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Wake up and move up!

Written by: Lee Meadows

Article Overview: This article addresses the increasing competitive nature of 21st century promotions and advancements. There is a growing need to be more attentive to the full-throttle speed in which organizations are moving just to stay even. What worked last century will only get you derailed in this century.

Wake up and move up!

The actual physical act of sleeping on the job can evoke a range of responses depending on who is sleeping, who observes the sleeper and the extent to which the sleeping is disruptive to the workplace. However, not every act of sleeping on the job involves the closed eyes, head nodding, mouth open and loud snoring that sends many a work area into uncontrollable giggles. Individual careers have been derailed by a far more subtle, yet powerfully dangerous form of sleeping on the job. In this instance, an individual is completely awake, interactive and no more or less productive than the next person, but they are clueless as to the events surrounding the work cube. It is that lack of awareness in conjunction with their own behavior that is the catalyst for job promotions, pay bonuses and project leadership opportunities to continually float by their desk and wind up on the career paths of people more in tune with the rhythm of the organization.

The 21st century workplace is not the mild mannered, evenly tempered home to job security, seniority advancement and automatic increases consistently seen in the annuals of the recently departed 20th century. There is a much more aggressive tone and manner that are rooted in globally shifting events, but ripple back to individual performance in a work environment where the rules of conduct have been silently rewritten to accommodate the competitive fervor. It’s the same game, but it is played in a completely new ballpark and good players adjust to the subtle changes in dimension in order to be successful. The common link across these industry workplace ballparks is the element of speed. Things move faster because of current technology, greater demands and increased productivity that improve the bottom line. However, this form of speed is subtle and elusive and can only be seen by individuals who have abandoned previously held beliefs about what constitutes success in the workplace. For example, one of the unstated, but highly supported 21st century workplace rule changes is that promotional advancement is no longer a matter of showing up and doing the job, but is rooted in the notion of making a difference when you are there. So, the previous stated rule of work hard and be rewarded is still written for all to see, but it is the cleverly disguised small print that is often overlooked. Even more subtle are the conversations and project assignments that take place in back of the computer screen that shape the careers of those more attune to reading the shift in performance requirements and not just their email. Teamwork was once considered an organizational perk, a nice way to network and receive recognition for additional work. For most organizations, teamwork is considered a crucial part of individual and organizational success. It stopped being an optional rung on the career ladder, but is now directly tied to how individual success is measured. The implications for individual and team performance are reflected in semi-annual and annual reviews. The message couldn’t be any clearer if it were carved in stone and placed next to your computer screen.

Subtle speed changes in workplace rules have been as much of a part of the 21st century as the accounting scandals. What these changes lack in notoriety, they make up for as a quiet hum that is mistaken, by the sleeping among us, to be nothing more than a minor distraction. For the more attentive, the new workplace rule changes represent how individual productivity will be measured and rewarded in the years ahead. Sleeping on the job will have a more costly impact on careers than the traditional grin or perfunctory verbal warning. Derailment is only one missed opportunity away.

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Article Tags: 21st century, promotions



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