There are few employees who wake up in the morning with the thought “I can’t wait to get to work and make everyone miserable!” Whether this it true or not, I believe it to be true, and believing that makes my life A LOT easier.  Sure, there are those people that always cc your boss and maybe another employee to cover their butt but if you talk to them they will usually tell you “that is how you get things done.”  They don’t see another way.  I wonder if they realize how much damage their actions do, or maybe they just don’t care.

The good employees worry they will be fired, the bad employees are always surprised when they are.

If you ask most people I bet they will tell you that they are good at their job.  Or at the very least they have a litany of excuses as to why not.  Yet we all know people who are “bad” employees.  OK, maybe “bad” it too harsh.  But I know I have been a bad employee before, I just didn’t realize it at the time.

Be a little early

I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to people about being late.  Unfortunately some companies have rules that are quite inflexible while others are more apt to treat you like an adult.  Either way, if you know the rules, follow them.  Actually, do a little more than the minimum.

You don’t even really necessarily need to be at work all that early.  Just start your day earlier.  Being a little early allows you to do several things:

• Plan your day:  Tim Ferriss and many others start their day journaling and setting daily / weekly goals.  If you fail to plan then I guarantee you won’t succeed!
• Ease into your day:  I don’t think anyone likes coming into work only to be hit in the face with emails that piled up overnight.  If you are able to, I advise checking email briefly before bed and/or when you wake up.  That way you know what you are in for that day.  It is also not a bad idea to reply to the urgent ones with something like “Thank you for the email, when do you need the information?  Would by noon tomorrow work?”
• Review deadlines:  One thing that backs up a lot of people is not having or not updating time-frames.  A to-do list is one thing, a to-do list with deadlines is on another level.

Be conscious of your brand

There is a lot of talk about branding these days.  Companies have a brand that they promote and so should you.  To me your brand is what people think of when they think of you.  Your brand should emote feelings and adjectives.  When people think of you does it bring a smile to their face or a frown?  What word would others use to describe you?  These all speak to your brand.

Your brand needs to be authentic.  If you are very casual then you probably don’t want to dress at the top end of the dress code every day but that doesn’t mean you have to dress at the bottom either.  A bow tie (hand-tied, clip-ons are for cops and kids) can set you apart from the crowd.  An ascot or a bolo tie… it would be much tougher to pull those off and it could be seen as disingenuous.

Help others

I know this may shock some people but this is generally seen as a good thing to do in life.  No really, it is.  Many people see helping others as a sign of weakness.  It is actually a sign of strength.  But there are limits.  If you help others while neglecting your own work it will not work out well for you.  Even something as little as holding doors for others will help set you apart.  How about picking up trash you see in the office?  Unless you work in a Union environment, helping others will go a long way.

You can also be a resource for others.  This can be as simple as telling people about a good quote you heard or as focused as setting up a Google Alert.  Let’s say you want to move up in the marketing department.  Maybe set a Google Alert for “Social Media Marketing” and/or other related terms.  Then you can receive daily or weekly news straight to your inbox.  That is an easy way to stay on top of trends.

Learn to say no tactfully

I am trying to do what Derek Sivers suggests… it is either “HELL YES!” or it should be no.  True, there are many times that saying no is not an option but you need take control of your to-do list.  Now that you have a deadline for everything, when one of your bosses comes to you and asks you to re-design the cover sheet for the TPS Report you can say “sounds good, where would you like me to put it in my to-do list?”  Then you can walk them through your task list in order of importance.

Be a life long learner

Whether your “thing” is podcasts, books, movies, TV or radio be sure you are taking in some things that actually help you.  Don’t like learning new information?  Learn to like it.  You may first need to do some habit/task bundling.  That is where you “bundle” one thing you need to do with something you like to do.  Or come up with a reward program for yourself.  Maybe you only get one hour of your favorite show after listening to one hour of a professional development audio book.

Life is not as difficult as some make it out to be.
Al Pollard

There are a lot top 10 lists out there so I thought I would add one to the multitude:

Top 10 list on how to be a bad co-worker

You know, those people that want to do their jobs poorly.  Please note the pervasive sarcasm in this post.  Yes, that person that wakes up every morning looking forward to doing a bad job at work.  You probably have or have had a coworker or two who you think wakes up and asks themselves “how can I make my coworkers and boss miserable today?”  You might even think that HR and hiring managers like this type of person because they keep hiring more of them.  Or maybe, you are tired of having people want to work with you.  It gets old winning awards and knowing that you are doing a good job… it’s time for a change!  You want to join the ranks of the ne’er-do-wells.  This post is for you.

1. Show up late… to everything.  This shows EVERYONE that you value your time more than theirs.  Way to go.  There might not be an “I” in team but there is a “ME.”

2. Gossip… A LOT!  You know people LOVE bad news, so why not spread some.  Or even better yet, create your own.  You saw your boss go into a meeting with the CEO… that MUST mean layoffs are around the corner, you better start telling people.

3. Don’t clean your dishes in the break room.   Don’t they have cleaning people for that?  I mean seriously.  If you cleaned up after yourself you would be taking work away from someone else.

4. Take personal calls at work and speak LOUDLY.  Everyone else is so focused on work they won’t even notice when you talk about how your family puts the fun in dysfunctional.

5. Don’t do what you tell people you will do.  The Bible even tells us that if you put your faith in anyone but God you will be disappointed.  So why not allow them to learn that lesson through you?

6. Deadlines are for suckers.  You can’t rush creativity and most deadlines are artificial anyway.  If they were real there would be consequences for missing them.

7. Don’t eat breakfast until you get to work.  Your employer knows you don’t work well when you are hungry so it is a good idea to clock in at work before you start making your breakfast.

8. What dress code?  Even if you know the dress code, they don’t really expect people to adhere to it.  Your coworkers understand and maybe even enjoy seeing your underwear, bra, belly or any other item or part of your body some people consider “personal.”

9. Wear a lot of perfume or cologne.  Better yet, wear a lot of Patchouli Oil.  Everyone enjoys the same scents you do and if not… well, they just need to get over it.

10. Do what you want, when you want, where you want.  You have your rights, don’t let people take them from you.

11. Don’t follow directions.  If someone asks you to do a top 10 list do 11 or 12 if you want.  They will appreciate that you think “outside the box.”  All those haters need a “paradigm shift” to see things the right way… your way.

12. Personal hygiene.   Bathing is optional and bad for the natural oils you produce.  Just use more patchouli oil.  Fingernails and toenails?  If you decide to clip them why do it in the privacy of your own home?  Clip them at work in the break room or in your cube.

Feel free to add the ways YOU can be a bad employee in the comments.  These people need all the help they can get.

The employee who steadily smiles and peak performs while having to work with a difficult and sometimes toxic coworker, proves that he/she is in control of their happiness and peace of mind.
Ty Howard

My boss and I were talking about possible topics for a Lunch and Learn program we are starting this year.  He brought up a topic that I have a passion about… Many people do not know what it takes to be a good employee AND it is OK to be good, you don’t have to be the best.

What’s next?

It seems we are all looking at what is next.  Some interviewers even ask about this.  Where do you want to be in five years?  What are you goals?  I don’t think goals are bad but many times they are not where we NEED to be, there are where we THINK we WANT to be.  Many times goals are are like that person you always wanted to go out with.  Only, once you are engaged, you realize that they are a self-absorbed muggle.

What if we stopped looking at CONTENTMENT as a bad word?  Sure, if we were all content the economy would come to a screetching halt but I am not worried about that.  There are enough of the self-absorbed Jones-chasing people out there to keep up demand.  I know because I use to be one.  Even now I struggle to not be one.

I want to be good at my job, enjoy what I do, the people I work with and  I want to be paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work.

Most people would scoff at those statements.  All the books and self-help stuff tells you to be the best.  You need to climb the ladder and move up.  You need to fight THE MAN till you become the man.  But to what end?  Most of this is just chasing after the wind.  You move up to make more but with that usually comes more responsibility and more stress.  Do you really want to be the person that realizes later on that you missed your kid’s childhood?

Let me be the first person to tell you that good is good enough.  I am not saying that you shouldn’t grow and want to get better but you don’t always need to be looking to move up.  There is a great peace that comes with contentment.  I want to be content with what I have but ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come my way.  I am always looking for better ways to do things but not to beat others and not for the financial rewards.

Who doesn’t want to make a little (or a lot) more money?   But in the words of Ferris Bueller “I said it before and I’ll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  No matter what you think happens after this life, you only get one shot at this one and you don’t want to miss it.

The question isn’t what are we going to do. The question is what aren’t we going to do.
Ferris Bueller

Tim Ferriss @tferriss brought up a great point in his podcast… Why is it, that all this professional development stuff adds to our to-do list but rarely takes things away?  We need to start a NOT to do list!

Time-Sucks

Start by listing out all the things you do… from the time you wake up till you go to sleep.  Next try to figure out what is productive (brings life) and what is NOT productive (brings death.)  How about all that TV you watch?  What about the hour(s) you spend on social media?  Are those REALLY bringing you life?  Do they have a positive impact on you and those around you?

Hell  Yes

Remember that one way to cut back on your to-dos is to only say yes to things where it is a “HELL-yes!”  If it is not hell yes, then it should probably be no.  I understand that this runs counter to “Year of Yes” but if you are already stretched thin or there is more you need to get done (a job search) then it is not time for a year of yes… yet.

Goodbye

It might be time to say goodbye to some of the energy vampires in your life.  Don’t get me wrong.  We are all called to minister to people but not to ALL people all the time.  Sometimes you will need to start moving away from people.  If you decide to do this there are two main approaches.

1. Tell them.  I don’t mean that you need to tell them “how it is.”  You can be honest with them without being mean and hurtful.  But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt them, or you.
2. Stop being around them.  This may mean that you need to stop going to some groups you are a part of.  Or maybe you need to change to the early church service.  Who knows what awaits you when you get out of your comfort zone!

So start making your list and start checking them off!

The More you love what you are doing, the more successful it will be for your.
Jerry Gillies

If you are like me there is not enough time in the day to get it all done. I have often times said “if there were 36 hour days and 9 day weeks I could get it all done AND have 3 day weekends!”  But I recently realized that the problem is with me, not the clock or the calendar.  Let me explain.

This goes back to one of my favorite quick reads for teams from over a decade ago: “The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey.”  This is a favorite of mine for a few reasons.  The first of which is that “monkey” is the funniest word in the English language.  My boss in Seattle shared this fact with me.  He then proceeded to explain the extensive research he and some other VPs at the company had done to come to this conclusion.  Needless to say this “research” was done in Las Vegas, but I admit it is hard to say “monkey” without at least a little  smirk.  Back to the content of the book.  It explains how tasks, projects and to-do’s are monkeys that end up on someone’s back.  It turns out that some of us are habitual monkey pickeruppers.  We might also be known as people pleasers, multi-taskers or go-getters.

It is either HELL YES or it is no.

Guess what? If you are always busy then you don’t have time to do the things you REALLY want to do when they come along.  At 57minutes into his interview, Derek Sivers tells Tim Ferriss his views on being busy including how he decides what to say yes to. Caution to those of you with sensitive ears, there is some big boy language in the podcast. Derek boils it down to that one statement, if you have an opportunity and you don’t think to yourself “Hell Yes!” then you should say no.  We need to get busy deciding what we WANT to do or what we GET to do rather than what we HAVE to do.

Telling someone you are too busy means that you do not have control of your life and you have unclear priorities. But I get it.  If you are like me you are working for The Man.  You nor I get to decide what we do at work or when we do it.  Or do we?  If you are like me, work is not an 8am to 5pm work day with a nice little lunch break in the middle.  I have a choice.

If the problem is not me then I cannot fix it.

I say this to myself a lot and if you follow me you read it a lot. I write it and say it a lot because it is TRUE.  You are busy because of you, NOT because of others.  How about the friends who want to go to lunch each day?  Could you maybe get involved in that cool leadership project if you ate a quick PB&J at your desk and spent that hour researching leadership development programs?   Or maybe you get to work at 8am because you sleep till 6am due to the fact that you were binge-watching Arrow or you just had to see THAT game?  If you had gotten up at 5am you would have made it to work at 6:45 (your commute is a lot shorter without traffic) you would have time to watch some of those Lynda courses your mentor recommended.  We all have choices.

So, the next time you have an “opportunity” to do something or to pick up another monkey ask yourself… are you thinking HELL YES! or should it be a no?

Busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to.
Rob Bell