There are always other options. Maybe you can help your employer discover better solutions. That’s what happened at Rhino Foods Inc., a dessert manufacturer in Burlington, Vermont. At a companywide meeting, management announced that business had slowed so much that they could no longer justify the number of people on staff. Then they invited employees to find a way to solve the problem, and 26 jumped at the chance.
After studying the issues for three weeks, the group developed the idea of an Employee Exchange Program, an in-house temporary-employment agency that “lends” extra workers to other companies.
Employees who volunteer for assignments are interviewed, hired, and paid by the “host” company, but they retain their benefits through Rhino. And if the host company has a lower hourly wage, Rhino makes up the difference. So far, the only downside has been more paperwork. But then layoffs create additional paperwork, too.
Manage Others’ Expectations of You
It can be hard not to act out, to remember that you’re an adult and a professional who was hired because your employer believed you had the skills and desire to help the organization achieve its goals. So many
adults regress and start acting like children who have no place to go and no one to play with.
An investment banker who works for a New York–based firm man-aged to “stay adult” and professional despite institutional obstacles.
When the banker was asked to join his firm’s restructuring task force, he knew it would be important to participate. He also knew that the responsibility would be like having a second full-time job. His dilem-ma: how to handle both duties without working 18- or 20-hour days.
What he needed, he decided, was to work smarter but not necessarily harder.
His three rules of participation were the following:
1. Never work more than a 12-hour day. A devoted family man, he acknowledged openly that spending evenings at home with his wife and two daughters was important for his sanity. Although he was willing to begin his workday early (6 a.m.), he also planned to be on the 6:15 p.m. train home. You could set your watch by him. Unless it was an absolute emergency, he never deviated from his schedule. As a result, his employers and co-workers knew exactly what to expect from him.
2. Don’t expect perfection. By nature, he was a meticulous man who dotted every i and crossed every t. He also knew that if he main-tained that work style, he’d soon fall far behind. So he lost the perfectionist mentality and developed personal standards of
“good enough” that kept his reputation for able work intact.
3. Share your goals. Always considered a star performer, the banker knew he could never produce the same results with so much added responsibility. Rather than try to achieve some impossible goal, he renegotiated his sales objectives with his manager and then worked diligently to deliver what he’d promised. Not once did he beat himself up for not delivering the sales figures he’d achieved in previous years. However, getting his manager to buy into his new goals was crucial to his success. Otherwise, it would merely have looked as if his performance was way off.
Unlike other highly motivated and ambitious professionals, this savvy careerist didn’t get seduced into taking on more than he could possi-bly accomplish. By managing the expectations of the people around him, he preserved his own energy and enthusiasm for his work.
Accept Your Limitations
While acknowledging that you’re neither a machine nor a superhuman always carries some risk, you don’t do anyone a favor by refusing to accept or understand your personal and professional limitations.
“Unless you learn to set boundaries and prioritize your work, you can end up going down with the ship,” says Bougie. That’s exactly what happened to the assistant dean of a prestigious liberal-arts college in Chicago. When his support staff was eliminated, the administrator didn’t adjust his goals to accommodate that loss. Instead, he tried valiantly to do the job of three people. In his case, this meant single-handedly servicing more than 1,200 students. His reward: ulcerated colitis. He also got a year off, which he needed to recover his health and sanity.
An operations analyst with a consulting group in Chicago had better success with a more aggressive style. To prevent an overload of demand on her energies, she moved her office to a location removed from her colleagues. She also convinced her manager to let her work at home two mornings a week in order to get some uninterrupted work time.
Keep in mind, though, that even your most innovative solutions won’t be considered seriously unless you have a solid track record of profes-sional credibility. You need to establish yourself as a hardworking and committed team player who’s willing to go the extra mile before ask-ing your employer to go out of the way for you.