Shouldn't someone ready to be a leader recognise the voids without them being explicitly pointed out to them?
Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
41–50 of 97 posts
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I personally take on jobs I'm not assigned. But I think believing someone owes you a promotion for working hard is bs. Instead, work on the things you find valuable in whatever way you want it to be. Tbh though I actually agree with your comment 100% but there is a positive way to spin it
I personally take on jobs I'm not assigned. Instead of or in addition to your normal duties? Or do you find that your normal duties don't fill a normal work week?
mikekchar's rule of strategic incompetence: Never be really, really good at something that your don't want to do. Otherwise people will keep asking you to do it.
Corollary (and the useful bit): If you show yourself to be really, really good at something people will keep asking you to do it. If it's something you like, then you will be happy in your job.
In any job there are 1000's of things that need to get done that nobody is doing right now. It is a good investment to do some of the things that you enjoy and get really, really good at it. Over time you will find that it will become your job.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#43Ugg. I'm sorry about being negative but here are some protips: 1. If a manager leaves work unassigned and you pick it up, prepare to have a LOT more work dumped on you in the future for no reward. 2. If you pretend to be a manager with hopes of being made a manager, all that you will accomplish is you are going to end up doing your job AND your bosses job. Your boss will look like a hero to his/her peers. You'll kill…
If I may, here is some of my protips: - The best route up is hitching your wagon to your bosses wagon. So yes doing some of his work will make him look like a hero, which will get him promoted, and he'll think who is his most valuable / productive underling, which will get you promoted. Hopefully you doing some of his work free's up his time to be more productive in other areas. If your boss is a lazy PHB (Dilbert),…
It is for sure one way, but you have no idea how long it will take till somebody "picks you up". It might take few months or 5 years (or more), draining you of a lot of energy and time that you could spent actually having a life. Plus some people see good performers around as competition, depends how company is structured (ie if your manager is on same position/level you will be once promoted).
My example - I have colleague like that didn't do proper research before interview and agreed on ridiculously low salary for job&area. I started 1 year after him, negotiated properly (when you don't care that much if you get it or not, it's amazing position for negotiation). He works hard and is clever, right now he is my line manager and guess what - gradually he reached same salary as me. Since nowadays any of us could be fired anytime (or not, big multinational corp, you never know, people are fired frequently). So result - he puts 50% more effort, does endless meetings/documents and presentations that nobody enjoys doing, looks completely drained from energy. I do the same +-fun dev work that I enjoy with gradually more responsibilities, and am earning the same.
this all depends a lot on specific company, hierarchy, promotion processes, your specific boss etc. in good company for example, you discuss with your manager your desire for promotion, set objectives/expectations you should fulfill in incoming months, and unless there is promotional freeze (or you screw up), you'll get there.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#44Ugg. I'm sorry about being negative but here are some protips: 1. If a manager leaves work unassigned and you pick it up, prepare to have a LOT more work dumped on you in the future for no reward. 2. If you pretend to be a manager with hopes of being made a manager, all that you will accomplish is you are going to end up doing your job AND your bosses job. Your boss will look like a hero to his/her peers. You'll kill…
If I may, here is some of my protips: - The best route up is hitching your wagon to your bosses wagon. So yes doing some of his work will make him look like a hero, which will get him promoted, and he'll think who is his most valuable / productive underling, which will get you promoted. Hopefully you doing some of his work free's up his time to be more productive in other areas. If your boss is a lazy PHB (Dilbert),…
Maybe I've had more than my share of bad bosses, but I don't really agree with you here. I must say, also, that in my experience, it does depend on the company size, culture and abilities of said managers more often than not (big, hierarchical companies tend to be worse at this kind of thing, also, banking and financial, not sure why).
- A good manager will notice, and appreciate, your effort. But promote you? You are one of his best tools, why should he? Usually he'll try everything he can to keep you where you are. If it's a bad manager, he won't even recognize your effort.
- Yes, unless you work with mixed teams or on different projects. In that case, two managers might end up fighting to get you on their teams and it might be a good thing for you.
- Nothing to say here, you are totally right, but depending on how you play your cards, the reward can come earlier. Only thing I'll point is that I've seen departments go to hell because managers failed to recognize this.
My tip would be to communicate. If you have free time, don't wait for your boss to assign you work and ask. If you see something else that you can be doing (sometimes there are features or bugs that could be worked together), say so, but always comunicate first and wait for your managers decision.
Of course, all this is IMHO and your results may vary.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#45Ugg. I'm sorry about being negative but here are some protips: 1. If a manager leaves work unassigned and you pick it up, prepare to have a LOT more work dumped on you in the future for no reward. 2. If you pretend to be a manager with hopes of being made a manager, all that you will accomplish is you are going to end up doing your job AND your bosses job. Your boss will look like a hero to his/her peers. You'll kill…
That's kind of a managerial antipattern. True, if someone goes an extra mile and does something outside her direct responsibilities, it is tempting to reward that person with more of the similar tasks in the future. But in the long run this only leads to resentment and curbing of initiative. More experienced managers will find ways to reward this kind of contributions.
Also true that employees need to be smart about it. No need to volunteer for unglamorous drudge work, better do something that is perceived to be valuable.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#46Ugg. I'm sorry about being negative but here are some protips: 1. If a manager leaves work unassigned and you pick it up, prepare to have a LOT more work dumped on you in the future for no reward. 2. If you pretend to be a manager with hopes of being made a manager, all that you will accomplish is you are going to end up doing your job AND your bosses job. Your boss will look like a hero to his/her peers. You'll kill…
On this subject, should you dress to look like a manager?
While at my company the same dress code applies to all, the managers certainly dress more business-like than the programmers.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#47To start acting as a manager is actually not to jump into the vacuums that you see everywhere as a developper. Acting as a manager is to take a step back, and help others fill in the vacuums.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#48Ugg. I'm sorry about being negative but here are some protips: 1. If a manager leaves work unassigned and you pick it up, prepare to have a LOT more work dumped on you in the future for no reward. 2. If you pretend to be a manager with hopes of being made a manager, all that you will accomplish is you are going to end up doing your job AND your bosses job. Your boss will look like a hero to his/her peers. You'll kill…
I would not call it trying to be a "manager", that is a narrow role with a formal place in the org chart. Let's call it "taking responsibility".
I agree that you should be smart about it, and not blindly do unassigned work. In the worst case you can be reprimanded because you did not follow process and you might step on someones toes that had other plans and ideas.
But don't just do what you are told or only what fits your job description, but do what is needed most and what you care about. That does not have to mean you can't first discuss it with your formal manager or team, but only that you take the initiative and show that you care.
When other people recognise that you care about some topic, surly you will get more work regarding that topic. But that is a good thing because you now get to do more work _that you care about_ and that is important. In a sensible organisation that will also mean you can leave some other work to other people, not that you have to increase your hours.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#49In my corporate experience, only doing what you're told to by your manager is the route to mediocre raises and rare promotions. Larger raises and faster promotions come from identifying problems and solving them, i.e. not needing to be micro-managed.
Re: Leave Work Unassigned and See Who Steps Forward
#50In my corporate experience, only doing what you're told to by your manager is the route to mediocre raises and rare promotions. Larger raises and faster promotions come from identifying problems and solving them, i.e. not needing to be micro-managed.
Large raises and faster promotions come from your perceived value and nowadays is mostly achieved by networking and politics. Identifying problems and solving them is often a threat to all levels above you, often managers play games by introducing inefficiencies and then pretending to solve them slowly, keeping their perceived utility and visibility high, and you identifying and solving some of these poses an existential threat to their fiefdoms. If you can identify/solve problems, start your own business and have your old company becoming your customer instead.