Sucking up to get ahead can work a treat
DEAR VEXED: It’s become a dog-eat-dog world at the office. I’ve always thought the best way to get ahead was hard work. But I’m wondering if sucking up to my boss comes into it. If so, how much and how should I do it without seeming obvious? Mark, 29, risk analyst
IT’S good that you are a fan of honest hard work first and foremost. The fact is that productivity is what makes money, not daily cups of lovingly prepared Panamanian coffee for your boss.
One of the good things about a recession is that it clears out dead wood – ie, people who have been around for ages by sheer dint of their charm, habitual presence or just that they have become part of the furniture. It leaves – rewards – the hardest workers. Or should do anyway.
But it never hurts to lubricate proceedings with a heaped helping of obsequiousness. An ego is an ego and it inflates before its owner has time to say “get me a coffee”. Just don’t use sucking up as a substitute for good, solid work. The thing is to use it to enhance your work, to make sure your good work gets noticed. Overdo it though, and the work will be clouded by the impression that you’re a gigantic, insufferable sycophant.
Keep a low profile, but whenever the opportunity arises to anticipate something your boss will want or need, seize it quietly. Do it so she barely realises what’s happening until suddenly, bam, you’re indispensable. Food or drink related acts – ie, she’s too busy to grab lunch so you offer to get it when you go out for your own – are particularly easy and yet so effective.
Got a deadline? Make sure you beat it so that you can help with something she’s burdened with. Stay late and be there to do secretarial duties after her assistant has left. Not every night, but enough so that she begins to think: “What would I do without kindly Mark?” Be quiet, calm and unobtrusive, while keeping your eyes peeled for opportunities.
Every time there’s an opening to be useful, see it as a way to endear yourself and an opportunity to speed up promotion – not as a chore. The combination of hard, good work and the willingness to get your hands dirty and play the servant will leave you far richer after the recession than you were before it.
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