COMPLANING AT WORK

By

MOM

7:00 am ...and the phone is ringing...."Ahlo," I murmur. "Gee I’m glad you’re up." the voice at the other end proffers brightly. "I just had to talk to someone and get this off my chest before I go to work. If I don’t I’m afraid I’ll really lose it at work and there will go my job." My friend went on to tell me about a situation regarding the companies medicalpolicy that had unfairly cost her money. She was absolutely in the right,even her boss agreed. Unfortunately nothing apparently can be done about it.

What impressed me about this call was that my friend had the insight to blow off steam outside of the work place and thereby maintain the respect of her boss and co-workers and potentially save her job. How many times do we go to work upset and complain to everyone who will listen about our grievances. This almost never gets us what we want but it does interfere with our getting good job evaluations and keeps us from getting ahead.

Everyone starts work believing that the key to success is to do a good or exceptional job. What they don’t tell you is that doing a good job on assigned tasks isn’t enough. The boss will not appreciate anything that interrupts his getting the job done. He or she doesn’t want to hear you complaints generally speaking. It takes time away from the tasks at hand. Therefore they will value the employee who doesn’t make waves a great deal more than the one who uses his or her time resolving issues.

Does this mean that you just have to put up with any kind of unfairness. No, not always. If you feel that something is so unfair that you must complain, make an appointment with your boss. When the time comes state the problem as briefly and concisely as you can. And, always thank your boss for listening. Do not expect an immediate solution. Employers are not always as wise as Solomon. They may want to think about it, research it or ask other people.