Friday, November 9, 2012
Rules of Professional Behavior- Week 11
For the concept of Chapter 8, I dug my thoughts into Table 8.6 on page 222, "Some Rules for Professional Behavior". In the workforce, I constantly have to deal with new or regular employees that cannot and do not know the difference of behavior while being at work compared to being outside of work. Especially since my work deals with customers, they need to realize that showing the utmost respect is what is needed. I believe high school students should have at least a course or a prep class for professionalism. Coworkers are not your personal friends, although it does feel like it over time since you see them the most and communicate rather frequently. Also, the most important reason of being at work, is to be productive at work. We have a couple girls who attend school together and every time they work the same shift, it's like all the work priorities go out the window. Being in charge, I find it hard to scold another coworker for slacking off because the coworker / friend line has been crossed. Just because you are close friends with your boss or manager, doesn't mean you have the right to slack off and be unproductive. I have seen this happen several times, and unfortunately it is a very difficult problem to fix. I am happy that my coworkers get along, but it does get irritating when their relationship takes over their job duties. Another example of professionalism comes from experience as well. This young female I worked with didn't like to talk to anyone, and she always focused only on herself and her job. Not very many coworkers liked her because she came off rude for not participating in small conversations. I had to disagree on whether "liking" her or not was appropriate, the fact that she did her job well made her an amazing coworker, in whom I liked.
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I have the same situation at my work. Unfortunately its the managers that are hiring their friends which is a whole other issue, but this also caused a lot of chat during the workweek that is unrelated to the job. The minute people clock on they walk over to their friend's desk and start chatting as if they aren't at work. Its incredibly distracting; I feel that this behavior doesn't change unless its brought up. While it would be nice to teach high school students proper manners in the workforce, it might still go out the window if they end up working with their friends. It seems like its a habitual pattern for people to immediately speak in a different manner with their friends.
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar situation at my work. The girl that was hired to assist me was super friendly. However, her job duties were not performed at the highest level. What made it difficult is that she self disclosed so much information to me, trying to become my friend. I felt very uncomfortable as I value professionalism and expected it from her as well. It was hard to be direct with her when she made errors. I learned very quickly it is best to hold coworkers at a certain distance. With my new assistant, I keep a professional distance, and if she comes to close, I back off. I really like how she does her job and if I have any problems with her job, I don’t have a problem addressing it directly to her.
ReplyDeleteI too find that my 45 minute commute to and from work is a great time to catch up on phone calls I don’t have time for otherwise. I often call my parents on my way home, which not only allows me time to talk to them but also makes my commute much faster. We use instant messaging at work because we work with a team in India. Although often my co-workers and I use it to communicate things we don’t want to say out loud, it is a wonderful tool to communicate with our offshore team as we don’t have the difficulty of language barriers and accents. I have never had a business mobile phone and never want one. I enjoy the fact that when I leave the office, I leave work behind and am able to focus on my family and school.
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