Two memorable work life lessons?

Felon

Felon

Felon

Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2014
Posts
5,955
Location
Midlands
Just as a bit of fun,

What are two simple, work life lessons you've learnt over the years? two things which have stuck with you - maybe there was an incident, somebody got fired or you got a promotion/advancement, and out of it - you learnt something, if so - what was it?

Two of mine are;

Slow and steady wins the race: If I had a pound for every time I've watched someone (includes me at one point) go 'hell for leather' at something, too fast - make a huge mess, miss important details or just add to existing chaos, I'd be very rich.

Perfect is the enemy of good: Sometimes you start out with this perfect vision of something, but after a while the pursuit of perfection simply leads to an overcomplicated mess, or absolutely nothing, where it would have been better to just make something 'half decent' and iterate, to make it 'very good' instead.
 
Last edited:
OspreyO said:
Don't assume, check.
Trust nothing you're told.
Click to expand...

Yeah this is a great one.

Also, it makes me laugh when companies try to cut cost by hiring cheaper employees and filtering out the ones who want more money: If you think hiring high quality people is expensive - wait until you hire a bunch of idiots!
 
Another one I'm currently stuck in;

If you ever get offered a role that involves going into a company, to fix a huge gigantic mess: It was probably a culture problem in the first place, it won't ever be solved and you'll be dragged down to the same rubbish level that got them there in the first place.
 
Regarding the moaning thing,

It's certainly something I wouldn't do - once you get known for being a 'moaner' people won't take you seriously, disregard you - or find ways to avoid you, people who moan all the time can be a real bore, and drag others down.

Same as being like 'chicken little' running around saying the sky is going to fall, (even if you're right) there are better ways to point out problems, than get overexcited - people will just ignore you.
 
kaiowas said:
Never type anything about someone you wouldn’t say to their face. No matter how private you may think the audience is you have no control over where those words go.
Click to expand...

Also - I'd never say anything about anybody online, especially relating to anything employment related.

I think the stupidest thing I ever saw, was a senior exec writing negative things about George Floyd on LinkedIn after his murder. This is a senior exec getting paid huge sums of money, and to this day - I don't know what was going through his head, it would be dangerous enough talking like that with friends these days - but on LINKEDIN? :eek:

The whole thing blew up, and he got fired in about 2 seconds, very embarassing.

It's interesting, as AFAIK - nothing he actually said was factually incorrect, however the way he said it generated a huge **** storm, and people were out and out calling his employers 'Hitler' for employing him, dragging their name through the mud.

Often people think you can write what you like on your own personal social media - but it's no the case, if the company suffers - you absolutely can be fired.*

* There's usually a clause in almost all employment contracts, which can terminate your employment if you 'damage the reputation of the company' or 'bring the company into disrepute"
 
Last edited:
Another one I learnt recently:

If the culture of your company sucks, hiring decent competent people won't change it - they'll likely just get annoyed and leave around a year later. Change needs to always come from the top, from the senior leadership team, if that part is lacking - the whole company sucks.
 
Last edited:
NickK said:
Indeed - when your company has a below 25% OHI report and -47% recommendation response due to the culture, hiring great people will simply result in a fast churn. In fact it was so bad they ended up having to hire a third party partner because they couldn't upskill.
Click to expand...

Yeah, aside from the low-morale of churn - it's miserable because everything we try to build has had 2-3 different sets of people involved. There's no consistency - good people have options and would rather just move on, than sit and take the pain, especially in tech - where many of us class the job as a hobby rather than a chore.
 
In one of my former jobs I made so many good friends, friendships which continued way after I left the role. If you're in a good role with similar minded people and you get on, I don't see any reason why you can't make good work friends.
 
Another one I learnt recently, it’s an old one but it’s a great one:

There are two sides to every story.

I’ve definitely learnt to reserve judgement on people, before hearing their side of the story.

When someone is ****** off, or has fallen apart at work, or is generally not performing or they leave, there’s usually a reason for it that’s quite understandable and rational.
 
If a company has a really bad glass door rating, (less than 2.5), run for the hills.

Don't lie on your CV, companies are using more sophisticated background checking companies to verify details these days - adding an extra few months or year to a role, can really catch you out later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom