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What Advice Would You Give Your Friends and Family From your Career Experiences?
A friend had a very trying day at work and posted some advice based on what she had seen. I got to thinking about it, and while my professions and careers are hardly matters of life and death, I realized that I had similar advice for people. I am sure we all do, whatever our profession or job. I am not seeking the level of information in some of our posts like Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Concrete* (But Were Afraid To Ask). It’s simply a request for pithy advice from the front lines of working.
I used to program computers, and when I started my first consulting firm I offered some computer-related services. Advice I rapidly found had to be given was, “Don’t go on the Internet if you don’t have anti-virus software.”
As a process management guy, my advice is, “Don’t bother documenting them if you don’t know how you’re going to use that documentation to change things.” Also, “Don’t expect most of your people to have any idea what those diagrams mean unless they are engineers and you have given a class in reading them.”
So, what do you have, Ricochet?
Published in General
This advice goes double for family members. I had a cousin who figured out you could wear socks much longer if you just turned them a bit so that the hole in the heel didn’t cover the heel. Of course, once you’d turned it a full loop you’d have to buy another.
Once word of this discovery got out enough people at Church bought him socks that he may still be wearing them a decade on.
Because people’s actions can be unpredictable, it’s better to ask a stupid question than to make an intelligent assumption.
Well, I guess I’ll have to read the rest of this thread later.
Carry on.
That’s for sure. If anyone had told me what a neurotic, tyrannical, inconsistent boss I’d be working for, I’d never have signed up to work for myself. I wonder if I can sue myself for creating a hostile workplace environment.
Then you need two lawyers
I used to know an American lawyer in Paris. He was originally from the Bronx, if I remember rightly.
Obviously, you haven’t seen the personal services section of Craigslist. :D
Actually, just as the internet has figured out how to bypass the taxi cartels with Uber and hotel/rental regulations with AirBnB, it’s also figured out how to bypass the pimp. The ladies don’t need pimps to find customers or protect them from the hoodlums on the streets. We do live in an amazing age. :D
Treat your clients as though their time were valuable. It is. So show up at the farm on time.
Treat your clients as though their right to personal privacy were absolute; do not repeat gossip.
Do not snub the hired men to talk only to the owner. On the contrary, listen to what they say, as they are the ones in the front lines in the milking parlor and the feed room and the calf nursery. Always explain what you are doing, and give the reasons for your recommendations. Expect and help individuals to rise to heightened expectations of their own performance and learning of skills.
Fearlessly repeat, and demonstrate, the eternal verities, beginning and ending with the two greatest: “hygiene” and “proper handling of cattle.”
Do not abandon a client to his fate if a regulator or a news crew pops up on the farm. Stand with them.
Well, that last one was pretty specific. Jzdro, what is it that you do, if you don’t mind my asking?
You may be the most talented person in your company, but if you are a jerk about it you will be fired anyway. Few people are truly irreplaceable, and for the sake of harmony your boss may well decide that paying 2 salaries to make up for your 1 is well worth the trade off.
Learn the importance of absolute and relative advantages in productivity. You might be the best at X, but if X is less important than the Y you should be doing, delegate X to someone else, even if that other person is slower or less competent than you.
If you go into a family business, be advised that your family relationships will be strained mightily. It requires a tight balance between doing what is best for the business, and doing what is best for the family.
You should treat the people you supervise / employ as long-term investments. You are putting your own time / money into training and directing them, and you want them to reflect well on you and your department or company. Like any investment, don’t try to squeeze short-term value out at the expense of long term gains. Loyalty and and enthusiasm come with time and require continual investment and nurturing on your own part.
I cannot describe how much I like this comment. This is GTD-level clarity.
Hi Hank Rhody, I am a veterinarian in private practice, working with dairy cattle only.
What’s interesting to me is that my little bits of career advice, although specific to the field, are also just variations on the more general advice others have been giving. Human nature is the same everywhere, with people responding to various incentives and disincentives, courtesies and snubs, and so on.
Here are a couple more that occurred to me later:
Do not accept post-dated checks.
Before driving off, be sure there are no cats sleeping under your vehicle.
Good to hear it. I’ve got a cousin who does dairy cattle breeding. If you ever meet a Rhody in the field, tell him I said “hi” and tender my apologies for spreading stories about his socks.
Rhody, socks; got it.
Yes. And I’d add a corollary: despite what they might say, nobody really cares how hard you work. They care how much you produce that is of value. Don’t expect to be graded on effort.