Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Trigger Happy at the Entry Level

One of my favorite career writers, Annie Fisher at Fortune, received the following e-mail from a reader:

Dear Annie: I never expected to find myself asking you for advice, but I'm really stuck. I was an 'A' student in college and always found ways to stand out from the crowd (captain of the lacrosse team, etc.) at the Ivy League school I attended.  But now, after three months in my first "real" job at a Fortune 500 company, I already feel I've hit a dead end, just doing routine work. It's so different from what I expected that I'm considering looking elsewhere, but will this mark me as a job-hopper? Any suggestions on how to get more challenging assignments where I am now?

Annie tells the former Ivy-Leaguer that quitting her first job after only three months will certainly mark her as a job hopper, and with good reason. Three months is barely enough time to glean even the haziest idea of how things work at her company and what it takes to succeed there.

I receive lots of e-mails like this myself, and have also heard new college grads complaining about the same thing in my everyday life. I find it interesting, because when I first came out of a Top 20 national university nine years ago, it was expected that I would start at the bottom. I spent the better part of my first year as a PR agency account coordinator making copies, processing expense reports, and faxing pitch letters. If I was even allowed to sit in on a strategic client meeting or brainstorm, it was a good week. I paid my dues, and in a short enough time, I moved up.

I hear you, times have changed. But I still think today’s college grads are simply too impatient to run the companies where they’re just beginning their careers. Fresh ideas are important, but experience does count for something. Managers and senior level execs are in the positions they are because, over the years, they have had the opportunity to witness various scenarios and learn the right way to proceed. When my early twenty-something reports tell me they want to do more meaningful work, I respect that, and I give them as much freedom as I can to run with projects independently. But more often than not, they come back to me at some point for guidance, because they get a bit overwhelmed when things are more complex than they thought.

Volunteering to pitch in on projects that you find challenging is a great way to show initiative and to make the daily grind more interesting.  Just remember that the entry level position is there for a reason. Instead of lamenting your situation and searching in vain for a company that’s looking to hire a twenty-two year-old general manager (hint: they don’t exist), focus on learning everything you can, networking like mad, and practicing the behaviors that make other people in the office successful. You’ll get there soon enough, I promise.

Premature Escalation

This week, I was finishing up a project at the agency where I work part time. My colleague and I have been working closely with another internal team on this initiative since May, and fortunately, things have gone relatively smoothly. As the vice president overseeing the project, I always try to be responsive to the internal team’s needs, knowing that they represent the best interests of the client. My colleague and I talk to members of this team at least every other day, and sometimes multiple times in one day. They have my cell phone number.  If I’m not in the office, they know where to find me.

Just after we launched the initiative this week, the vice president on the other internal team discovered that something was wrong.  Normally, he or someone on his team would have called my colleague or me on our cell phones. Instead, he called my boss.

It’s my role on projects like this to provide my boss with information on a “need to know” basis. He was unprepared for a call like this and caught off guard, and understandably reacted with a bit of panic. I’m fortunate that I didn’t get in trouble, because my boss trusts me and isn’t quick to place blame or come down hard on me just because someone expresses displeasure.

I hate corporate hierarchies as much as the next person, but it just burns me when someone I’ve been working with blatantly goes over my head. I was always taught that this was a big no-no, and yet I’m seeing it happen more and more. My colleague calls the phenomena “premature escalation” – referring to the fact that those who use it don’t even give the rightful people they’re working with a chance to respond appropriately.

In my opinion, you should reserve going to someone’s boss for cases in which that someone is not giving you what you need, and has been forewarned. Even then, you should be careful.  Behavior like this is not going to endear you to your co-workers, so you should make sure it’s necessary and that you have no other choice.

3 Signs of a Miserable Job

This week, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen over at the Time: Work in Progress blog talked to Pat Lencioni, author of the new book Three Signs of a Miserable Job. Here are the goods:

• The first is anonymity, which is the feeling that employees get when they realize that their manager has little interest in them a human being and that they know little about their lives, their aspirations and their interests.
• The second sign is irrelevance, which takes root when employees cannot see how their job makes a difference in the lives of others. Every employee needs to know that the work they do impacts someone’s life – a customer, a co-worker, even a supervisor – in one way or another.
• The third sign is something called immeasurement, which is the inability of employees to assess for themselves their contribution or success. Employees ho have no means of measuring how well they are doing on a given day or in a given week, must rely on the subjective opinions of others, usually their managers, to gauge their progress or contribution.

According to Lencioni, managers can improve employee satisfaction by taking a genuine interest in their people, reminding them of the impact that their work has on others, and helping them establish creative ways to measure and assess their performance. As a manager myself, I’ve also noted that it’s very effective to have career development meetings with reports once a quarter. You can use these meetings as a forum to do all of the above, and also set concrete goals for advancement that are continually re-visited (i.e. not just at the annual performance review). After all, it’s been shown in study after study that employees who have a strong, trusting relationship with their supervisor and believe they are progressing in their career are happier and more likely to stay with an organization over the long-term.

Weighing Two Offers: What Would YOU Do?

One of my friends, Mike, who has been on the job market a while, faced a tough dilemma this week. He received two fairly attractive offers in the same geographic location and had to decide on one of them within a few days. Mike got Job Offer #1, which would have a really steep learning curve, on the strength of his resume, which did a great job highlighting his tangible contributions to this previous employers and clients. Job Offer #1 paid $10K more in salary.  Job Offer #2, on the other hand, was generally a better fit for Mike’s existing experience. Though it paid a little less, he knew he could show up on the first day and be confident that he wouldn’t choke.

The situation highlighted for me why these types of decisions are so personal.  You see, Mike works at a corporate job for a paycheck that will support his lifestyle of eating out, traveling, and going to concerts. He does not derive his life satisfaction from his job, and that doesn’t bother him.  But Mike doesn’t like to be stressed out either.  He’s a mild-mannered guy, and over-achievement isn’t really his thing.  It was for these reasons that I thought he would take Job Offer #2, which was less challenging and where he wouldn’t have to work as hard.

But Mike’s also a risk-taker, and, not overly concerned that the new job might be too much for him, he took Job Offer #1.  I think in the end, it was the money that swayed him.

Mike and I pretty much have opposite personalities.  I would be tempted to take Job Offer #1 precisely because of the opportunities for growth it offered, but I would be worried about screwing up and making a poor impression, so I would probably go with the safer option. What would YOU do?

Career Changers Are Everywhere!

I’m really interested in the topic of career change, so I was intrigued by this new study by Career Builder and Harris Interactive, which showed that fully one-third of employed workers are seeking a change.

According to the survey, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of U.S. workers report they have changed careers at least once. More than a third (35 percent) say they are currently interested in making a career change.

When it comes to what is most important to workers in respect to their jobs, 22 percent say it's the opportunity to make a difference and 19 percent say it's contributing to the success of the organization. Others say they're most motivated by benefits (10 percent), having fun (6 percent) and getting ahead into a senior position (5 percent). Less than a third (31 percent) say taking home a paycheck is most important.

Retail sales (52 percent) and hospitality (52 percent) workers rank among those who expressed higher interest in a career change. Forty-one percent of IT workers and 36 percent of banking/finance workers are also interested in a change. Educators (25 percent), government employees (25 percent) and healthcare workers (29 percent) are the least likely to want to change careers. In terms of geography, workers in the Midwest (41 percent) and South (38 percent) are the most likely to want to change careers, while workers in the West (35 percent) and Northeast (33 percent) are the least likely.

As far as the careers that are most appealing to potential career changers, only one-in-ten want a career in the lime light -- citing entertainment, art, sports, media or journalism(i) as their career of choice. Over a quarter are interested in positions in healthcare/medicine(ii), 20 percent in business and accounting(iii), 16 percent would choose technology careers(iv) and 12 percent human resources(v).

What is holding back workers who are not interested in a career change? More than a third (35 percent) do not want to start over in an entry level position, while 39 percent are comfortable where they are and view change as scary. More than one-in-five (22 percent) cite financial concerns and 16 percent say they would need to obtain additional education.

Stay tuned for next week's post, where we’ll highlight some steps you can take to make your career change a reality.

How to Respond to Racism at Work

Penelope Trunk has an interesting post on responding to racist comments in a work situation, and she links over to a brilliant entry on the very useful blog, Race in the Workplace. The author, Carmen Van Kerckhove, is a consultant for New Demographic, an anti-racism training company.

I loved Carmen’s tips on the best way to respond to a racist joke, because I’ve often found myself in this situation (usually with superiors) and have had no idea how to handle it. According to Carmen, the best response to a racist joke should accomplish three things:

• Communicate that you find this behavior unacceptable.
• Demonstrate that the joke is racist.
• Inflict as little damage as possible to your working relationship with the joker.

How, you ask?  The best strategy, says Carmen, is to play dumb. Put on a bewildered expression, act as if you don’t understand the joke, and ask your co-worker to explain it to you. He will not be able to explain why the joke is funny without evoking a racist stereotype. You can then question the veracity of this stereotype, thus pointing out the racism of the joke, without being confrontational and without humiliating your co-worker.

In the past, I’ve responded to racist jokes simply by not laughing.  But Carmen says this is not effective, because while withholding your laughter is a way to avoid personally colluding in this kind of racist behavior without damaging your relationship with the joker, you do not necessarily make it clear that you find this kind of humor unacceptable and that the joke is racist.

I hope I DON’T have to try this strategy anytime soon, but I probably will, and I’ll be grateful for Carmen’s advice!

"Desk Rage" from "Work Weirdos"

Patricia Kitchen at Newsday writes about a new phenomenon known as “desk rage.”  Rising stress can lead to nervous tics and habits, often with the offender unaware, says Zachary Meyer, senior vice president with Ceridian LifeWorks, a Minneapolis-based employee assistance program provider.

At a conference three weeks ago in Florida, his company asked 3,000 clients to share some of what they've seen as stress-induced behaviors. Their findings included loud and frequent pen clicking, serial gum snapping, making sniffing and snorting sounds, loud keyboard tapping, yelling out the time every hour as a deadline approaches. People's stress and worries spill into the work world, says Meyer, who admits that under pressure he's become a "keyboard assaultist."

Such behaviors may be annoying or even infuriating to employees trying to focus on the job at hand, but what does Kitchen say you should do about it? John Putzier, a human resources consultant and author of Weirdos in the Workplace, says that before lodging a complaint, it's wise to do a litmus test to determine if the behavior is just a little eccentric -- or if it actually impedes work. The latter could include a whole row of people being distracted, even becoming nauseated, when a neighbor brings out a stinky lunch.

If the offense is at the less embarrassing end of the scale, you can, in a good humored way, let the person know that you're finding it hard to concentrate. If it's at the other of the scale, however, Putzier suggests you take the issue to the boss, who might kick it over to human resources. You may even be tempted to leave an anonymous note, but Meyer warns against that. "That creates another kind of stress called paranoia," he says.

Do you experience “desk rage” or other visible signs of stress? Pay attention to what you’re doing.  Others obviously are!

It Seems the Theme This Week is Respect

I recently wrote a few career advice articles for Yahoo!, and on Friday one of them was on the home page.

I’ve talked a bit with my colleague Penelope Trunk about the joys and perils of writing for Yahoo!, and the “spirited” conversations that take place as a result. Penelope writes a great Yahoo! Finance column on careers, and from the beginning has been getting down right slammed, sometimes quite unfairly, in her readers’ comments.

On Friday, I experienced this first hand. I wrote about how to proactively cope with jerks at work based on my own experiences and the advice of experts. I stared at the article’s page in wonder as the comments poured in, topping 1500 by the end of the day.  Some readers wrote thoughtful and insightful criticism of my suggestions and the way I phrased things, and others appreciated and intended to use the guidance.  But many, in both their comments and personal e-mails to me, were terribly rude in the way they expressed their displeasure with the content. 

(The irony of an article about dealing with jerks in the office that gets lots of comments from jerks themselves was not lost on me, by the way.)

I’ve been blogging for over a year now, so in general I understand how this brave new world of citizen journalism goes.  Everyone has an opinion – sometimes informed, sometimes not.  I’ve picked up some incredible information from my blog’s readers, and I always value what they have to say. But I guess I never realized the extent to which writing in the mainstream media now means you’re constantly subjected to cheap shots from armcharm quarterbacks who think they know better. 

To those of you reading this, I’m probably preaching to the choir, but this bears repeating: in work and in life, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and try to see a little of their perspective, before assuming that they’re just wrong and don’t deserve to be heard.  In particular, people who put their opinions out there for everyone to hear (public figures, the media, etc.) should get a little respect. If you don’t agree, that’s cool, but it can never hurt to be civil and diplomatic in how you express it. Doing the opposite, however, only makes you look bad and may very well burn a bridge with someone you may end up interacting with in the future.

5 Ways to Get Respect, Despite Your Youth

One of my favorite new blogs is Employee Evolution (check out my recent guest post over there!), and this week, contributor Chuck Westbrook (who has just started his own blog, I Hate Your Job) has a great post on ways to get respect quickly despite your youth. 

Those of us who have spent time in the business world in our twenties understand that this is a major hurdle. After all, you don’t have the authority to insist that people treat you well, and you’re frequently looked down upon because of your lack of experience. Here are some suggestions from Chuck:

• Be a student of everyone:  Asking questions and taking advice isn’t a sign of weakness, and it won’t emphasize your youth either. You’ll get better faster, impress more people, and actually seem older. Seeking ways to improve is a sign of maturity and is the easiest way to gain the skills and knowledge that make you more effective.

• Write well: Develop your written communication to the highest level, both in your daily e-mails and in deliverables for which you are responsible. This includes correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation. Today, many first impressions are made through e-mail. If you present well there, you will be developing your personal brand, and when people are surprised at how young you are compared to what they expected, you will know that you’ve already busted some of their misconceptions about your generation.

• Demonstrate leadership: Help other employees to be more effective. For example, since you are a regular blog-reader, you probably are ahead of the curve when it comes to getting things done with computers. Be generous in helping others format documents, create spreadsheets, or find information on the web.

• Work smarter: Create templates for common tasks and send them out to others who could use them. Employ solid time-management to get more done in less time. When push comes to shove, intelligent managers will determine how to treat you based on performance alone. If you are the top producer in the department, you will usually be respected and rewarded.

• Show up: Take advantage of opportunities to interact with upper-management. If it’s a small company, say yes when you are invited out to drinks or dinner. If it’s a larger organization, reach as high as is practical. Participate in forums, Q&As, and special project groups, and don’t be shy about introducing yourself at the proper moment.

Great advice, Chuck!

Beware of Misplaced Frustration

This week I was in San Francisco, and while I was there I took my grandmother to a hair salon that had just opened in her town.  We’d made an appointment for 10:30, and we waited and waited until 10:45 and then 11:00 had come and gone.  There was only one stylist working, and he had spent over an hour fussing over this extremely high-maintenance woman’s updo.  As my grandmother and I watched the scene, we couldn’t believe how sweetly the stylist was still behaving to this woman, who’d made him take out her decorative comb and put it back in five times!

When the woman was finally satisfied, the stylist charged her a paltry $45.  When he called the next customer, a guy who’d had an appointment before us, I asked him if another stylist would be coming in.  My grandmother and I had already waited 45 minutes beyond our appointment and only had time to stay an additional half hour or so.

I probably sounded a bit annoyed, and I was.  After all, this place was already failing at a basic tenet of salon operation – having enough professionals to service the day’s clientele.  But this guy bit my head off and snapped that if I was going to be rude and uncooperative, I could just leave.  Obviously still upset from his encounter with the updo-from-hell, the stylist took his frustration out on me.  My grandmother and I walked out, never to return.  This is too bad for the salon, because my grandmother gets her hair done every month.

How many times have we seen this happen in the workplace?  A manager gets berated by an executive for something beyond his control, and then turns around and unleashes on an employee who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Anger and frustration aren’t emotions that appreciate being bottled up.  They enjoy an audience, and when it’s impossible to demonstrate them in front of the rightful target, they’ll simply move on to someone safer. 

We all feel negative emotions on the job, but it’s up to us to find constructive ways to cope with them, whether that’s sitting down with a problem colleague and proactively addressing a conflict, or assertively responding to an unfair situation.  It’s the only way to ensure that the cycle of unpleasantness stops with you.