Month: December 2014

Personal and often Over Looked!

So boring. But you’ll thank me in many years when you discover you’ve maxed out your retirement contributions! Seriously, starting a new job is exciting, even joyous. It is very easy to overlook our personal stuff, especially if promoted from within the organization. So go through the checklist!

______How much flexibility do I have for my work hours. Is it possible to work from home if I have a major project?

We’d all love to be able to do this. But you need to know the organization’s policies and your boss’ expectations. You also need to be instantly available if there is an emergency. Heaven help you if you can’t be found!

My assumption here is that you work in a physical office, not a virtual one. In the virtual world the rules are the same tho—check the policies, know your boss’ expectations, and have a protocol for emergencies. You also have an additional problem: without “face time” how do people get to know you? Trust you? You might literally use FaceTime,or Skype, or messaging, but many virtual worlds rely too much in my view on conference calls. So think about this one a bit and discuss it with your colleagues. In the virtual world, the people who keep their jobs during layoffs are the ones who are not invisible.

______Have I updated my withholding (W-4)?

Duh. Higher salary? You’d better review, because you may have higher withholding requirements—or not, depending on your personal circumstances. You may also want to take your salary increase and put a higher percentage to student loan debt, rainy day savings, or charitable giving, or all three. Just because your salary goes up, doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend more.

______Have I updated my retirement deductions?

This is another often over-looked no brainer. If you got a 10% raise, you could put more into retirement, or even the whole 10%, if you can keep your current expenses the same. Just be sure you are aware of the tax implications.

______Do I have a mentor (or several of them)?

Some people, especially women managers, think they have failed the whole mentoring thing if they don’t have some super mentor in their lives. But I think you should feel free to have lots of mentors—a network of people whose experiences in life and work give you a place to turn for advice. Some mentors are in your profession, but some you may know from other facets of your life. Look around!

______Are there professional associations that would be helpful to me?

There are few things as satisfying in the world of work as having people in the same field to talk to. You can share problems, strategize, make connections, and have fun with people who get what you are dealing with day to day. Here is a place to start, if you are not familiar with professional associations in your field: http://www.job-hunt.org/associations.shtml   Go to their websites, poke around, ask your friends, ask your boss. Not all of them are equally valuable but some of them are extraordinarily helpful. Give it a try.

Calendar!!

Ok, so your space is useful and well organized, so now what? You need to get your calendar up and running.  Depending on the complexity of your workplace, you may get  dozens if not hundreds of emails a day, countless phone calls, tweets, IMs ….we are all drinking from a fire hose. Most days we are lucky to get to the to-do list by the end of the day. I think this is why so many of us like to work before or after regular office hours, because the constant interruptions are fewer!

In order to stay ahead –or at least not get blind sided– by the unpredictable, it is a great practice to see if we can predict the predictable.  Every workplace has a few standard projects and meetings that recur every week or month or year. Getting those up on your calendar from the start is extremely helpful.

Calendar:

______Do I have all standing meetings on my calendar? Do I need to change any of them?

For example, your predecessor had a weekly staff meeting every Monday at 10.  Put it on the calendar for the coming year, or forever if you like. But maybe that doesn’t work for you because you need some time on Monday to prepare for that meeting.  Before you change it to 2 pm tho, check to see if that conflicts with something else you have to do, like meet with other department heads!  Discuss  it with your staff, but if it is truly your meeting, you get decide what is most useful to you.   Maybe your boss meets with department heads on Tuesdays at 10, no matter what.  Put it on the calendar.   Add Board meetings, end of year celebrations–any gatherings of people that take place on a regular basis, even if only once a year. You can add a calendar alert to give yourself prep time as needed.

­­______Have I scheduled regular one-on-one meetings with my supervisor?

This especially useful if you a working in a new office, or geographical area or in a new industry. Not only will you get to know your supervisor better, and she you, but you’ll be able to get a better sense of mission and goals.  Of course check with your boss first.  And always make sure you have something to discuss.  Don’t waste their time either. You can always cancel the meeting if you have nothing to discuss, but it may be harder to get on the calendar than to get off it.

______Have I scheduled weekly staff meetings?

These have to be real meetings, not just coffee and gossip (although that may have its place too). Each individual should report on what is going on in their area so they can ask for help from each other and from  you if it is needed. This is an important part of cross training and succession planning. If no one knows what anyone else does, what happens when there is an unexpected illness or resignation? I have found that some passive aggressive behavior–say, someone in another department making it hard for your staff member to get needed information–may need to be resolved by a phone call or email from you.

______Do I have a projects due list?

What exactly is your job? Do you have to supervise personnel, do quarterly reports, balance the books?  Do any of these entail annual reviews, monthly one- on- ones with budget numbers, client/patient/customer/student lists, staff reports?  Once you know what your job is, you can move to the next question, which is:

______Are important project dates on the calendar?

Maybe all personnel reviews need to be completed  in July, or on the anniversary of hire. Look them up and get them on the calendar, with some lead time to do the work.  Maybe your budget is always due in March. Schedule time on your calendar to work on it in February. 

Yes, all this is a lot of work when starting a new job. But “front loading” the framework of your day, week, month, quarter and year gives you a scaffold on which to build.