Better Employee

How we can become better employees and there by increase our earning potential

20 Tips To Be Productive And Happy At Work

March 19, 2012
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20 Tips To Be Productive And Happy At Work

Let me start with a disclaimer, I am not pretending that I am a guru of some sort who knows how to handle work pressure in any situation. I am writing this as I think this may help you if you are in similar situation as I once was. It was becoming difficult for me to increase productivity, I wasn’t able to concentrate and wasn’t producing results I wanted to produce. Then I made these small adjustments. It’s not that I practice all of them day-in and day-out, but I follow most of them every day. In a way this is similar to the other projects I mentioned before, how to be a better person in 15 ways and how to feel good and increase productivity. Believe me if you are happy with your work environment, you can get things done fairly quickly and feel more satisfied. Needless to say, you get noticed for your work and dedication. It is utmost important that you increase your money earning potential to take better care of your finances. Ultimately it’s your work that pays your bills. 20 tips to be productive at work 1. Cleanup and decorate you cubicle – A clean and uncluttered

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Does Blogging Affect Your Work? I Think So

February 20, 2012
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Does Blogging Affect Your Work? I Think So

Does blogging affect work? Last year, when I started blogging, I didn’t know the answer, or at least, I didn’t want to find out. I got caught up in the intricate world of blogging, to an extent I was never fascinated with anything else. Not even my day job. The reality was, there were no blog income, where as the salary was more than satisfactory. First week of February was a wake up call for me. The appraisals for 2011 came in. It was a rude shock to me How blogging affected my work For past two years I was assessed as “Exceeding the expectation”, or rated 1. This year I was assessed as “Meeting the expectation”, or rated 2. My manager saw my performance degrading compared to last two years. On a later one-on-one with my manager (a director), I was pointed to my behavioral changes. 1. My work hours got reduced by an average 1:30 hours a day, it is a right observation, instead of spending 11+ hours, I was spending only 10 or even less. This might sound ridiculous to you but, I am fine with that number of hours. I feel hard work is necessary to grow in career or

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Be Better Employee: How to Say ‘No’ at Work

December 7, 2011
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Be Better Employee: How to Say ‘No’ at Work

What is one of the hardest things to do when you are at work? It is not beating the deadline or facing a grumpy boss. It is actually saying no to someone. It becomes increasingly difficult when you are one of the better employees as you are expected to receive a lot of requests for help. I am (I think, at least) my boss’s favorite man, and, often I am called for resolving tight situations at work. Saying ‘No’ is real tough for me at times in front of every probing eyes. I am not good at saying no either. Specially to my manager, I have serious trouble to say ‘No’. I mentioned before that this blog is my chronicle to learn things along with you. A lot of preparation went in to writing this article. I did search around 20 other related articles on net. And finally prepared an action plan for my use, which I thought can be helpful to you as well. Here’s the written synopsis. Why It is difficult to say ‘No’? People feel that when they say no, they are actually being rude, harsh, or cold. In turn the other person asking for would feel bad about it,

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Be a Better Employee: How To Decorate Your Office Cubicle

November 14, 2011
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Be a Better Employee: How To Decorate Your Office Cubicle

Honest confession – until recently, my cubicle at work looked like a trash bin. I spent some money and energy fixing up my cubicle, and now it’s the envy of others. In this article, I will talk about decorating a cubicle in manly ways. I have seen good, bad and ugly workspaces occupied by ladies, but they look so different from a man’s cubicle. Sorry, I don’t have the desire to decorate my cubicle by season or date; that’s just not me. I don’t put up little pumpkins in October and eggs at Easter like women do. Previously I posted some of the basic tips on becoming a better employee by writing better emails. Writing good emails and living in a well-organized office space are a few subtle things that don’t get a promotion or raise directly, but raises you up in the eyes of people who matter at work. Your cubicle says a lot about you, especially if someone visits for the first time and you are not there. My VP (boss’s boss) works from a different city. On one of his visits to our office, he decided to pay one of my colleagues a visit. The colleague was on a break.

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20 Things To Do Before You Lose Your Job

October 27, 2011
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20 Things To Do Before You Lose Your Job

In continuation of my earlier posts on things to do before you quit, this post describes what you should do before you are laid off. A pink slip comes as a surprise to us, no matter how much trouble our employer is in or how bad our performance has nose-dived in recent months. We always think we are the best around. The boss will pick someone else if anyone has to go; not us. With unemployment rising, there is no guarantee that you will get to keep occupying your chair at work. Even if there’s little to no chance of losing your job, you should still be prepared. Prevention is better than a cure Nothing beats an attempt to keep a job. In my position, I hire and fire employees. I’m impressed when I see someone exhibiting the following behavior, even if they are at the bottom of the performance graph compared to all others. I start rethinking things before letting them go. At times I have retained some of those late risers. 1. Become a boss’s man. If you are going, there’s a high chance your boss’s job is shaky as well. In that case, he’ll need help from his

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Spending Money on Self Improvement

September 13, 2011
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Spending Money on Self Improvement

To me, self improvement means becoming a more educated, more productive, more valuable and wiser person. This is a follow-up post from yesterday, where I talked about making saving fun – you should also spend a reasonable amount of money on self improvement. Every business allocates money for R&D work. This is an investment toward a better future by bringing in new innovation on product/services, generating more sales and profit. As individual money earners we are no exception, and should spend money on things that can increase or enhance our future potential to earn – not only monetarily. Self improvement brings an overall gain in personality and acceptance from the outside world, including your own family. I agree that there are ways to improve yourself for free. Attending church every Sunday is one of them. The local library is one of the most frequently talked about self improvement spots. You can read books, rent DVDs on self improvement, and even use exercise DVDs to avoid paying for a gym membership. A $300 tread mill at home pays itself off in slightly more than one year, considering the average gym membership costs around $20 a month, give or take. In my

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Your Career, How to Negotiate a Pay Rise

August 26, 2011
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Your Career, How to Negotiate a Pay Rise

Saving money can give a boost to your saving or debt repayment, but the real boost will come from your increase in income. Whether it is by doing some extra work on the side or by working towards salary increase at your current job. But, a silent worker will never get the hike unless you ask for it, unless you are exceptionally valuable or extreme lucky. Even if you are satisfied with your current job, at some point in your career there will be moments when you have to step up to the plate and ask for more money. There may only be a few times when you need to take this action but definitely the moment will come. Whether you have a HR job , technology job or you work in sales, the moment will present itself and you need to be prepared. It can be terrifying and many people put this moment off as long as they can. Remember that your boss will have had lots of people asking for a pay rise, you will not be the first one, so don’t be afraid its your duty to earn more and provide better comfort to your family. There are a few things that you need

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How to Quit Your Job In Dignified Way

August 23, 2011
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How to Quit Your Job In Dignified Way

In my 10 years of work life, I have quit three jobs so far. I have quit two major technology companies and a small start-up firm. I am fortunate enough to be in regular touch with all my previous managers because I exited in dignified manner. At some point of time you and I will again quit, well, most probably. Most of us will quit our jobs in next 10 years. The question is, in which manner you will leave your employer. When grass is greener the other side, its difficult to maintain the same cordial and warm relationship with your current employer, specially during last few days when you are finishing up unfinished tasks or preparing your replacement to fit in your shoes. When you are counting your days at current employer,  spare a thought for the people you are leaving behind, the company you are quitting from, which provided your pay check for last few months or years. Imagine the day when you joined them and started embarking on a journey together. The enthusiasm and zeal you showed during first few days those were for real, those were to excel in your new job. For whatever reasons you

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Be Better Employee: How To Write Winning Emails

August 1, 2011
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Be Better Employee: How To Write Winning Emails

If your job requires you to spend a significant amount of time in front of a computer, how many mails do you write per day at work? I do send around 30 -50 emails per day on average which includes mails to my team members, direct reports, leaders and colleagues. I write mails to people working in my organization or some other organization we deal with. It is very difficult to cope with a inbox which receives a mail every couple of minutes and you require to answer a few of them as soon as possible. You go crazy at times when an email you receive does not mention clearly the purpose for which it is sent, and you have no clue why the mail is sent to you in first place, it aggravates when the same mail asks for your opinion. Do you know if somebody else is at the receiving end because of one of your email? Very often this becomes true when you are under mercury boiling situation. How to write better emails 1. Carefully select your ‘To’ list and ‘CC’ list, I never use ‘BCC’ unless absolutely necessary, I use BCC only when ‘CC’ list is

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What To Do, To Become A Valuable Employee

July 10, 2011
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What To Do, To Become A Valuable Employee

In one of my earlier post, I mentioned a few tricks to get a raise at current job. Here I will explain you some tried and tested methods that people in my circle of friends adopted, to become invaluable employee to the boss and the team. But, do remember that there is no magic strategy to bring you success. Not every one is equal, when the direction to cut team size comes to your boss, no matter how he likes his team, he has to cut a few head to save his/her own. Even if you are one of the most hard-working employee who produce good results, do not be over-confident and get surprised when you are called out for that discussion. As with all my other posts, this post will also give a bright picture of the things, not a gloomy one. There are many ways you make yourself invaluable, the tricks are simple but consistency is the key, once you start following these advises, there is no turning back, you can save your job because, however bad shape your employer is in, they are not going to lay off the entire work force. I always believe in the phrase “Be

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