old advice

One of Mr. Aesthetic's posts this week made me think of this list. It's not that it applies directly to him but it does touch on how people in different offices can be so clueless about how much or how little each other is doing or how they feel about things.

Good Office Habits:

When you've finished a project and submitted the prints to proofreading, do not close the file or window on your monitor. Leave it up (hours if necessary) until you can find the next job to work on. Five seconds of blank screen will make any manager think you're doing nothing all day and yet the same thing up constantly even after completion gives them a feeling of security.

Always blow your own horn when you've accomplished or finished anything. List every mundane thing you do, even what's really just part of your job and nothing special. I always see articles saying you should list your accomplishments but in the end it just looks like your job description that's being glorified. Yes - you're supposed to find solutions to company problems - every day. That's why you're there but it looks good on paper to management.

Water cooler chat is greatly overrated and sometimes the rumor engine is detrimental to even be aware of. And I don't want to hear co-workers telling me what they're getting away with.

Conversely, sometimes it is helpful to be aware of perspectives both of management and the workforce of each other. There are a lot of times when they might have a completely different attitude if they knew how they appeared to each other in the snippets of time each actually gets to see. Then again, it's not your job to enlighten anyone.