Are you a smart employee?
We are generally a hardworking bunch of people, and employers tend to take advantage of this. But the Smart Employee is not easily taken for a ride. These are five things to think about that will help you to put self before company… instead of the other way around.
Smart... or evil?
The employer-employee relationship is much like a tempestuous love affair between a man and a woman: neither party likes the status quo much, yet both parties need each other, and one party is always ready to end it.
There is no such thing as a loyal employer, so why should there be such thing as a loyal employee? We tend to plod on in our dead-end jobs, putting in extra hours and initiative because we feel obligated to repay the company’s confidence in us. But what about the company’s obligations to repay us?
The trouble is that a company does not have human emotions like guilt, fidelity or honour per se. The employers do… but then employers have an uncanny way of hiding behind ‘company policy’, don’t they?
In the twenty-first century, smart employers have made their workforce a commodity. Large corporations hire people on six-month contracts, offer no medical benefits or transport allowance and so need never worry about bonuses or raises. Smart employers also do not want specialists — they like so-called ‘multi-taskers’ who can do everything from debt collection to providing after-sales service. Smart employers have also learned the value of the Appointment Letter, including several clauses very disadvantageous to the employee like, “Thou shalt not work for our competitors within twenty-four (24) months of leaving the Company.”
In the face of such brilliance, it’s time to stand up and be counted. Power to the employee!
1. (Ir)responsibility
Responsibility is a funny thing: people don’t like it, but it’s something we all have to deal with one way or another. Outside the office, we can be pretty sure that if we do take on a responsibility, we will get rewarded one way or another — buying a car, getting married, having a baby. But within the workplace, you never know when taking on responsibility is going to get you in so much excrement that you cannot breathe.
They say that taking on more responsibility actually grooms you for bigger, hotter seats. Yet, strangely enough, bosses have a very good way of pinning the blame on their underlings. Whilst they may be responsible for something, they refuse to be held accountable for it. If everything goes right, they get the glory for their ‘marvelous management skills’. But if all hell breaks loose, it’s your fault!
If your employers are typical of almost all small employers — the type that gives you hell when something goes wrong, but keeps silent when the going’s good — then you may want to reconsider before taking on more responsibility. What your employer is trying to do is simply cut cost: they need to hire someone else to take on that job if you don’t agree to it. But are they going to pay you more for that added responsibility? And if so, how much?
You know you can do the job. Perhaps you’re even sure that you could do it well. But seriously, why bother? It’s not your company, and the Smart Employee would be less worried about company cost and more about what keeping her responsibilities to a bare minimum and reducing her exposure.
2. Volunteering skills
Small firms with minimal international exposure or multinational corporation (MNC) experience have another thing in common: they never invest in their people. Sales people remain sales people; accounts clerks remain accounts clerks; designers remain designers. The company does not offer to send employees for training, nor invest in tools that will help them do their job better or facilities that could improve their wellbeing. Now tell me: why should you offer to do anything more than what you were hired for?
Companies that do have a sense of gratitude for their employees’ contributions understand what their personal development means to them and the business, and offer to at least subsidise any education related to their scope of work. With companies like this, employees are of course obligated to give their 100-percent because their employers paid for their degrees of professional certificates. Who would not love his company for that? Everyone wins at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, most companies do not practice this. In fact, most companies don’t even have a budget for human resource development. Employees that try to obtain funds for courses related to what they do are very often turned away because small-minded employers don’t think the company will get corresponding value in return. It can be very frustrating, as many of you readers already know.
The Smart Employee will pay for her personal development on her own time with her own money. She’ll attend seminars and courses and improve herself continuously, but — and here’s where it gets interesting — she will not offer any of these skills to the company.
For instance: if you start off as an accounts clerk, but finance your Business Law course yourself, why should you offer your newfound knowledge to help your company get out of scrapes? Fuhgedabouddit! If they want a lawyer on their payroll, get them to pay.
3. Overtime
Ah… the eternal conundrum: should you put in more hours at work in the hope of getting recognised, or should you work-to-rule and have more time to yourself? Let’s hypothesise for a minute, and see whether you agree with me that few companies are worth more effort than what they already pay you for.
Lisa works at a bank. She regularly puts in two hours overtime at least twice a week, and hopes to get a sizeable raise at the end of the year. Twelve months later, her wishes are granted: all employees get a 10-percent raise. You read right: ALL employees, including Lisa’s peers that clocked out at 5.05pm every working day of the year!
The point here is that very few companies actually give raises based on personal performance. If the company does well, share and share alike — everyone gets the same quantum of incentive. The company would rather reward all their employees the same, than reward some more than others and risk a mutiny.
Companies rarely appreciate the overtime you put in at work, so don’t. They simply think that you take longer than others to do the same amount of work. You, of course, know otherwise. Suddenly, after a couple of break-ups and estranged friends and family that never get to spend time with you, you find that all you get is a measly extra USD100 a month. Is that really worth it?
The Smart Employee knows that she can contribute so much more to the company if she did overtime, but she also knows when it is worth it… and few employers are worth it these days. Don’t get me wrong — Smart Employees are highly competent and very valuable to any organisation. But they also know better than to deliver the performance of an USD3,000-per-month-employee for a company that only pays USD1,000.
Know what your work is worth, know the market and know yourself. Who is more important: the company or you?
4. CYR (Cover your rear-end)
Otherwise known as Cover Your Arse. Now, I know many of you reading this have an inherent dislike for people who practice CYA, and so do I. Everyone would like to work in an organisation where every worker takes responsibility for their actions and no one tries to dodge the line of fire. Unfortunately, such idyllic working conditions are unrealistic in today’s world, so most of the time it’s people like you and I who end up full of buckshot.
However, Smart Employees do realise when it is worth taking the fall (when your employer or supervisor recognises your sacrifice, for instance) and when it is not. A ‘good leader’ is generally perceived to be one that stands up for his or her subordinates and takes the brunt of the employer’s wrath. But when your subordinates are all but waiting to see you fall, then you have to ask yourself if it is worth protecting them. Remember that in the working world (as in life) all is fair in love and war. Your subordinate will feel no compunctions about taking over your job, and though sorry to see you go (perhaps you were good friends), he or she will not be that upset.
The practice of CYA is not a trait of the Smart Employee — Smart Employees have much more dignity and self-respect than that. A Smart Employee readily takes the blame for what she knows is her fault, because she wants to learn and she understands that some lessons are harder than others. A Smart Employee does not assign blame to others, but she also does not foolishly stand in the line of fire to defend the guilty party.
Those pickets you see where employees stand side-by-side with each other in protest against the company are typical examples of mass corporate suicide. The Smart Employees are the ones still inside the building, talking over what to do with other Smart Employees that will collectively inherit the company’s future.
5. Competing agendas
When you join a company, you usually have some vague plans about where you would like to be in a couple of years’ time, whether promoted or transferred or reassigned. You might join as a salesgirl, with the hope of making Sales Manager in a couple of years. Or, maybe you hope to be transferred to Customer Service, which is what you really want to do. In any case, you have ambition.
Now, there is nothing wrong with ambition. It’s what keeps the cream rising to the top. But your plans can go horribly wrong if the company has plans of its own. They may want to hire a Sales Manager from outside their industry to ‘inject new blood’ into the organisation. They may be thinking about outsourcing their entire Customer Service centre. They may even be thinking about closing shop. How are you supposed to know whether your ambitions and the company’s plans complement each other?
Well, you don’t. Companies that do have some sort of succession planning usually refrain from telling their employees about it, whilst companies that don’t have these long-term plans usually have no idea about what is going to happen one year to the next. They are as much in the dark about it as you are.
So, if you think your hard work is going to pay off in the end by making you a Head of Department, you should know that it often does not work that way. We’ve all had our hopes of a promotion dashed by a new face in the company (who is of course hated by everyone, rather unfairly). A Smart Employee will try her best to understand where the land lies before she starts putting in extra effort to earn her promotion. Competing agendas between the company and the employee have frequently ended in tears — guess who does the crying?
There is a lot of work out there for employees who know what they are worth and how to market themselves. Just because one company does not recognise your contribution (or is afraid to), it does not mean that another will not. Your employer does not own you; it is not the be all and end all of your subsistence. As long as you train well, work well (NOT the same as working hard) and keep your wits about you, you will always be in demand.
A Smart Employee…
- Does not shortchange — being a Smart Employee does not mean you don’t do the best that you can in your job. You do… just as long as it corresponds with what you’re getting paid.
- Works well, not hard — a Smart Employee can usually finish her day’s work in half the time it would take others because of her knowledge, efficiency, and skill.
- Continuously improves — learning is an ongoing process, and Smart Employees are always trying to upgrade themselves and their skills to make themselves more valuable.
- Is proud — a Smart Employee takes great pride in her work, which is one reason why it is always above average and why she is always in high demand.
- Knows herself — a Smart Employee knows herself well in terms of the amount of work she can do, her skills and her capacity. She does not take on more than she can chew, so she never underperforms.
- Is happy — Smart Employees are very happy and lead very fulfilling lives. They have plenty of time for their families and friends because they know where to draw the line between work and play.
