Ask Lemmy

Always cover your ass. Take notes of everything, send emails out with important details of who was supposed to do what. It'll help you avoid trouble when something goes wrong and fingers start being pointed.

If you're aloof in the office and your campus has several buildings to work at, you can work remote without anyone ever noticing.

Reward for being even slightly competent and having work ethic is more work. To the point where you are doing everything until you break.

If you do something that needed to be done out of curtesy it'll become your responsibility.

If you want to find someone who understand something about the corporation, look at the basement.

There are acceptable ways to say "I don't know," especially when there's someone else you can refer to. If I had a nickel for every time I said "that's something you have to ask the billing department," it'd match my take home pay

Learn to code switch if you intend to become any sort of leader. Different folks need different strokes to get them to where you need them to be, and learning how coworkers process information can put you in a better position to communicate with them.

Also helps bridge the gap between coworkers who may be talking past each other because they process information differently.

This works going up the chain too. Get to know your management and how they process information as well. Tailoring your reports/slidework to their needs will go a long way in getting them on your side.

It doesn't matter how powerful or pertinent the information is if it's in a undigestable format. I've seen game changing information be scoffed and useless information praised wholly based on how it was displayed. Looking at you, MBAs....

In summation, know your audience. Turns out what they teach you in literary classes is actually useful.

Don't turn the work computers connected to the giant LCD screens outside in public on. They could display something not meant to be seen in public. That's how I learned a co-worker looks at porn on his work computer. Co-worker chewed me out. He brought up the porn. I never went from angry/embarrassed to cracking up in my head so fast.

Know the rulebook backwards and forward.

Because when you break a rule you can show that you tried to do it by the book, and it didn't work.

Keeping things consistent for groups requires regular training and reiterating what is being done.

The world seems to be led by idiots at every level. Top to bottom. That's not an observation just to bitch; it's meant to let you know that you can aim higher. If your boss is a fucking idiot, if the head of your organization is a fucking idiot, then that should show you how far someone with a brain in their head must be able to go, too. Don't feel defeated and relegated to nothing roles. Be inspired by how apparently easy it is for fucking idiots to do seemingly important or well-paying jobs, and then start thinking about whether you can show them up.

Also, you never realize how important project management is until you work in an environment where no one gives two shits about it. It turns out that writing things down, planning, documenting, agendas, follow-up, attending meetings you said you would attend, being able to back up the things you say, are all very fucking important. It turns out that being an incompetent piece of shit and con artist can get you very, very far, but gradually, people start to realize they've been had; one only hopes that the department or organization are still in one piece by the time and that they have the authority to get rid of you.

This goes for just about anything in life:

“First seek to understand, then to be understood.”

Never try and improve things, specifically things having to do with how your job, group, division, it whatever works. Don't try and improve efficiency, optimize workflow, or anything like that. Just do what you're paid to and nothing more. If the company wants things to be more efficient then they can have your boss figure it out on their own. If they don't punish you for trying them they won't reward you for success, so don't bother. Going above and beyond never works out.

That nobody at work is your friend even if they say so. Got burned pretty bad but now I know.

1. When to SHUT THE FUCK UP…

2. The reward for working hard and doing great work is cleaning up other people’s fuck ups and ineptitude.

3. What people think of you is the bell curve.

• 10% think you’re great.
• 10% think you suck.
• 80% don’t think about you at all.

4. High speed excellent employees are just as much work as the worthless ones, but focus on the high speed and excellent ones.

Bullies go unpunished by corporate unless it's overtly sexual or racist in nature. If you stick your neck out to defend someone getting bullied the company and the victim will leave you hanging in the future when the unpunished bully turns on you next. HR are soulless husks.

Bad things you can change are problems. Bad things you can't change are circumstances. Solve the former, work around or adapt to the latter.

We had big layoffs last year. The order of layoffs was troublemakers that couldn't be fired for other reasons > attendance > performance > how recent you were hired.

Re: lesson two

Long time ago, one of my teachers showed the class the data from a survey of managers. It asked them to prioritize a list of things that could lead to a firing. Number one was punctuality/attendance. Number four was theft. This suggested to him that you could be stealing from the company, but if you showed up every day on time you'd be less likely to be fired than if you were always MIA but not a thief. Years in the workplace has only served to confirm this for me.

People are very bad at asking questions.

Some people will take dumb actions that risk their own lives rather than do something which would require a mild explanation later.

Experience and ability are not completely correlated.

Don't give up a stronger position for a weaker one in hopes of avoiding a conflict. You've only undermined yourself when the conflict happens anyway.

I'm an apartment building superintendent. I once confronted a late night trespasser: a junkie looking for a place to shoot up or snort or whatever his thing was. I demanded that he leave, but realized that I was physically blocking the only exit. He was cornered. So I moved out of the way and suddenly I was the one who was cornered. It all worked out in the end, but for a minute there I was facing a large, angry, paranoid junkie with a knife and no way to escape.

I don't know what would have happened if I didn't move to give him an exit, but I know that in doing so I gave up my own exit, and that was dumb.

If you don't show up, you get fired.

When you're 19, this is a valuable lesson.