MSN Careers – Five Reasons Why Nice Guys Finish Last At Work – Career Advice Article
Makes a lot of sense. What a lot of us “Good Worker Bees” (aka “Grunts”) fail to realize is that companies are dominated by “Suits” who are ready to take credit for the good and push the errors off to blame on some flunky who is usually on the bottom of the food chain…
Someone like us.
The five mistakes are:
1. You Let Others’ Mistakes Inconvenience You
2. You Let Others Take Credit For Your Ideas
3. You Apologize Unnecessarily
4. You Work Without Breaks
5. You Do Others’ Work For Them
(Read the whole thing… they offer advice. I’ll wait.)
I have, at some point, committed each one of those sins at least once, thinking my efforts would be noticed.
Think again.
You have to understand the nature of “Suits”. They’re sole interest is climbing up the Corporate Ladder, which usually means stepping all over the people (soon to be) below them. The ones who are really good at it make you respect them for it.
If you’re a “Grunt”, it’s in their best interest to keep you right where you are. You make them look good, don’t you? Why on earth would they reward you for your efforts when they’ve taken credit for it with the big bosses?
Keep dreaming if you think it will all pay off one day… that what the “Suits” WANT you to believe. Have you ever noticed the most efficient and “indispensable” employees stay EXACTLY where they are, right up to retirement?
My advice? Learn what you can, have your hands in as many soups as you can, and when you are ready to pull out and work for a place that actually appreciates your skills… PULL OUT MERCILESSLY.
Life will still go on, shakily, over there… but you’ll know you made all the difference in the world.
And that’s what really counts, don’t it?
It’s a wonder most businesses stay afloat with the assholes running the show over there.
Eric Brooks
Musician, Programmer, Graphic Designer, Evil Clown - A thorn in the Internet's side since 1997 with no intention of stopping any time soon.
Follow Me:
This is soooo true….you also forgot to mention that if a “suit” doesn’t like you for any reason (and I do mean *any*) they will find a reason, however unfounded, to get rid of you…that’s what happened to me…
And I wonder how they stay in business too….
All I have to say is you are way to soft, there has been many a “Suit” left by the wayside with my knife stuck deep in there back because they tried one of the above things on that list. I may be a “grunt” but I am ruthless and evil in my business practices, from many years in the trenches.
Well this is all only true to a point and it depends on who these suits are messing with, I can say that many a “Suit” has been left by the wayside with my knife burried deep in there back, having found out I am not one to mess with and I will bury them!! I maybe a “Grunt” but I do not let anyone put anything over on me as such stated in that article, its not part of who I am, or who I want to be. I am just as ruthless as a “Suit” and they fear me for it, and they would rather have me on there side than shoving my knife in there back.