AT WORK
Here's what your boss wants you to know — but won't say

By Dana Knight
Indianapolis Star

During my first job at a tiny newspaper, I burst through the newsroom doors promptly at 8:09 every single morning.

We were supposed to be there at 8 a.m. No big deal. No one said a word.

About three months into my string of sloppy arrivals, my boss made a comment to a co-worker about "Dana time."

Huh?

"Dana time — 10 minutes late," the boss said.

He had noticed? Whoops. I had failed miserably at the unwritten rules or, in fancier terms, organizational politics.

"It's the things your boss wants you to know but probably hasn't told you," says Karl Ahlrichs, director of business development at Professional Staff Management, a consulting company based in Indiana. "Basically the playground rules your parents taught you — play nice and share."

Oh, yeah, and don't be late. A minute tardy might as well be an hour in the business world.

These rules are simple, and obvious, yet this is where young professionals get burned.

Just to make sure you — and I — are aware of the obvious, Ahlrichs concocted a dummy's list of the rules of politics and career management. It comes from his talks with Gen-X'ers and -Y'ers, who learned the hard way that there's practical stuff you should know but college courses probably didn't address the matter.

"The world inside school is radically different than behaviors you can succeed with outside school," he says. "In business you can't let something slide and pull an all-nighter to fix it." So:

• Write things down (especially when it's the boss talking). Mental notes make others anxious. You know how it irks you when the waiter's too cool to carry a pen and pad of paper? How you end up with a raspberry iced tea instead of Diet Coke, and a fat bloody steak instead of a grilled chicken salad? Kind of like that.

• Develop timing. When your dad came home from a 14-hour day at work, stepped on cat puke as he came through the door and told your mom he was denied a raise, you didn't ask him for more allowance, right?

Read the boss, learn his moods and learn his best time of day so you'll know when to approach him.

• Get along with co-workers. No bickering, ratting on the secretary or talking behind backs. It's immature, like a grade-school playground. The easiest employee to handle is one who gets along with others and makes less work for the boss, not more.

• Accept mistakes, because they're inevitable. The first time you put an order in for 500 neon-pink notepads instead of yellow ones, it will be unbelievably tempting to pin it on the intern. Don't. Take the blame and don't make that mistake again.

• Learn your boss's language. When she says, "I guess," it probably means she would prefer you not do whatever you're asking. And "Get it done when you get a chance" probably means — well, sooner than you think.

• Think beyond your nose. This world reaches far beyond your low-rise khakis and chrome-copper fingernails. Look for the big picture when addressing any project — major or minor — and you will look mature, unselfish and wise beyond your years.

• No surprises. Bosses, it seems, thrive when their hearts beat fewer than 33 times per minute. They like routine. They like being in the know. They don't like a shock — even a good one.

Why? Because they report to their own bosses, who expect them to know what you're doing.

• Never wait to be reminded. If possible, beat the deadline — don't just meet it. Write memos and send e-mails to update your boss on progress.

• Solve your own problems. Be assertive. Clean up your own mess.

Unlike your mom, the boss won't nag. That's because in his mind, you already should know not to bother him at every turn. You should know it's your job to be self-sufficient.

In fact, in his mind, you should already know all of this.