This
guide is for you if..
..you’re
stuck in a job you don’t like for reasons you cannot comprehend. Morning after
morning, the shuttle is taken to work, breakfast had, coffee gulped down,
desktop switched on and chair adjusted. Some emails to look forward to, tickets
to be resolved, a meeting, perhaps a status call. You constantly dream of
spending a day outside your work place..just one day, and fondly remember the
last time you called in sick to pursue activities more meaningful than
fire-fighting over emails. This yearning slowly translates to a desire to
pursue something else for a living. You’re not ready to quit your job
yet—clarity takes time you see—and there’s that service contract as well.
Things need to be sorted and priorities need to be assigned without
compromising on current career prospects and this guide has been developed to
help you maintain a comfortable status quo. Hence the name ‘Survival Guide’ as
opposed to ‘Learn to Love Your Work Guide’ or ‘Get You On-Site Guide’, which
must also drop a hint or two on what to expect as takeaway.
Steps
for Survival
Arrive at
work as usual, earlier if you can. But make no mistake of physically turning up
at your workplace earlier than your boss: befriend technology. If your
team starts coming in at 11 am, the first mail you send out better be at 10:20
am, just before you go to brush. Arrive at your desk a little after 11 am, sans
bag, pretending to be fresh from a coffee break. It helps a great deal if you
start going to work empty handed. In fact, a friend of mine used to place a
dummy bag on his desk and quietly sneak in and out of tech park premises at
will. But then he also lived within 90 seconds walking distance of said tech
park premises so you may choose to weigh various options before taking a call.
Now, the
tricky part: work. You do not like it, do not want to do it but see no way out
of it. The challenge here is to do minimal work yet make your team (more
importantly, manager) not notice the lack of balance in the universe. If you’ve
been around long enough, you may use the services of an enthusiastic protégé
and get some work done on pretext of ‘mentoring’. When such enthusiasm is
unavailable in resources around (tch tch), careful delegation and seeking help
is the way forward. However, stay around to observe and contribute to important
developments that involve your work. Be alert in sending mails (never delegate
this activity), scheduling calls and meetings, conveniently keeping your
presence virtual. Volunteer to take up chhota-mota initiatives that may ‘add value
to deliverables’: this is a fairly certain way of acquiring those brownie
points during appraisal. Note that all of the above must be performed in a
clever manner else you’ll end up doing more work than usual which is out of the
scope of this guide.
General
workplace behaviour must also be altered while you take your time to measure
priorities. Adopt the ways of an enthu cutlet. Contribute to team
building activities and general work atmosphere..basically anything that can
‘make your presence felt’. About once a week, stay back late, even if you’re
doing nothing in particular because face-time is desirable. Use this time to
talk to people around you and place building relationships over the highly-abused,
flinch-inducing term ‘networking’. Hear their stories, share yours, try and
collaborate and for all you know, your work may just start generating appeal.
And
finally
How you
spend your time during this status quo maintenance is up to you. Most people
seek alternate employment, prepare for competitive exams or browse matrimonial
sites (notice the avoidance of mentioning gender here). I used it to figure out
the general direction in which my career could head, gathered information,
worked towards some short and mid-term goals and finally ended up in a happier
place. And if this post has got you thinking even a little, things are probably
not going well for you and I do hope you take a leap in the direction you
desire and sort things soon.
Disclaimer
This
guide is based more on observation than experience. Potential employers may
kindly not use it to judge my professional ways or brand me as trouble.
