Workplace Challenges
How to love the job you hateWhether your complaint is a bad boss, too much bureaucracy, office politics, boring work, or all of the above, you don't have to suffer in silence (or not so silently). You can take steps to improve your situation, even if you can't afford to leave. |
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 [ 2007-08-15 ] |
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Once you begin intervening on your own behalf, you'll start feeling less like a victim of circumstance and more like a professional with influence and control over your own destiny.
Use the following strategy to help move your thinking in the right direction.
EIGHT TIPS TO BUILD POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
Positive office politics isn't only about mending fences with workplace enemies. It also involves creating alliances with people who can help you. To increase your feeling of belonging and develop closer relationships within your company, consider taking some of the following steps:
1. Sign up for courses that will improve your communication, team play, and leadership skills. Then try out what you learn on the people who make your life most miserable. Practice until you get it right.
2. Seek out assignments that enable you to work with a variety of colleagues, rather than the same old few you always get stuck with. This will improve your people skills, broaden your visibility, and revitalize your workday. It can be very energizing to work with new people, even if you are still working in the same company.
3. Request assignments with people you genuinely like. After hanging out with them a while, you're sure to feel better about yourself and your company.
4. Volunteer for a committee that's working on an interesting issue or project so that you can develop an internal community of colleagues with shared interests and values.
5. When you have the time and energy, pitch in to help others who are on "job overload." You'll build a reputation as a team player and develop a supportive network to help you out should the favour ever need to be returned.
6. Give credit where credit is due. Rather than try to steal the limelight for yourself, share it with others. People will feel better about working for and with you.
7. Be on the lookout for little ways you can foster co-operation instead of conflict. When others sense your attitude, they might mellow too.
8. Don't harbour grudges. They build ill will and give you ulcers. Chronic anger is a symptom of a serious emotional problem. It has a way of catching up with people who hold onto it too long.
Excerpt taken from How to Be Happy at Work: A Practical Guide to Career Satisfaction by Arlene S. Hirsch.
Do you have you a bad boss?