As the new year dawns, promotions season kicks in. Companies who are evaluating and revamping their yearly goals are likely to move personnel around to fulfill new needs, thus opening up spots for promotions. If you’re just sitting in your cubicle watching everyone around you pack their things for the corner office, it’s clear that something’s wrong. Here are a few possible reasons that you haven’t gotten that promotion yet, and what you need to do to break the rut.
The number one thing to ask yourself is whether or not your boss knows you want a promotion. Although you may think it’s obvious that you don’t want to be sitting around in your tiny cubicle for the rest of your life, your boss will assume you’re happy where you are unless you tell him or her about your ambitions. Now is a good time to bring this up with your boss if you haven’t yet – with all the goal-setting going on, getting you on a management track is just one more thing to add to the mix.
If you have managerial ambitions, be sure to make them clear to your boss before you start telling your co-workers about them. If everyone but your boss knows that you’re applying for the new position that just opened up, it can make you seem overconfident. Your boss is the best resource you have when it comes to getting a promotion – make sure you take advantage or his or her suggestions and advice.
Finally, don’t try to start doing a managerial job before you’ve actually got it. You may think that you’re proving your leadership skills to the boss, but you’re really just disrupting the office dynamic and making life harder for yourself with all the extra work. Focus on doing great in the job you’ve got, and you won’t be overlooked the next time promotions season rolls around.
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You have noticed a change in the work sub-culture, and in fact it’s been going on for the last 15 years or so. How would you describe it, this change? Well, the big picture seems to shift drastically every couple of weeks or so. Any notion of a stable long-range plan no longer exists. People are rapidly pulled off assignments and given new things to do, creating a chaotic atmosphere that sometimes feels like a dizzying disaster. And it becomes harder and harder to explain to anyone what the company is about, what its mission and goals are, and where it will be in a year, let alone five.
As the season for performance reviews approaches, job advice sites are full of articles about how to make a positive impression. One of the most often mentioned tips is to quantify your achievements in dollar amounts so you can show how much you’ve earned the company. But let’s be honest, most of us just don’t have the time to keep careful track of everything we’ve been doing. How do you quantify yourself when your records are spotty at best? Here are a few tips to pull everything you’ve been doing together in time for performance reviews.
As the holiday season approaches, it’s not the annual office party that’s on everybody’s minds. For over three quarters of workers, a Harris poll shows that cash bonuses are preferable to anything else that they’re likely to be offered over the holidays. But did you know that your bonus is usually negotiable? With these tips, you can negotiate your way to a cash bonus that will make the holidays truly merry.
While things like sexual harassment and workplace violence typically get the most (and the most justifiable) validation as cause to submit a formal complaint to your company, things like a micromanaging boss, unfair demands on your time, or negative co-workers are also tempting causes to fill out a complaint form. Before you go straight to HR for concerns that aren’t of utmost importance, think about how you can try to rectify the situation without having to put it down in writing. Nobody wants to come off as the whiny one in an office environment, and overuse of the complaint box will quickly cement your status as just that. However, it’s also not a good idea to leave a bad office situation alone if it’s affecting your performance on the job. Here are some tips for getting your complaint across without having to resort to whining or negativity.
Gulp. You’re gleefully checking off people on your Christmas list left and right when you come down to the two people you can never find a good present for: your weird uncle Steve who only seems to be interested in fly fishing, and your boss. Whereas with your uncle you can always buy a gift card to REI and call it a day, finding the perfect gift for your boss demands a little more time and attention.
There is always a chain of command at work, a lineage of authority to which you belong as soon as you sign a contract and take your place in the workforce of a particular company or institution. The degree to which you thrive in your new work environment will depend in no small part on how well you fit in and make positive contributions to that chain. However, disrupt it, and you could be looking at a swift and not altogether happy send-off to another job or the unemployment line.
You more than like your job. Some even say you are crazy about it. You’ve been there for a couple of years, and you’re a trusted, dependable employee. But even you have begun to admit that you feel a little like you’ve gotten in a bit of a rut. Maybe you haven’t yet received the raise or promotion you thought should have come your way by now. Well, time to get more proactive.
So you got the promotion. Finally, your old boss is out and it’s you deciding how things should be done around the office. While you’re busy moving in to the corner office, you look at all the cubicle-dwellers around you and realize that they were your friends and co-workers until yesterday – and now your relationship with them has to change. Don’t worry – although you’re not going to be as in on the office grapevine as you were before, it’s possible to switch to the other side of management and still maintain the connections that you had with your former co-workers.
The truth is, you handle part-time jobs just as you handle full-time jobs—with commitment and enthusiasm, with a high level of energy and resolve.