Tag Archives: coworkers

10 more karma creators that your coworkers will love

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That warm happy glad-to-be-on-the-team feeling that creeps into offices sometimes could be an everyday event.  All it takes is some kindness and a focus on creating career karma.

How do you do that? I’ll give you 10 good ideas – and then hope to hear 10 more from you, my readers.  My first 10 suggestions appeared here and on GenPink.com as a guest post. These next 10 are an eclectic lot, but many will make the workplace an easier, happier place.

11. Develop a team ritual. Maybe it’s a monthly birthday celebration for anyone born in that month. Or a wine after work night once a week – whining may not be your style, but a little camaraderie could be. Whatever it is, make sure everyone feels welcome. And if alcohol is involved, switch it up once a month so those nondrinkers and who are in recovery can join in.

12. Volunteer at work. Start a canned food drive for your local soup kitchen. Collect gently used suits for a job seekers group. Backpacks for kids going to school. Talk to your HR director or CEO about a team building day at Habitat for Humanity or for KABOOM!, which builds playgrounds.

13. Bring a jobless friend to work day. There’s already a bring your dog to work day and a bring your parents to work day, so why not a day dedicated to our unemployed friends?  Maybe you could arrange an interview for them while they’re in-house. Or a few introductions to the kindest, most-connected coworkers and bosses in your organization.

14.  Teach the new techno-tools or marketing marvels. You know how to use the software that confounds your coworkers. Or how to use FourSquare or the latest productivity app. Or some other technology that terrifies some others. So show the way. Set up a lunch and learn for your department – and teach everyone how to use it. When you do, pull out your best ah shucks Gomer Pile approach and tact and be gracious about follow-up help too.

15. Create a universal “I need to concentrate for an hour” signal. Everyone needs time to focus intently on work, with no interruptions. Everyone needs think time too. So you could help yourself and your co-workers gain this by creating some flag, some token, something that says – stay away, I need to work.  A little red elf that sits atop your computer perhaps? Or a piece of that yellow warning tape that says do not cross this.  Find something that is clear and clever and suits the culture of your workplace – then find a way to introduce it this month.

16.  Fill the copier drawer or printer with paper. If you do this regularly, you’ll find it takes only a minute or so (as long as the paper is stashed very nearby). Then you will win you the gratitude of the administrative assistant and other heavy users – as well as a cavernous amount of karma.

17.   Make a miracle happen at work. “Pull a rabbit out of a hat.”  Achieve what they say cannot be done. Work a miracle for your boss or a colleague who’s hopelessly behind on a project. Solve a very difficult problem and make it look easy. Then be sure your attitude seems modest yet pleased to help.  (You’ll hear more about making career magic in some blog posts planned for mid- to late-January.)

18.  Create a recognition space. One of my editors at Newsday called it the “wall of love” – and he posted articles that he really appreciated.  Maybe yours is a bulletin board with a folder full of blank stars and exclamation points. Anyone can write an appreciation note to a teammate – and the bosses are expected to post something every Monday for the previous week. Or perhaps yours is a weekly award – not money, but the parking space nearest the entrance for the worker who went furthest to help others.  Or a weekly email or Facebook posting shouting out praise and accolades. If you’re not a manager, you may want buy-in from a boss first. You could even get her to send out the words of praise – written partly or completely by you. They mean even more when they come from the brass.

19. Seek out a master, a mentor, an advisor. This may sound like something that will bring you benefits – and it will. But it also will bring you good karma, as you show respect for another’s expertise and wisdom, and then share what you learn with others in your circle. You may add still more karma by helping your advisor with some situation or question or need.

20.  Beat the deadline by a few hours – or even a day. If you can finish up a project or some research early, you ease the burden of those who await it. You give them a small gift of time (as well as gain a bit for yourself or another project.) So use the motto I once tried as a business editor: “Get ahead by getting ahead.” And give others the chance to get ahead too.

Now it’s your turn. What are you doing to create good karma in your cubicle or your company? Please share your ideas and insights here – and be prepared for an interview. I hope to write about this for a magazine article in coming weeks. (If you don’t want to be interviewed, I respect that so just make a small note of that in your response.)

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Brown bag it and burnish career connections

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Skip lunches out or Starbucks on the way into the office to save some cash. The latest Harris Poll confirms it: More people are “brown bagging it” to cut costs.

The survey focuses on small ways Americans are saving money, by going to hair stylists or barber shops less frequently or buying refillable water bottles. The biggest way of saving: Almost two thirds of the 2,576 people surveyed say they’re buying more generic brand merchandise in the last six months.

One cutback though comes with substantial career concerns: We mean the 45 percent of Americans who stay in and eat peanut butter sandwiches or leftover spaghetti.  Make that 56 percent for Gen Xers, those ages 34-45. Clearly brown-bagging can bring real savings. If you spend even $5 or $6 a day for an affordable lunch out, you’re dropping $25 to $30 a week on meals. The adds up to $780 over six months on burgers and fries or veggie wraps and salads.

All that time, you may be insulated from important insights and information, as well as work friends. You could miss out on important gossip or details on changes coming in your department or organization. These are often shared outside the office – at lunch or over happy hours after work. Or you may miss out on new job possibilities, or start-ups or consulting gigs that could bring a second source of income.

So no matter how much we understand and embrace the new frugality, we also value camaraderie and celebrations – and those often happen over meals. Don’t risk damaging your reputation or developing one as a staid and unsociable sort over a few dollars.

In these tough times we cannot afford to become cut off from our work colleagues – both as a source of information and as supporters of our new projects, career goals or needs for personal development.

So if you’re one of the Americans who have been eating lunch at their desk – or sitting alone in a corner of the corporate cafeteria, a bit abashed by the boring brown bag, it’s time to break bread with your boss and coworkers.

Here’s five ways to be frugal and use food for professional fellowship:

  • Plan an office party at your home. Come up with a reason for the gathering – sometimes a silly idea like your 1,000th day on the job or something serious like your best friend’s promotion or new baby. Then make sure you have all the food and drink organized before the event begins so you can concentrate on connecting with the crew.
  • Get with the gang every other Friday. Your new scrimping and saving is laudable, but leave room for the occasional team gab fest in your favorite eatery or bar. Be smart and selective about when to show up – and make sure you have a sweet or smarmy answer to the “where have you been?” question.
  • Create a souper star support group. This group is focused on frugality and career success. Heat up some soup – store bought or homemade – once a week or every other week and warm up your career prospects too. To take this beyond a chat and chew, look for career advancement articles or tools to share. Or ask each person to find one book that may be valuable to all and report on it. My current choice: The Power of Small / Why Little Things Make All the Difference by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval (Broadway Books, $17.95, 140 pages).
  • Start a bagels and bargains group. This also could also be called bagels and bravery  or bagels and balance – depending on your focus and hopes. The point is: Build your network – and your reputation for creativity and community. Be sure to share career insights along with money-saving ideas. Make sure you rotate the bagel buying, and get buy-in from your HR Department and boss.
  • Produce a monthly or quarterly office potluck. These can be great fun – and great for business. They strengthen the camaraderie and connections, and give workers a chance to show off their culinary talents too. One consulting firm even created a friendly competition for the best dish from the worker’s ethnic background – and then published a cookbook from their entries. Your office might not want to take it that far, but a quarterly shared meal may mean the folks in accounting are more likely to share their expertise with sweetness. A potluck can be a great way to stage a brainstorming session, a sales meeting or a meet the new staffers gathering. And if you organize this, you’re at the nexis of information and people – and you’re seen as someone who understands motivating staff and being frugal with corporate expense accounts, both pluses for your next performance review.

Of course, there’s other ways to stay attuned to the news and gossip besides noshing on noodles. Coffee, salads, dessert, wine and cheese or an ice cream social – something I used a few summers ago for my team.

So engage your creativity along with your appetite for career information and connections.

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If you’re interested in reading more on Americans frugality, as documented by The Harris Poll, go here.

If you want some recipes for your first office potluck, I’ve appreciated several luscious dishes from Susan at  Farmgirl Fare . Or make the first one a recipe you received from Mom or Dad (even if they never posted anything on a blog, they feed us for years).

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