Professional thought for January
For a long time, when I worked at a slightly crocky place, I developed a January (pre-annual-review) habit.
I reported people to their bosses for doing good stuff. At first it was just to cheer me up from the hell that was my review. Then it turned into something else, something more.
I call it the principle of covering other people's tushies. Why? When someone does something good for us, we need to make sure their bosses understand that what they did was of value and that they should KEEP DOING IT.
Of course it also allowed me to blow off steam at the same time. One particular group I worked with had one really good worker and a bunch of others who tended to blow off requests. Every year, I worked out my frustration by sending the good worker's boss a thank you with the list of all the stuff he/she DID do and how helpful that person was and how they had a positive impact on service. The boss might not have noticed that there was a lack of service among other members of the group, but that wasn't my fault. :)
Those notes could be used as ammo by the boss to support the other person, or to support the service. If I didn't say it, they wouldn't have it on hand. They didn't need to say it was me that said it, after all.
Furthermore, I tended to copy those thanks letters to the recipient. There's nothing quite like opening an email and finding out that someone appreciated what you do so much they took the time to write to your boss about it. You'd be surprised how seldom that happens. January is a particularly bleak time of year in Academia, and sometimes you just need that pick-me-up. A lot of times it feels like nobody notices anything good.
Well, I may be crazy. But it's like Alice's Restaurant. "But if a whole bunch of people did it... they might think it's a movement."
Anybody want to join me in the movement?
I reported people to their bosses for doing good stuff. At first it was just to cheer me up from the hell that was my review. Then it turned into something else, something more.
I call it the principle of covering other people's tushies. Why? When someone does something good for us, we need to make sure their bosses understand that what they did was of value and that they should KEEP DOING IT.
Of course it also allowed me to blow off steam at the same time. One particular group I worked with had one really good worker and a bunch of others who tended to blow off requests. Every year, I worked out my frustration by sending the good worker's boss a thank you with the list of all the stuff he/she DID do and how helpful that person was and how they had a positive impact on service. The boss might not have noticed that there was a lack of service among other members of the group, but that wasn't my fault. :)
Those notes could be used as ammo by the boss to support the other person, or to support the service. If I didn't say it, they wouldn't have it on hand. They didn't need to say it was me that said it, after all.
Furthermore, I tended to copy those thanks letters to the recipient. There's nothing quite like opening an email and finding out that someone appreciated what you do so much they took the time to write to your boss about it. You'd be surprised how seldom that happens. January is a particularly bleak time of year in Academia, and sometimes you just need that pick-me-up. A lot of times it feels like nobody notices anything good.
Well, I may be crazy. But it's like Alice's Restaurant. "But if a whole bunch of people did it... they might think it's a movement."
Anybody want to join me in the movement?