Category: Work

Entering the workforce can be intimidating at first because you’re suddenly surrounded by knowledgeable, competent experts, while you only know what you learned in school (much of which doesn’t equip you for the workplace…but more on that another time). However, what I have discovered during my working life is that most employees are simply putting on a good show. Sure, they know all the jargon, processes and history of a company or industry, but they really don’t know much beyond what can be laid out in an instruction booklet.

Corporations need people who can follow instructions because they are the muscles and ligaments that move a corporation. In contrast, senior leadership requires expertise and foresight beyond the known. They need the ability to synthesize thousands of pieces of seemingly disparate information into a cohesive strategy. Said differently, there is a set of employees that follow instructions and there is a set of employees that write the instructions. When it comes to writing the instructions most people are simply making it up along the way. The employees following instructions need to feel like they are following the correct instructions. So those writing the instructions require conviction, confidence and consistency…even if they are dead wrong.

I have discovered that the key to success in a corporate environment has nothing to do with competence or expertise. Instead, those who can form a convincing narrative out of a random assortment of information will thrive. People who are willing to shape the unknown and ambiguous into a framework for others to use will become the future leaders.

Many senior managers realize they are making things up along the way, and that they are taking a chance on one strategic path of thousands of possibilities. There really is no way around the uncertainty of strategic planning, but those who do it best are the ones that acknowledge their limitations and have the confidence to alter course when it makes sense.

Of course, there are many habits that will help you become successful in your career, but here are two that have helped me: 

1. Write lists. This helps you remember and track what needs to be done and what has been completed. Lists will help you become someone that delivers and gets things done. The psychology of a list puts pressure on you to finish things on the list. No list? Tasks are easily forgotten and dismissed. 

2. Be early. I’m not a morning person, but there have been periods in which I was the first one into the office every day. During those periods I felt like I was a couple steps ahead of everyone else. By the time other people strolled in an hour or so after me, I would have already completed a number of tasks. Also, I’d have a coffee under my belt so I’d be fully awake while the later arrivers drag their arses around. Being early also gives the general impression that you have it together and that you’re a hard worker. Hell, go to work early and just read the news if you want. You’ll still benefit from the perception. For me, another reason to show up early is because I am super-productive in the mornings – I’m fresh and there are few distractions. What takes me 10 minutes at 8am seems to take 40 minutes at 5pm.

There are many things you should never do at work, but here are a few of the less obvious:

1. Don’t insult anyone. You never know when you will need them to help you.

2. Don’t talk about politics or religion. These kinds of conversations are divisive and political and religious debates are unwinnable. These are subjective topics with no right answer – ironically, everyone with an political or religious opinion seems to think they have the right answer. Don’t even go there.

3. Don’t fall in love with your coworkers. Go into work with the mindset that you are there for business. If, for some reason, you still manage to go crazy for a coworker recognize that you may need to find another place to work if you decide to pursue the relationship. Many companies don’t like coworkers having relationships because of the conflicts of interest that arise.

4. Don’t screw your coworkers. Especially if they are married. Do I really have to explain this one? Still, it happens more often than you’d expect and I have seen careers ruined because of tarnished reputations.

5. Minimize the profanity. Highly-selective swearing can be effective in the right situation with the right people. However, swearing properly is a skill many lack. Those who don’t do it properly lose credibility and sound like uneducated buffoons.

People used to admire my ambition and drive.

For instance, in 2007 I was working full time, doing my MBA part time, taking care of an infant and throwing special events on the weekends. People asked how I did it. Well, I worked about 90 hours a week. Somehow I had the energy (and support from my family) to do it.

This was not unique to 2007. Since high school I have consistently pursued multiple, escalating goals. People were impressed by my ambition and more so by my execution. When I set a goal – mostly related to my career or education – I did everything in my power to achieve it.

I was ambitious after high school because I was a slacker during high school. Shortly after I finished high school, I had a wake-up call that was like getting poked with an electric cattle prod. I suddenly realized I’d been wasting precious time and needed to catch up. The only way to catch up was to work twice as hard as everyone else around me.

Things have changed. I’m hesitant to write this statement down, but today I have no goals. It’s not that I don’t want a clear goal. It’s more like the clear goals that I could have easily identified in the past no longer exist.

What the hell happened?

I think somewhere between 2014-2016 I burned out.

During that period I was running a few massive projects and working long and stressful hours as usual. After years of getting ground down, I think these projects were what finally hit bone. I can’t point to a particular moment at which my conviction shifted, but the warning signs were intensifying. One night while taking out the garbage I flipped and threw the garbage can onto my front lawn. I was self-medicating every night. After 20+ years of remission, my eczema returned.

The pressure of work and responsibility of middle class family life broke me. After 2016, something permanently changed. I stopped giving a sh!t about other people’s agendas.

I am still a valuable asset to my employer. But today I focus on what I think needs to be done, cutting out as much bureaucracy (i.e. BS) as possible. I dedicate my attention to work that interests me and is valuable to the company, instead of wasting time with activities that no self-respecting entrepreneur would do.

My problem now though is that I’m hitting goals more accidentally than deliberately. In the past I would set out a goal – e.g. get my CFA – and do everything in my power to achieve it. Today, I focus on the work – e.g. thought leadership for the financial services industry – and achieve results that I never set out to achieve. I’m traversing the ocean, but I’m rudderless.

Does it matter? I don’t know. I still spend a significant amount of time trying to come up with goals. So far my only goal is to write more.

Perhaps this is what happens after you burn out. You stop scrambling to reach the next achievement and instead you calmly savor the process.

Are you loyal to your employer because you think you owe them gratitude?

This Christmas day, I want to remind everyone that loyalty in the workplace should be a reciprocal relationship. Unfortunately, more often than not, behind the curtain of pleasant corporate employee-relations PR is a pack of rabid dogs attacking each other for scraps.

In the days leading up to Christmas, AT&T notified hundreds of staff that they would lose their jobs. I presume more layoffs will be confirmed by AT&T in the weeks to come. At the same time AT&T announced it would provide special bonuses to 200,000 of its employees in celebration of the Republican tax overhaul. This is like adding sugar to a pile of shit to make it more palatable.

Over the past 6 months alone I’ve heard many horror stories of dedicated staff being destroyed after decades of commitment. I’ve seen friends fire friends – these are people who did all the right things to build trust and loyalty. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve had your boss and their spouse over for dinner, the corporate machine will find a way to chew up and spit out anything that interferes with the profit imperative.

Corporations are entities that are built to generate a return on capital. They have no other purpose. Charitable activity, community engagement and philanthropy are done by corporations because they improve the public persona, potentially driving the customer purchase decision and, more importantly, reducing the public pressure on regulators to clamp down on corporate malfeasance.

While the individuals within a corporation may have souls, the corporation itself does not. How can it be expected to care? A corporation is a legal structure defined by its articles of incorporation and investor expectations. 99.99% of investors risk their money to generate a return on that money. To generate a return, a corporation must generate and grow profits that can eventually be distributed back to investors. There’s nothing wrong with this, but people need to realize they should stop expecting more from a legal structure.

One way or another, the corporate machine will force benevolent individuals to abandon their principles in the name of profits. Individuals that don’t abandon their principles produce a lower return on investment (ROI) than those that do, and will therefore eventually be terminated (assuming they are discovered). Companies that can’t weed out the weaker producing staff will eventually be running slower than competitors. Corporate death – whether by bankruptcy, liquidation or amalgamation – ensues.

So should an employee be loyal to something that cannot be loyal back, despite the best efforts of a few kind-hearted staff? Can you love someone that doesn’t love you back?

Do a good job. Earn your paycheck. But recognize that the corporation by definition must extract more value from you than what it pays you in return. To do otherwise would be slow-suicide. In the end, you need to do what’s right for you.