E-Paper
Being cooperative is not doing me any good. What do I do?
Prerna enjoys her work except during one period of the year. During the entire year she is happy helping out others. In fact, at any point of time if there is a need for an additional hand to do something, the task falls into Prerna's lap. Unfortunately, her boss does not seem to recognise Prerna?s work at the time of appraisals or rewards.
Prerna enjoys her work except during one period of the year. During the entire year she is happy helping out others. In fact, at any point of time if there is a need for an additional hand to do something, the task falls into Prerna's lap. Unfortunately, her boss does not seem to recognise Prerna’s work at the time of appraisals or rewards.
Employee's viewpoint
Prerna should:
a. Maintain a diary of what she has done
b. Not volunteer to do additional work
c. Learn to say 'No'
d. Explain things better at the time of the appraisal
Organisation’s viewpoint
Her boss should:
a. Counsel Prerna on what she needs to do
b. Structure her role differently
c. Warn her not to take on the additional work
d. Give her some bonus points at the time of the appraisal
Expert's viewpoint
Prerna has to learn to distinguish between her primary work and all additional and miscellaneous work. Not volunteering for any extra work is not a solution by itself, because it can brand you as uncooperative. It is much better to learn to say "No" at the appropriate times when the secondary work conflicts with the primary, rather than always saying a yes or a no. Hence, option ‘C’ is best suited from Prerna’s point of view.
From the point of view of the organisation, it actually makes more sense to define Prerna's role differently so that she continues to do what she enjoys and yet it is treated as part of her total job portfolio. This would be a win-win situation and therefore option ‘B’ is the best choice.
Topic for next week
Madhukar is quite diligent in everything he does and is known to be both methodical as well as detailed. Unfortunately for the last one year, he has been stuck with a boss who is never satisfied. Every time he delivers an output to his boss, the boss makes him rework it for what appears to be a trivial reason. He ends up doing some presentations and reports more than 10 times but his boss keeps remarking on their quality!
Employee’s viewpoint
Madhukar should:
a. protest that the revisions are unnecessary
b. continue to do the revisions since his boss is a perfectionist
c. keep submitting the same draft every time
d. keep an analysis of the changes requested
Organisation’s Viewpoint
The boss should:
a. give clearer instructions to Madhukar
b. explain why the changes are necessary
c. let Madhukar handle things his own way
d. warn Madhukar that his performance is not up to the mark
Send your replies to ‘Personal View’, HT PowerJobs, 2nd Floor, HT House, K.G. Marg, New Delhi-110 001 or email: htpowerjobs@hindustantimes.com latest by Oct. 29, 2004
Expert: Arunav Banerjee, HR Advisor, Triple A Consulting
