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Saturday 8 December 2007

Working Life

The rules for office politics and the world of work were not something I was innately born with. Naively I thought that simply attending a place of work would allow me to learn the ropes, as if by magic I would be hardened.
Alas this was not to be; instead I have often stuck my foot in it, been taken for a fool or had my good nature abused. To be fair this was worse before I began teaching. Fresh out of university I hadn’t realised the necessity of learning how to say the word ‘no’ or how it doesn’t always pay to be a know-it-all. It took a few months of mistakes, irritating my colleagues and wearing myself out to learn these lessons. Now as a teacher I find I have to learn many more rules, such as how to network, how to prioritise and still get my work done to a standard I am happy with and how to be tactful. The latter is the most difficult area for me. I am blunt. I don’t think before I speak. I never intend to upset or offend but I have a natural knack for being, how can I put it? To the point!
Teaching can be a bitchy profession. There’s nothing more we like that for someone to do something that gets everyone talking about it. On the other side of this I have never felt more supported in a place of work. I guess you can’t have everything, but perhaps this is the idea for a book that I have been waiting for: How to Keep Your Sanity and Still Survive at Work.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

your exactly right. but its the same for us students too. we need to be in with the right people, or you get left out of everything. if you offend the person every1 loves, your suddenly hated by every1. and if you do something wrong, everyone is like "aww never mind" until ur back is turned then they're all "oh my god what and idiot" so it's not just teachers who have to be in with the right ppl and need to know when to keep their mouth shut

Cate said...

Fair point about students - it must apply to all kinds of work and areas of life.

CannyCat said...

I am so "speak before you think", too! As hard as I try, I am so prone to putting my foot in it.

Office politics suck. At work you're sort of thrown together with people you'd never choose to socialise with in a kazillion years, and so there're bound to be a few you dont get along with.