Tips For Thriving At Work

Posted on May 6, 2008 - Filed Under Business |

Job satisfaction is essential for any employee especially as we spend more time at work than we do with our families. This article seeks to provide some simple tips to enable you to thrive at work.

1. Work Hard

Throw yourself into your work, don’t drag out breaks and be willing to do some overtime to show your commitment to the organisation. Employers often like staff to lead by example so being the first person in the workplace each day is also a good start.

Tip: don’t confuse working hard with being a workaholic. Remember family or social life are equally important. It’s possible to work hard within the confines of normal contracted hours and still be more productive than those who are constantly doing overtime.

2. Be Trustworthy

This is a major issue for an employer. I once heard a story of a senior bank official who whilst in the staff canteen buying lunch, stole a small tub of butter to go with his bread roll, believing no one was looking. The Chief executive of the bank saw him do it and fired him on the spot. The Senior bank official said “It’s only a tub of butter” to which the CEO replied “If you can steal a tub of butter, you can steal anything.”

If you are known for your trustworthiness then other staff members and colleagues will respect you, making your job easier and leading to increasing levels of job satisfaction.

3. Get to know your boss outside of work

Sometimes your hard work can still go unnoticed, particularly in busy professions and workplaces where it is taken for granted that you will work late. Find out what interests your boss has and engage them in conversation on that subject. At some point you may get the opportunity to take them out to indulge that interest such as a trip to the theatre, football game, baseball match or round of golf. Getting to know your boss will often improve your working relationship with them and lead to you getting the most fulfilling projects or tasks to work on, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction.

4. Improve your skills base.

Skilled staff are more often that not content staff, so take every opportunity to develop your knowledge and experience.

Book yourself on as many internal training courses as you can manage, without it detracting from your day to day work. Alternatively consider taking an external course or qualification of direct relevance to your job. Not only does this benefit both you and the organisation but your employer will be impressed by your commitment and more likely to offer you interesting assignments or tasks.

5. Be Organised

Employers often appreciate staff who they see as organised, disciplined and efficient. Make sure you take every opportunity to demonstrate how good you are at planning and executing your various job responsibilities.

Tip: If this is not a strong point consider going on organisational or time management training courses.

Keep to do lists and record details of tasks that need following up so that you can demonstrate what you have done if required.

6. Be passionate about your job

Being passionate about what you do for a living is contagious and others will naturally look to you, even informally, for leadership and direction, even if they wouldn’t admit it. This can be a very fulfilling experience known that people respect you and actively seek you out because you are fun to be with. This will not go unnoticed by your employer.

7. Be open to criticism

Successful employees are often defined by how they have learnt from previous mistakes and this requires an ability to respond positively to criticism. This requires a willingness to learn from mistakes and getting defensive over a problem because you don’t want to admit you made a mistake will not endear you to management or colleagues.

8. Treat colleagues with respect.

Don’t be condescending, rude or abrupt with colleagues as this will not endear you to them. If you really want to thrive at work both in relation to being successful and creating a good working environment that treat colleagues with respect and dignity.

9. Get involved in social events

Getting involved in social events at work is important because it’s the main way to get to know your colleagues beyond a working relationship. Not joining in will often leave you feeling isolated and out of touch with your work peers and will not create a pleasant working environment.

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Tags: job satisfaction, thriving at work