly about . But I think my advice can help workers of any level.
Rule 1 – Work for money, not for an idea
This is an obvious statement, don't you think? But, as often happens, people forget the most banal things. And this is facilitated, among other things, by your employer. It is more profitable for the employer for the employee to work mainly for the idea, and only then for the money. Why?
A person who understands that the meaning of his work is his salary is very difficult to exploit.
He will not stay a whole month after work, forgetting about his family or personal life, when he is not paid for it. He will not miss the opportunity to move to another place of work with more favorable working conditions, because he works for money. He will not do a lot of work outside his field of activity unless he receives financial compensation for it.
He will appeal to the law that regulates labor relations in controversial situations, instead of silently agreeing with the most absurd demands of employers.
Therefore, many corporations strive to find employees with a desire to work “for the idea” and this desire is encouraged in every possible way during the work process.
Despite the fact that modern corporations are products of capitalist societies, they also contain many features of socialist formations. A “cult of the leader” and regulations on corporate values are being created. The purpose of the company and the collective good are elevated to the rank of the highest interest of each employee's work. An ideological atmosphere is created, surrounded by which the employee works not for the benefit of his own prosperity, but for the benefit of the company, team, society!
They are trying to convince people that, despite the fact that they earn money by working in the company, they are here for the sake of something more than just mercantile interests. And in order to maintain such conviction in people, organizations resort to many different means: trainings, speeches by managers, propaganda, awards, awarding regalia and titles (“employee of the year”), exploitation of the brand, imposing patriotism throughout the corporation, etc. and so on.
The absurdity to which the use of these funds reaches depends on the specific company. In large Western corporations (Western - not in geographical terms, but in relation to the business building model: Japanese and Korean companies can also be attributed to this model, like many domestic organizations), corporate patriotism is cultivated more strongly than in all other companies.
Is this bad? Not always. On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with the company looking for dedicated employees, that it is trying to create incentives for them to work, in addition to monetary ones, thereby increasing their interest in the work process.
On the other hand, patriotism, loyalty, and corporate values can serve as justifications for the exploitation of personnel by unscrupulous employers. Many companies don't care about anything other than their profits. They don't care about your personal life or your personal interests; they want you to work as hard and as much as possible. And the more you work and the less you ask, the more profitable your work is for the managers and shareholders of the company, but the less profitable it is for yourself.
Working “for an idea” also gives rise to a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration. For a person who works for money, the worst possible scenario at work would be his dismissal. He may be afraid that he won't get paid, or won't get paid on time, or won't get a bonus. If he made a mistake at work, he will not lament this, because he will not necessarily be fired for this, will he?
A person working for an idea (or to satisfy his own ambitions) may be afraid that his efforts will not be paid attention to by his superiors, that his colleagues will not admire his professionalism. The employee is “for the idea” of treating his mistakes at work as a personal tragedy, as proof of his personal failure.
Workers for the idea come to work sick, stay in the office late, work on weekends, even if they are not paid. For the sake of work, they are ready to neglect their own health, their personal life and their family. Corporations look at this behavior as a virtue, although in my opinion it is only a form of morbid obsession, servility and addiction.
When you work for money, you have less emotional attachment to your work.
This leaves you with fewer strings tied to your job that the employer can pull for their own benefit rather than yours. And the less attached you are to it, the less frustration you feel and the more space you have to think about something other than work. As a result, you begin to relate to failures more easily, you forget about work when you come home, a reprimand from your superiors does not turn into a personal drama for you, and work intrigues pass you by.
So always remind yourself why you go to work. You are here to earn money, provide for your family. The worst thing that can happen here is that you get fired. For some, dismissal is a critical event, for others it is not, since work can always be found. But, in any case, dismissal does not mean that you will be anathematized, made a traitor to the Motherland. This means simply leaving your current job and looking for a new place and new opportunities.
Work is only a means to achieve goals! This is not a goal to which you should sacrifice your family, your health and your happiness.
Working for money means not only refusing to work primarily “for an idea.” This means not working to satisfy your passions and ambitions. If you work to command, to put pressure on people, to seem important to yourself, then you will perceive any failure at work as a challenge to your self-esteem and, as a result, you will take failures to heart.
Please do not think that I want to force you to give up your love for what you love, replacing it with cold pragmatism. Love your job, but don’t turn this love into a painful addiction! In everything you need to observe moderation.
And I found a better job than the one I worked at before. The new place didn't live up to my expectations, and a month later I found an even better place. That’s where I still work (note: I was working there at the time of writing. I currently work for myself).
Maximum? Exactly. Who said that you should ask your employer for a salary that corresponds to the average salary in the market? Why not get paid above average?
Firstly, it is difficult to talk about the average salary if you do not know what is happening in the labor market. (The only way for an ordinary employee to find out about this is to go to interviews, as I wrote)
Secondly, the average salary is like the average temperature in a hospital. Why should you even focus on this number?
Go to interviews, don’t be afraid to ask for a higher salary than what you are currently paid and look at the reaction of the potential employer. Different companies pay differently. Somewhere they will laugh at your requests, but somewhere they will make you an offer and pay you as much as you ask. Be prepared for anything, visit many different companies, see how things are there.
Otherwise, you will continue to think that you cannot earn more than 50 thousand in your position while working in Moscow. Usually people don’t talk about their salary to anyone because “that’s the way it is.” But this unspoken rule sometimes works against us. We don’t know how much our colleagues earn, how much our friends earn, since no one tells anyone such information.
As a result, it becomes more difficult for us to adequately assess the size of our salary and therefore we put up with what is offered to us. What if you found out that your office colleague, who works the same hours as you work, earns 80 thousand? Would your 50 thousand still seem like worthy compensation then?
(I have actually come across situations more than once when different employees of the same class were paid differently in the same company! Not because they had different experience, but because one asked for more, the other less during the interview! You are unlikely will offer more than you ask, even if they are ready for it.)
Personally, I try to tell my friends how much I am paid if they ask me, and I try to get similar information from them in order to understand what the current situation is in the market and what my position is in this market. Do I need to change anything? Is there another possibility?
Of course, I don’t talk about my salary to just anyone, but this issue can be discussed with friends or close colleagues.
Rule 8 - Don't be afraid of losing your job
Your organization is most likely not unique. If you live in a large city, especially Moscow, then there are many places where you can work even under the best conditions.
Search, learn, explore, develop. And there is no need to be afraid that if you are fired from this company, your life will end. You may find something else. Don't be afraid to lose this place.
There's nothing wrong with that. Moreover, dismissal is not only grief, it is an opportunity. A chance to find something better!
Therefore, do not allow your superiors to blackmail you and intimidate you with dismissal. Moreover, problems in connection with your dismissal will not only be with you, but with the organization in which you work, since the company will have to look for a new employee and train him. So it is unknown who will have more problems.
At my first job, I did a poor job due to the same inattention and anxiety. They started to scare me with dismissal, so they probably wanted to.
I didn't like working for this organization anyway. So I said, “okay, I’ll quit myself.” I was not a genius, I was an ordinary, sluggish, green university graduate. But the company tried to keep even such a person! As soon as I said that I would quit myself, they began to dissuade me from this decision.
It was not profitable for the company to look for another person, despite the fact that I had only worked for a few months and still didn’t know much. Perhaps they thought that I couldn’t cope due to my inexperience and that I needed time to gather my strength and do the job well. They were not mistaken in this, time passed and I eliminated my shortcomings. Now I'm doing a good job with both my main job and my second job (this site).
But I still left this company and got a job for more money and under better conditions.
Conclusion: being fired is not only a loss for you, but also for the company. No one will fire you without the most compelling reasons for this.
If you want to resign of your own free will, but are afraid that you will let someone down, betray someone, then cast aside these stupid doubts! There is no need to perceive the company as a ship in which each employee moves towards a common goal together with other employees. Don't think that if you leave this ship, you are betraying the general idea.
In fact, the purpose of a company is solely the purpose of the owners of that company and shareholders. To achieve their goal on their "ship", they hire oarsmen who are paid for their work. If you want to transfer to another ship that pays you more, why not do it? Would you betray your fellow rowers? No, because they will still be paid no matter where the ship ends up (unless it gets caught in a storm). It may become harder for them to row after you leave, but the captain will find a replacement for you. Moreover, each of your colleagues, just like you, has the choice to leave the ship.
Your goal and the goal of your colleagues on this ship is to row and earn money for yourself and for your family.
The captain's goal is some distant island. But, having reached this island, will the captain share its treasures with you? No, he only pays you for rowing!
Therefore, there is no need to identify your goal with the goal of the corporation. You should not identify your colleagues to whom you have become attached with the heads of the organization. There is a captain, and the rowers are hired workers.
This understanding will help you become less attached to your office and, as a result, worry less about work. After all, there are always other possibilities! And at your current place of work, the light is not reduced by a wedge.
Rule 9 – Know the labor law
Did you know that working on weekends pays double? Do you know that if they want to fire you, then you are required to pay several salaries (Unless, of course, you are fired under an article)?
Now you know. Study the law, do not allow unscrupulous employers to exploit your ignorance of the law. The company is required by law to pay overtime. You have the right to be paid in full for your work.
Of course, domestic organizations often circumvent the law. For example, this happens in companies with the “gray” part of the salary. In such organizations, an employee has fewer rights: he may be fired without warning, he may not be paid or his salary may be reduced without warning. This does not mean that I do not recommend working in such companies. But still, I consider the absence of a “gray” salary to be an essential criterion for choosing a job. If a company operates “in white”, this is a big plus.
I’m writing about this because many people don’t think about it and consider tax evasion the most natural thing! When I went for interviews, I asked the question: “is your salary white?”
They looked at me in surprise and answered: “white?? Of course not! So what?"
And the fact is that I, as an employee, am at great risk when I work in such an organization. More often than not, everything can work out and if the organization is normal, you will be paid. But you are not insured against anything. If a company has problems, if it faces the need to lay off employees, you can simply be easily let go (or simply have your salary cut in half) with virtually no compensation.
Remember, breaking the law and denying you your legal rights is not the norm!
Knowing the law will help you defend your rights and approach your work more easily. After all, you have rights, which means you have guarantees, which means there are fewer reasons for fear.
Rule 10 – Home separate from work
After work, throw all thoughts about it out of your head. Think about something else. Leave all your worries about an unfulfilled plan, an unsubmitted report at your workplace. Work is not the most important thing in life. For many of us, it's just a way to make money. All the endless work intrigues, conflicts, unfulfilled obligations are all nonsense, trifles.
Many of us do not decide people's destinies at work, but are just links in a huge organism that works in the interests of shareholders and owners of the corporation. Is your role in this system really that important to you?
All activities of a corporation are the employment of some people, dividends for other people, and access to certain benefits of third people. All corporations together form a market, which has the function of distributing goods and services in society.
This is undoubtedly useful and helps organize social relations. Such a system is not an absolute evil. But is it really worth deifying this car? Deify the role of a cog in it? Relax! Take this role easier! Didn't get the job done? It's OK. Put it out of your mind if the workday is already over. Think about it tomorrow, as the heroine of one famous novel said.
Stop obsessing over your work. There are many things in life that need your attention and participation. Work is not your whole life.
Some people are proud that they devote themselves so selflessly to their work, they are ready to give up everything in order to please their superiors and help the development of the company. They see in this nobility, loyalty and a certain kind of heroism. I don’t see anything in this other than an escape from my problems, dependence (workaholism), selfishness, weakness, servility to authority, narrow-mindedness, lack of interests and hobbies.
Your family needs you more than your boss. Your health is more important than any money. Life is not designed to be a hero at work for 12 hours every day until retirement. If you spend your whole life focusing only on work, then what will you achieve in the end? Money? Confessions?
Why is all this necessary if you have wasted years of your life? This will make you a hero in the eyes of your boss, but is that all you want?
The endless pursuit of money, recognition, fulfillment of a plan, authority and prestige is a pursuit of emptiness! There will be nothing there in the end, despite what you may now think is the highest goal!
Work is only a means. A means to realize your life goals. Work should be subordinated to these goals, and not vice versa. If you view work as a means, you will be much less upset by failure. Your head will become much less clogged with work matters. You will be able to think about something other than work. And understand what you really want, what is the true purpose of your life...
Conclusion – there is no need to demonstrate knowledge of these rules at work.
As I already wrote, I used to be very worried about work and worried a lot about the result. I was ready to stay late, ignoring my wife’s desire to be with me at least in the evening. I did this because I thought that “this is how it should be”, that this is the most important thing, that work is “everything”.
But then my attitude towards life in general and work in particular began to change (I wrote about this in the article). I realized that there are many things in life that are more important than work and work should be subordinated to my life, and not vice versa.
Some people are so designed that when they suddenly understand something important, come to some new conviction, they surrender to this conviction with all the passion of a new discovery! Only after some time do they manage to find a balance between their discoveries and the demands of the outside world.
Therefore, when I got tired of worrying about failures, when I realized that work was not the main thing, I began to treat it with demonstrative indifference. When my colleagues again began to accuse me of having made a mistake, and because of me some client would not receive his goods today, instead of clutching my head, blaming myself and apologizing (as I did before), I calmly said: “so what? What's wrong? and turned to the monitor.
From one extreme to another. This of course was not entirely correct on my part. But what happened, happened. My new reaction was also understandable.
You should not take my example in this case and sharply reconsider your line of behavior at work. Treat your work more simply, but do not show obvious indifference. If you make a mistake, calmly draw conclusions, try not to make mistakes in the future and openly admit your mistakes. Just don’t suffer about it, that’s all.
If you used to stay late at work all the time, allowed someone else’s work to fall on you, and suddenly you got tired of it, then you don’t need to immediately leave your workplace as soon as 18-00 hits, without having done your work (you can of course do this, if you don’t cherish this place). People don't expect this from you and expect the job to get done. Therefore, you should prepare everyone for the fact that you will no longer sit late into the night and do someone else’s work. Warn people about this so they are prepared. Warn new employers right at the interview that you will not agree to free overtime.
I’m not trying to educate you to give a damn, I just want you to have a simpler attitude towards work, have other interests in life besides it, and not allow corporations to exploit your own labor!
I'm also not trying to develop bad employees. If you do not treat work with fanaticism, this does not mean that you will become a careless employee. On the contrary, you will perform many tasks better if you do not worry too much about possible failure.
The influence of human emotions on effective decision making can be seen in poker. This is a game that I really love for its versatility. Victory in it depends not only on luck, but also on the ability to play.
I think any poker professional will confirm the following thesis. If a player is very worried about the result, worried about the mistakes he has made, he will begin to play even worse, make the wrong decisions and make even more mistakes.
Calmness, control of emotions, a calm attitude towards losses are the key to success in poker. If a player is highly emotionally involved in the game, if his goal is to teach other players a lesson, to prove something to someone, to be the very first, and if he is mortally afraid of defeat, he will most likely suffer it.
Therefore, approach your work the same way a good player approaches the game: calmly and with a cool head. Don’t make work a field for realizing your ambitions and resolving your complexes. It is not your life or dignity that is at stake. Work is not the most important thing in life. Relax!
As a final piece of advice, I would advise you not to demonstrate knowledge of these rules during the interview. The employer expects you to work for the idea of the company's prosperity or for the idea of personal professional development, but not for money! Because it is difficult to exploit a worker for money!
If this is expected of you, then play by the employer’s rules and show with your appearance and answers that professional development and the opportunity to work in such a great company are more important to you than money.
I wrote about this in an article.
I hope you find these tips helpful. Some of them are more suitable for young people living in big cities, where there is a wide choice of work. But, I am sure that the advice to take a simpler approach to work will suit any employees, of any age and profession!