Written Dec, 2005
Before you can effectively become a slacker, you need to create a situation conducive to doing so. It may take three or four different positions before you find yourself in a work environment that will allow you to reach for full potential.
EXAMPLE:
The first role I had within my company was working for a command center which ran 24 hours a day to respond to high priority issues affecting the bank. The command center covered the entire country and featured lots of large graphical maps, televisions showing news channels, and blinking red and green lights.
My job entailed collecting and analyzing data around the issues being handled. Although I was fortunate that I wasn’t expected to work long hours like those who actually responded to the call, it became very apparent that this type of environment would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to become an effective cave dweller. There was too much action going on, too many charts and status reports and rushed conversations and arguing and, worst of all, accountability for errors.
After 6 months, I had done such a good impression of an actively engaged individual that I was almost starting to believe it myself. I imagined working my butt off and moving up within the corporation. I would arrive well dressed at 7 am ready to tackle the day with a smile on my face. I would roll up my sleeves and focus on my computer screen intensely as I tried to make the bank—no, the world—a better place.
Of course, all of those notions where thrust aside when I got my standard three percent raise (prorated to 1.5% since I was only there for six months!) and pittance of a bonus. I wouldn’t have been so disappointed had I not been led to believe repeatedly by certain levels of management that I would be well rewarded for my efforts.
Since this was my first job in the corporate world, a few of my older coworkers took me under their wings and let me know how compensation worked at our company. Top level management got buckets of money equal to three percent of the salaries of their departments. This meant that in order for someone to get more than three percent, somebody else would have to get less. They told me that only way to get a decent raise and to be making what I was worth was to leave the bank and come back a few years later.
I didn’t want to believe them , but it what I heard from everybody. Even if I got a job title promotion, my pay would stay the same.
Hmmm…well I had friend who worked in another area of the bank where she arrived at approximately 9:30 am each day and left around 4 pm. I marvelled when I saw where she logged on and off Sametime (instant messenger) for the day. How was she able to pull this off? She informed me that the group she worked in had a much more laid back approach. Basically, if you got your work done, they didn’t care when you came in and when you left.
