Working With Idiots Can Kill You!

Idiots in the office are just as hazardous to your health as cigarettes, caffeine or greasy food, an eye-opening new study reveals.

In Fact, those dopes can kill you! Stress is one of the top causes of heart attacks - and working with stupid people on a daily basis is one of the deadliest forms of stress, according to researches at Sweden's Lindbergh University MedicalCentre.

The author of the study, Dr Dagmar Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and were puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks.

"Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk patients told us they worked with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to their office. And their heart attack came less than 12 hours after having a major confrontration with one of these oafs."

"One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them. A man told us he collapsed right at his desk because the woman at the next cubicle kept asking him for correction fluid - for her computer monitor."

"You can cut back on smoking or improve your diet," Dr. Andersson says, "but most people have very poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity - they feel there's nothing they can do about it, so they just internalise their frustration untul they finally explode."

Stupid co-workers can also double or triple someone's work load, she explains. "Many of our subjects feel sorry for the drooling idiots they work with, so they try to cover for them by fixing their mistakes. One poor woman spent a week rebuilding client records because a clerk put them all in the 'recycle bin' of her computer and then emptied it - she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again."


~ Unknown source

How To Use Offiice Etiqutte by Deborah Ng

Etiquette refers to the conventional requirements of social behavior. Or in more simple terms, it means knowing how to act. Different situations require different types of etiquette. Knowing how to behave in an office is important if you want to set a good example. Those who follow good office etiquette are promoted and given choice assignments. Those who are seen as crass or unkempt are passed over or have their employment terminated. What follows are some office etiquette tips:
Though casual dress is more acceptable nowadays, an employee still must look neat.
In addition to wearing clean, pressed, "business casual" clothes, one should also be well-groomed. If you're meeting with a client, dress appropriately. In most cases, this means a suit.

If you will be eating at your desk, make sure you're not disruptive to others.
Foods such as fish or onions emit powerful odors which can distract others and make them feel uncomfortable. In addition, watch noises such as loud chewing and swallowing, crunching and smacking lips.

If you're surrounded by others, do try and keep noise to a minimum.
Phone calls, especially those of a personal nature, should be handled with a low voice. Never use the speaker phone feature unless others are involved in the conversation. If music is allowed, listen to it at low volume, but avoid the use of a headset as it can keep you from hearing when you're needed by others. When having discussions with other workers, please keep it down so others around you won't get distracted.

Avoid taking part in office gossip.
No good ever comes from gossip and it only hurts others. If you're seen as someone who is constantly meeting at the water cooler to discuss others, it will look as if you don't have your priorities in order. In addition, your superiors will think twice about sharing confidential information with you.

Be conscious of the time.
Don't make a habit of being tardy or calling in sick. Do your best to meet deadlines in a timely manner and don't keep others waiting for you.

Always be on time and behave appropriately at team meetings.
Don't dominate the conversation unless absolutely necessary. Don't interrupt and be sure to give everyone a chance to speak. Don't eat and be sure to turn off cell phones and pagers.

Don't "borrow" from others in the office without their knowledge.
Don't remove staplers and other items from desks without permission and don't log onto another person's computer unless you've been given the "ok."

Be mindful of your behavior.
You wouldn't behave the same way in the office as you would in less professional settings. Always be on your best professional behavior.

Show respect to those around you.
Be a good listener and don't interrupt. Don't talk about others behind their backs or use foul language.

Don't be a whiner.
No one wants to be around someone who complains all the time. You won't be seen as a team player and your employer is less likely to promote you or give you key projects because of your negativity.

Avoid an office romance.
It's distracting to you and those around you.

Always answer your phone on the second or third ring.
Be pleasant to the other party. Never leave anyone on hold for long periods of time without permission.

~ Article by Deborah Ng

Top 10 on Time Management

Shift from Not Valuing to Valuing ur Time
This is an important change to make and when it happen u will never waste another minute! In a dollar sense - this means u are comfortable charging for ur lifetime of knowledge and experience - dont allow clients to take this for granted. U have invested a lot of time and energy. In life, we only get one chance with our time - we cant go back and use the last 10 seconds!

Get the most out of ur day
Every now and then ask urself: Am i making the best use of my time? If not, stop what u are doing and begin working on a project that will allow u better use of ur time. If u are 'bagged down' with a specific situation, get up and go for a walk and then come back and tackle it.

Work with goals in mind
Its amazing how differently we work when u have goals to work towards. If u dont know what ur goals are, spend sometime working out what they may be. Use them as a road map! Examples may be professional (project deadline, sales quotas, career advancement, etc) and personal (health, fitness, family relationship, financial, etc)

Handle every piece of paper or email only once
With paper use the "3 D rule of Do it, Dump it or Delegate it". Never handle a piece of paper twice. Dont even think of placing it in ur 'to get to' pile - Handle it NOW! As for emails the same rule can apply so u either action it, delete it or forward it to some one else. If u print a copy then use the "3 D" rule.

Ask an efficient person his or her secret
Ask the most efficient person u know what their secret is and how did they develop these habits. Then see if it will work for u.

Dont allow anyone to take ur time from u
Set up boundaries around time. If u are stopped in the hall for a conversation, ask for this person to arrange a meeting with u (if appropriate); dont allow co-workers to infringe on ur home time; if someone is late for an appointment and havent contacted u - give them 15 minutes past the appointed time and then move on. It is up to u as to how u allow other people to use ur time!

Build family and personal time into ur day
We all need to have the support of our family or friends - so make sure u build them into ur daily habits. U dont want to finish ur career and realise that u missed out on the closeness and development of ur family.

Ur health is important
Maintain ur health and fitness because this is what will help u through in the long run. There are three things that i feel are valuable to us all - they are time [which we are talking about]; knowledge and energy. Take care of ur energy and its levels. At the end of the day being overworked and stressed is only going to hamper ur health. So take extra care of this - go for a walk, have a massage, spend time with ur family, stop and smell roses or book in for ur yearly medical check up.

Dry clean the clutter from ur office and home
Take some time to remove the clutter from ur life. Clutter zaps ur energy and allows u to waste time on non-valuable tasks. So plug the holes today.

Work during ur peak performance times
Schedule demanding tasks to the part of the day that u work best, where energy levels are at their highest. It maybe first thing in the morning or early afternoon - work out when it is and then see urself moving ahead.


~ Article courtesy of the NPC P&Q Digest vol. 94 Sept 2006

The Nine Biggest Myths of the Workplace by Penelope Trunk by Guy Kawasaki

1. You’ll be happier if you have a job you like.

   The correlation between your happiness and your job is overrated. The most important factors, by far, are your optimism levels and your personal relationships. If you are a pessimist, a great job can’t overcome that. (Think of the jerks at the top.) And if you have great friends and family, you can probably be happy even if you hate your job (imagine a garbage collector who’s in love).

2. Job-hopping will hurt you.

   Job hopping is one of the best ways to maintain passion and personal growth in your careers. And here’s some good news for hoppers: Most people will have eight jobs between the time they are eighteen and thirty. This means most young workers are job hopping. So hiring managers have no choice but to hire job hoppers. Ride this wave and try a lot of jobs out yourself.

3. The glass ceiling still exists.

   The glass ceiling is over, not because people crashed through, but because people are not looking up. Life above the glass ceiling is 100-hour weeks, working for someone else, and no time for friends and family. And it’s not only women who are saying no to the ladder up: Men are as well. People want to customize success for themselves, not climb someone else rungs. So if no one is climbing to the top, the glass ceiling isn’t keeping anyone down.

4. Office politics is about backstabbing.

   The people who are most effective at office politics are people who are genuinely nice. Office politics is about helping people to get what they want. This means you have to take the time to figure out what someone cares about, and then think about how you can help him or her to get it. You need to always have your ears open for when you can help. If you do this, you don’t have to strong arm people or manipulate them. Your authentic caring will inspire people to help you when you need it.

5. Do good work, and you’ll do fine.

   For one thing, no one knows what the heck you’re doing in your cube if you’re not telling them. So when you do good work, let people know. It is not crazy to toot your own horn--it’s crazy to think someone will do it for you. Also, if you do good work but you’re a jerk, people will judge your work to be sub par. So you could say that good work really only matters if your co-workers enjoy hearing about it from you.

6. You need a good resume.

   Only ten percent of jobs come from sending a blind resume. Most people get jobs by leveraging their network. Once you have a connection, the person looks at your resume to make sure there are no red flags. So you need a competent resume and an excellent network. This means you should stop stressing about which verb to use on the second line of your third job. Go talk to someone instead.

7. People with good networks are good at networking.

   Just be nice, take genuine interest in the people you meet, and keep in touch with people you like. This will create a group of people who are invested in helping you because they know you and appreciate you. Use LinkedIn to leverage those peoples’ networks, and you just got yourself a very strong network by simply hanging out with the people you like.

8. Work hard and good things will come.

   Everyone can put in a seventy-hour week. It doesn’t mean you’re doing good work. So here’s an idea: Make sure you’re not the hardest worker. Take a long lunch. Get all your work done early. Grand thinking requires space, flexibility and time. So let people see you staring at the wall. They’ll know you’re a person with big ideas and taking time to think makes you more valuable.

9. Create the shiny brand of you!

   There is no magic formula to having a great career except to be you. Really you. Know who you are and have the humility to understand that self-knowledge is a never-ending journey. Figure out how to do what you love, and you’ll be great at it. Offer your true, good-natured self to other people and you’ll have a great network. Those who stand out as leaders have a notable authenticity that enables them to make genuinely meaningful connections with a wide range of people. Authenticity is a tool for changing the world by doing good.

~ Article by Penelope Trunk by Guy Kawasaki