A Few Personal Aphorisms on Work

<ul> <li>If you have the opportunity to make the life of a colleague easier, make sure you do so. It’s called work, not the Annual Witchcraft Championship.</li> <li>If you treat yourself like a loser, you will be treated like a loser at work. You set the yardstick. Credit to Nassim Nicholas Taleb.</li> <li>Whenever the red devil appears on your left shoulder nudging you to behave badly, flick it away with your right hand. Flunk!</li> <li>You don’t have to yell at work, except the colleague in view is physically deaf. And even if they are, I am sure you know that yelling won’t do you any good.</li> <li>Hold the door open for everyone at work, from your subordinates to the cleaning staff, the security team, and even that random employee who hates you for no overt reason (chances are that they might still hate you).</li> <li>Say the truth or at least don’t lie. Credit goes to Jordan Peterson.</li> <li>Learn the art of running marathons and sprints at work. You run steadily in a marathon and speed is of the essence for sprints. The key to burnout and inefficiency is running one like the other.</li> <li>I recently started playing with this: smile when you say hi to that random colleague. What’s the worst that can happen? Flips coin: heads, they ignore you. Tails, it becomes the beginning of a great relationship. Make that bet.</li> <li>Before you throw a colleague under the bus, make a mental picture of what under the bus looks like. Is that somewhere you’d like to be?</li> <li>Manage expectations. Do not commit to building a skyscraper in a month. It’s not possible. And if you think it is, please introduce me to your crack dealer.</li> <li>Make room for uncertainty, even when you think you have all the answers, you rarely do. Life is like a boyfriend who loves making [mostly bad] surprises.</li> <li>If your leader treats you badly, you are not duty-bound to pass it down the chain of command. If you were handed sh*t from upstairs, you do not have to ensure your subordinates also have smelly hands.</li> </ul> <a href="https://justinchukwumah.medium.com/a-few-personal-aphorisms-on-work-dfa0e685bf64">Website</a>