Onboarding eases the transition into a new job.  Starting a new job involves meeting new people.  New employees must learn new places.  They develop new skills.  They learn to adapt to new expectations.  New hires often feel uncertain about what to do.  They are often uncertain about how well they fit in with the other people.

Onboarding accelerates performance growth.  Through onboarding, new employees develop loyalty and confidence.

The onboarding process tells new hires three things.

“Here is your job.”

“Here is how you do it.”

“You have everyone in the company to support you in your success. “

Onboarding benefits the hiring company.

• New employees have a better understanding of the company.
• Onboarding creates a more meaningful connection for employees with their work.
• New employees become better members of teams. They feel they are part of the organization.
• There is reduced turnover.
• Through increased understanding, there is better communications throughout the company. New employees understand the company communications.

Each new hire should have a trainer.

• Trainers help new employees connect.
• They introduce the new employees to other employees.
• The new employee feels welcome and engaged. They feel like of a member of the company.
• Trainers explain the duties and tools for the job.
• They explain the expectations of the company.
• They explain how to do the job.
• They teach the new employee their well-defined role.
• They set up a place to for the new hire to work.

Supervisors play an important role during onboarding. The first week, the supervisor gives direction on what to do. The first 90 days, the supervisor focuses on skills development.

The human resources department is important in onboarding.

• They give new employees a job description.
• They help new people complete paperwork.
• They explain the company benefits. They enroll new employees in benefit programs. They explain that the benefits grow with the time.
• They have new people sign any documents. They protect the company for non-disclosure and patent agreements.
• They give new employees with an organization chart. Onboarding employees can see that they are part of a company. They can see their purpose in the company.

The human resources department conducts orientation. These sessions are one-on-one or in groups. The orientation shows the company’s products or services.  During orientation, new employees learn the location of the company offices, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, meeting rooms, and equipment.

All of this information creates commitment.  Things become clear for onboarding employees. The onboarding employees see that they are a member of an effective, well-organized company.

10 Ways to be More Likeable

Likeability is a soft skill that helps people build relationships and forge alliances.  The things that students do to become likable are the same things that make workers likable. However, with evolving technologies and changing social norms, the skills and etiquette for likeability are more complex.

In the “Wall Street Journal” article, “Why Likability Matters More at Work,” Sue Shellenbarger writes that social networking and videoconferencing make being likable more difficult. People just do not seem as personable in social networking and videoconferencing as they do in person.

Here are ten suggestions to simplify behavior for likeability in the workplace.

1. When you leave a meeting, clean up your workspace.  Since more people use laptops for notes and calendars, meetings rooms are less cluttered. Some people notice and get annoyed when people leave a mess behind.  You do not want to be the pig in the parlor.

2. Do not check your smartphone during lunch or a meeting. Turn off the phone or put it on vibrate. If you want to check your smartphone, get out of the room before you take it out of your pocket.   Checking your phone in a meeting is using your phone in a meeting.

3. Dress appropriately.  If the norm in your workplace is to wear a shirt or blouse, close all the buttons except for the collar button. Take off your hat or cap when you enter a building. In videoconferencing, what you wear is especially important.

4. Do not wear after-shave lotion or perfume. Most people do not want to smell you.

5. Do not talk about other people when they are not in your presence. Office gossip has a way of becoming a virus.

6. Leave equipment in working order. When you finish using a copier or a printer, make sure there is paper in the machine so that the next person can use it.

7. In office disagreements, take the high road. If someone criticizes you, do not criticize the person in return.   If you find something useful in what the person is saying, thank the person for the information. If the person is sounding off, tell them that you regret that they feel that way.  You do not have to tell them they are wrong.  Simply say that you feel differently.  The practice of not criticizing people is especially important in emails where you leave a paper trail of poor behavior.

8. Avoid borrowing from your coworkers. Plan and keep on hand the things you need to get your work done.  If you do have to borrow something, get permission. As soon as possible, return or replace it.  Never use another person’s computer when that person is not present.  The invasion of privacy is similar to going into a person’s home when they are not there.

9. In the workplace, don’t touch other people. There is no line in the workplace for what is too little or too much when it comes to touching. For that matter, give people space. Three or four feet is usually enough for social comfort. With the issue of the pandemic, six or more feet is comfortable for some people.

10. Do not invite your boss to connect in social networking. The pecking order for networking invitations runs from the top down through an organization.

Saving Your Career from Job Burnout

Are you working on adrenaline and caffeine to push yourself to work faster and for longer hours?  Are you working under constant pressure from your supervisor or from your working conditions?  Are you taking shortcuts by eating at your desk, reading your email on your smartphone during breaks, and trying to do several tasks at the same time?  Your efforts for high achievement can destroy your success.

Herbert Freudenberger popularized the term job “burnout” in 1974 in his book “Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement.” He defined burnout as “the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.”  Freudenberger described a burned-out worker as resembling the shell of a burned out building.

Here are common symptoms of job burnout.

1. You lose interest in your job.
2. You procrastinate, or you simply cannot work.
3. Your work has lost its meaning.
4. You feel powerless over the results of your work.
5. You feel exhausted.
6. You suffer ongoing depression or anxiety. 
7. You criticize everyone.
8. You become a perfectionist. You work too long, because nothing is ever good enough.

Job burnout can come from several factors.  

1. Doing endless hours of work that is mind numbing or stressful
2. Working under constant criticism and correction
3. Not taking regular breaks to eat or rest
4. Failing to do things that give your mind a change in activity
5.  Working in a job that is a mismatch
6. Working too long each day and too many days a week

The solution for job burnout is change.

1. Take breaks.
2. Find emotional support through friendships and family.
3. Try new things.
4. Make a list of your work priorities.  Do one thing at a time.
5. Get regular physical exercise.
6. Learn techniques for resting your mind from work: meditation, pleasant and interesting reading, watching or listening to television, radio, or video programs that are relaxing, motivational, or inspirational.
7. Change jobs.

The danger of job burnout is that you ruin your health, and you ruin your career.  Having a successful career begins with you taking care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally.

In the first 90 days, you will create first impressions.  Make them all positive.

1. Impress your boss.  Do the job your boss expects you to do.  Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do in the order in which your boss directed you.  Let your boss know when you complete each task.  When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

2. Focus on success.  Do not try to do things that you are not capable of doing. Do not take on more than you can handle.  Do things that you can do successfully and do an outstanding job with those things.  As you get more capable, you can develop new ways to do things.  In the first 90 days, focus on success.

3. Get in step.  Learn the company culture and way of doing things.  Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

4. Build positive relationships.  Create a chart of the organization.  Learn who does what and who reports to which person.  Treat everyone with respect.  Do not poison a relationship with anyone.  You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament.  However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you.  Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

5. Become a sponge.  In the first 90 days, avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn.  Some of the people who are junior to you will give you insight that will help you understand your job and your new company.

6. Write it down.  Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet.  When your boss tells you to do something, write it down.  Write the task and the action date.

How to deal with a bad boss

If you are working for a bad boss, you have my understanding and empathy.  I have had a couple of bad bosses.  One had no interest in his job and was a roadblock to my career.  The other one was verbally abusive.  In the first case, I left the company for a better opportunity.  In the second case, I adjusted to my supervisor’s difficult behavior.  He promoted me before he went to another job.

Working for long periods of under the stress of a bad boss damages your health and your life.  You can survive the experience of working for a bad boss, but you do need to assess at what price. A  study of 20,000 workers has shown that long periods of bad managerial leadership triggers several negative conditions.

• Impaired mental ability
• Fatigue
• Sickness absenteeism
• Employee turnover
• Marital problems
• Real or mental job insecurity
• Decreased job performance
• Physical problems including heart attacks for years after leaving the bad situation
• Depression and anxiety

There are things you can do to reduce the stress and to work more effectively with a bad boss.

Keep a journal.  Writing about your experience helps you in several ways.  You clarify your thoughts and find solutions.   You process the emotions and reduce the sting of dealing with your boss.  You create a record of the things that your boss says in the event that you need to present your case to human resources or upper management.  You create a record of your accomplishment in response to the things that your boss has said to you.  When the time comes for your performance review, you can use your notes to make your case for a promotion or a pay raise.

Discuss your situation with your mentor or other people you can trust to keep the information private.  Through these discussions, you can find comfort and solutions to handle the situation and reduce the stress of working for your boss.

Do not retaliate.  If your boss criticizes you, criticizing your boss in turn will create greater tension.  If your boss yells at you, yelling back will only heighten the confrontation.  Reply to your boss in a normal tone.  Listen to the criticism and say that you will make the changes your boss is telling you to make.

Develop skills to work with your boss.  Learn the way that your boss wants things done.  Steve Jobs was a very difficult boss.  Everything people presented to him was either worthless or it was perfect.  Design genius Jony Ive would bring Steve Jobs 10 or 20 models of each new product to enable Jobs to create his own idea of how the finished product should look and work.  For many people, Steve Jobs was a bad boss.  For people who thought the way Jobs thought, he was the best boss on earth.

Seek support within your company.  Going over your boss’s head is not always a good idea.  At some companies, bosses will fire you for going to their supervisor or other people in the company.  The ill will alone can cost you support for pay raises and promotions.  However, building relationships and learning how other people are working with your boss can help you.  Chances are that you are not alone.  Some of the other people in your company, perhaps people above your boss or at the same level as your boss, may have found ways to work more successfully with your boss.  You can learn from these people.

Find opportunities to give your boss credit and support.  The reason that a supervisor benefits from an employee doing a great job is that the results benefit the boss.  Whenever your boss deserves credit, push the credit and support that direction.

When bosses do things that hurt them or hurt the company, you need to let them know.  Say that you feel that you owe it to them to let them know of an issue that can hurt them.

Remember some things about the temporary nature of working relationships.  Bosses come and go.  Do not ruin a career over a passing situation.  Try to see the bright side of things.  Your boss cannot eat you.  He or she may even promote you or give you a pay raise.  Eventually, your boss may just go away.

Explore your options.  If there appears no end to the madness of dealing with a bad boss, look for opportunities to transfer within your own company or ways to get another job.

Your performance review is important for more than your self-esteem.  The results can affect your promotions, your pay raises, and your job security.  Depending on where you work, your success in getting a great performance review is as important as doing a great job for your company.

As managers come and go or as you move to different responsibilities in your company, the things in your performance review are the documentation that you need to keep your career on track for the long-term.  Therefore, it is important that you take an active role in your performance evaluation.

According to Forbes writer John Beeson, your performance review is not a good place to get career advice.

However, it is a good place for you to show what you have accomplished.

There are things that you can do to prepare for the meeting for your performance review.   In doing these things, you will not only ace the review, you will do a better job for your company.

Here are six tips.

1. Some managers set up written goals for each employee.  If your manager does not set up written goals, write them down yourself.  Ask your manager to review the goals with you to make sure that you both understand the goals for your job performance.

2. Keep a log of your performance based on your responsibilities and goals. Log when you complete goals and the results from completing them.

3. Regularly give your supervisor updates on your progress in the assignments you have with your company. Send these updates to your manager in memos or emails when these updates are helpful for your manager. Ask you manager for feedback on your performance so that you can know that you are meeting or exceeding expectations.

4. Make a list of training, education, skills, and certifications that you get between performance reviews. Notify your supervisor and other people of these extra things that have you accomplished that make you a more valuable employee.

5. Before you go into your performance evaluation, prepare for the meeting the way you prepare for a job interview. Make a list of the things that you expect your supervisor to discuss and questions that your supervisor will ask. Write down your answers to these questions before the performance review.

6. Make two copies of the things you want to discuss in the performance review.  Give a copy to your supervisor.

In setting up goals and having ongoing discussions about your progress, you will build a stronger relationship with your supervisor.  When you supervisor gives you feedback, adjust immediately to any feedback on changes.  You will both be more satisfied when you are doing what your supervisor wants you to do. When you work with this type of relationship with your supervisor, you will do a better job and the performance review will become just another meeting that is consistent with the meetings you have had with your supervisor since the last performance review.