If you’re anything like callers I’ve heard from lately, you’re making too many mistakes when you’re sitting behind that computer, churning out emails. They’re going to unintended places.
Here are a few examples of how certain folks are slipping up and finding themselves in a serious fix:
“I was sitting in a big meeting, no one’s listening to the speaker, half the group is asleep and the other half is checking email and I’m online checking out things I probably shouldn’t be checking out. Anyhow, my cell rings and I slip out so I can talk and I immediately hear the whole place break up. Turns out the guy sitting behind me made the bogus call to get me out of the meeting so he could show everyone what I was looking at on my computer. I’ll probably lose my job over it.”
“I was online with some work friends, venting about the latest idiotic thing my boss had done, and one of them copied my boss on the whole thread.”
“My employee is interviewing with another company. I know because he just copied me on the email exchange he’s having with them.”
Whatever causes these online lapses…boredom, fatigue, multi-tasking, naiveté, bad taste …the effects are going to hurt more than you. If you need to vent about the indignities you suffer at work, don’t do it at work and don’t do it online. If you’re interviewing, or networking, or conducting business that’s not part of your job description, take it off site and off the clock.
You think that’s harsh? Getting terminated is harsh. Not finding work is harsh.
If you’re miserable where you work and feel trapped in a job you don’t like because this interminable economic slump can’t sit up straight, you’ll need to do something about it that’s productive instead of self destructive.
Consider the following:
If you don’t think you make a difference, do something that does make a difference. And if you think you don’t count, let someone know that they count. If you think you’re invisible, and your hard work isn’t recognized and your loyalty is taken for granted, you’re probably right. So increase your visibility. Make a record of your accomplishments and update it weekly. That way you have it when you need it. If you don’t, you’ll forget, and no one else is going to remember it for you.
Sit down with your boss, and rather than go over that checklist of all you’ve done, talk about what you’re doing that’s making a difference for the company going forward. Then ask about projects that have potential and describe the part you’d like to play in making them happen.
Look for ways to be part of the solution, part of the future, part of a team that is focused on success. Take charge of your life.
There will be better days and better times. Do your part to make them happen.
