Xenofact’s Job Hacks #2

And it’s part 2 of my Job Hacks. These are tips for weirdoes, mutants, SubGenii, and other people trying to survive the job world. This is advice from a long-term professional from his experiences and that of his friends and co-workers.

It’s Fine To Avoid Or Hate Work – Allow yourself to be bitter and angry.  This lets you work through your issues and be honest with yourself.  Then, clearer on what you hate, you can focus on dealing with your job or getting another one.

Self-Preservation is Fine – You need your job to survive, you can’t sacrifice yourself because your employer is probably going to exploit that and burn you out.  The survival urge is fine, that’s part of being human.  It doesn’t mean you’re selfish, it just means you have space to care for yourself too.

Try Weird Hours – If you have control of when you work, try to work out schedules that serve your interests, think out of the box.  Try a 4 day workweek so you get a longer weekend, or start early and leave early, etc.

Take Advantage of Local Travel – If you have to travel between places, this is a great way to control time.  Count commute time at work, put errands in your plan, use it to be visible OR invisible, vanish if you can.

Learn The Territory – Get to know the place you work.  This helps you find how to avoid people, how to find people, where the good donuts are, and more.  Navigate your workspace.

Learn To Hide – Now and then you need to get away from people.  You can “take a call” or “get some quiet time” or “go check on supplies” or something.  Really you’re just in a meeting room or storage room avoiding people.

It’s OK To Avoid Promotions – It’s fine not to rise in the ranks as long as you’re happy and surviving, and get regular raises.  Sometimes you get more respect for sticking around awhile (I’ve seen this in admin and communications).  If you’re good enough or no one wants to do it, you can become indispensable.

Look Into Lateral Promotions – Sometimes you can get more peace, less stress, and even more cash with promotion to something the same level of your current job.  Remember you can move around and not get a painful promotion.

If You Climb Up, Know How To Climb Down – If you’re going to play the promotions game, you may get more money and benefits, but you risk more stress and attention.  Have a plan to step back down from your ambitions when it’s time or when you burn out.  You probably have lots of options and transferable skills if you think about – and you should.

Work From Home If You Can – A lof oe places allow some work from home, so engineer it if you can.  Also remember different positions have more work from home opportunities, so see if a change works for you.  Ditch that commute, get more time – and possibly do your job better.

Use That Overtime and Extra Pay – Options for overtime?  Bonuses?  Figure out what gives you cash for the least amount of effort.  Sometimes you can line up enough it’s like getting a raise but without politics or watching people argue over you.

Location, Location – Have a choice of which office, shop, etc. to work in?  Use that to your advantage!  Go to an obscure area and get peace and quiet, go to a busy one so you can hide among the crowd, etc.  Factor in working hours and commute time as well!

Updates – Software updates can take awhile.  Then you have to “test” your system to be sure everything works.  Every software update is a chance to take a break.

Find Excuses to Work From Home – Commuting sucks so find ways to work from home.  Schedule meetings early – or late.  Note you’re near a client so its easier to see them.  Make it an experiment in productivity and cost-savings.

More to come . . .

-Xenofact