thedrifter
03-06-07, 06:24 AM
Posted on Tue, Mar. 06, 2007
Learning to tread water in a ‘sink or swim’ workplace
By Sheila Norman-Culp
Associated Press
Deep, cold water, no one around to toss you a life ring. Sounds like a new job?
It’s not a business strategy companies brag about – tossing new or recently promoted employees into the maelstrom and hoping they don’t go under.
But the Darwinian “sink or swim” strategy is part of life at work. And figuring out why your company uses it gives you a good window into its values.
Is turnover so high that the company only invests in survivors? Perhaps the strategy is part of a macho culture – think boot camp for Marines, residency training for surgeons. To be a success, you need to identify with that culture.
Possibly the job is so glamorous – a Hollywood party planner, a big-time sports journalist – that thousands are applying for it and you are expendable until proven otherwise.
If you understand the long odds ahead of time, you’re less likely to get discouraged. Here’s a cheat sheet to handle the tempests heading your way.
You want what?
New jobs are tremendously stressful because you need to learn so much at once. On a graph, it’s the Yosemite learning curve (i.e. straight up). Accept that you have to put in much more effort – especially in the first few months – than you did when you were in a comfy rut at your old place.
Treat the new company like you would a foreign language – write down and memorize all the names, titles, departments, timetables and deadlines you need to know. Years later, you will chuckle at those “flash cards” but they will ease you through a critical time.
Start swimming
Everyone is slow as molasses at first – but your colleagues’ patience for the turtle routine is going to wear out fast. You need to understand the pattern of your new job, find the most efficient way to get things done, and, well, speed up.
When a sales call comes in, when a deadline is looming, when your client calls from a police station, what are the five things you need to do next? Plot it out.
To be more efficient, visualize your day like an Olympic athlete does a race course. What is the fastest way down? Maybe some steps or tasks could be eliminated. You don’t have to do things exactly like your predecessor – the American business world is all about increasing productivity.
So many tasks, so little time
Speeding up takes practice and determination. You won’t get faster unless you plug away at it. In the meantime, buy yourself some time: Do as much as you can beforehand, expand your office hours or recruit some help. Make up templates for repetitive tasks and put aside less urgent workplace demands. Eliminate some jobs or dump them off on a less burdened department.
“Being overwhelmed leads to paralysis,” notes Toby Chapman-Dawe, author of “Passport to Performance.”
He suggests starting with “with the simplest, easiest, most ludicrously obvious action” connected to your project, which will give you the confidence you need to tackle a job that at first seems impossible.
Need help? Ask for it
If things still aren’t working out, decide what you need most and become a heat-seeking missile in your quest to get it: More manpower? More computer power? More efficient systems? More physical resources?
Something is bound to help you.
While you’re at it, seek out the advice of others who did your job. You don’t have time to reinvent the wheel – and you sure need to know which situations demand a five-alarm response and which can hold for a while.
Towel off
When your work trial is over, take a break. A real break.
It’s astonishing how long accumulated stress from a “sink or swim” situation stays in your system. You need to look after your health so you simply don’t collapse, and you need to change your work habits so you are not on permanent “sink or swim” mode.
Ellie
Learning to tread water in a ‘sink or swim’ workplace
By Sheila Norman-Culp
Associated Press
Deep, cold water, no one around to toss you a life ring. Sounds like a new job?
It’s not a business strategy companies brag about – tossing new or recently promoted employees into the maelstrom and hoping they don’t go under.
But the Darwinian “sink or swim” strategy is part of life at work. And figuring out why your company uses it gives you a good window into its values.
Is turnover so high that the company only invests in survivors? Perhaps the strategy is part of a macho culture – think boot camp for Marines, residency training for surgeons. To be a success, you need to identify with that culture.
Possibly the job is so glamorous – a Hollywood party planner, a big-time sports journalist – that thousands are applying for it and you are expendable until proven otherwise.
If you understand the long odds ahead of time, you’re less likely to get discouraged. Here’s a cheat sheet to handle the tempests heading your way.
You want what?
New jobs are tremendously stressful because you need to learn so much at once. On a graph, it’s the Yosemite learning curve (i.e. straight up). Accept that you have to put in much more effort – especially in the first few months – than you did when you were in a comfy rut at your old place.
Treat the new company like you would a foreign language – write down and memorize all the names, titles, departments, timetables and deadlines you need to know. Years later, you will chuckle at those “flash cards” but they will ease you through a critical time.
Start swimming
Everyone is slow as molasses at first – but your colleagues’ patience for the turtle routine is going to wear out fast. You need to understand the pattern of your new job, find the most efficient way to get things done, and, well, speed up.
When a sales call comes in, when a deadline is looming, when your client calls from a police station, what are the five things you need to do next? Plot it out.
To be more efficient, visualize your day like an Olympic athlete does a race course. What is the fastest way down? Maybe some steps or tasks could be eliminated. You don’t have to do things exactly like your predecessor – the American business world is all about increasing productivity.
So many tasks, so little time
Speeding up takes practice and determination. You won’t get faster unless you plug away at it. In the meantime, buy yourself some time: Do as much as you can beforehand, expand your office hours or recruit some help. Make up templates for repetitive tasks and put aside less urgent workplace demands. Eliminate some jobs or dump them off on a less burdened department.
“Being overwhelmed leads to paralysis,” notes Toby Chapman-Dawe, author of “Passport to Performance.”
He suggests starting with “with the simplest, easiest, most ludicrously obvious action” connected to your project, which will give you the confidence you need to tackle a job that at first seems impossible.
Need help? Ask for it
If things still aren’t working out, decide what you need most and become a heat-seeking missile in your quest to get it: More manpower? More computer power? More efficient systems? More physical resources?
Something is bound to help you.
While you’re at it, seek out the advice of others who did your job. You don’t have time to reinvent the wheel – and you sure need to know which situations demand a five-alarm response and which can hold for a while.
Towel off
When your work trial is over, take a break. A real break.
It’s astonishing how long accumulated stress from a “sink or swim” situation stays in your system. You need to look after your health so you simply don’t collapse, and you need to change your work habits so you are not on permanent “sink or swim” mode.
Ellie