Frankly Speaking: Truths of work world learned in trenches

Frank Shipe, a former SBJ section editor, is a free-lance writer in Springfield.

This week's Inside Business section Education and Job Market inspires me to make note of the best resource yet for researching the U.S. job market.

It's the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at www.bls.gov.

The site's "Occupational Outlook Handbook" link provides, for every job and profession imaginable, descriptions of the nature of the work, working conditions, the number of such jobs in the nation, necessary education, training and qualifications, the current job outlook, salary ranges and more.

That said, I'm also moved to share some invaluable truths of the work world likely to be found not in the classroom, but in the trenches.

Play with better players.

An acquaintance, who counts some of the most gifted and successful people in America among her closest friends, brought this maxim to my attention a few years ago. It means simply to try to work with people smarter, more clever, more talented, better educated, and more accomplished than yourself.

Why? Their presence will raise your game enormously.

Think profit.

Business is, first and foremost, about profit.

Focusing on how one's work at any given moment affects the company's profit picture provides a measure against which to more accurately assess our value in the job, and a great stimulus to perform better. It takes no more than asking, "Is the way I'm working right now advancing my company's profits?" The answers will make you a greater asset.

Go ahead and ask.

The smartest, most successful people I've encountered aren't inhibited by fears of appearing ignorant or nave, but go ahead and ask out front whatever questions they feel moved to ask. As a result, and not surprisingly, they have more answers than the rest of us.

Listen.

Good listening isn't just hearing; it's concentrating on the words, wrapping the mind around them, and visualizing their meanings.

Many disciplines and systems offer specific techniques for good, close, effective listening. Try them. They work. In time, good listening becomes a habit, and you'll find it a powerful tool in business and every other area of life as well.

Put it in writing.

We're verbal creatures, and writing uniquely crystallizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing about difficult issues in the workplace invariably produces solutions. Logistical snafus and interpersonal conflicts become much clearer and less emotionally charged when expressed in writing.

Go ahead and write that angry letter or e-mail to the "offending" boss or co-worker; just don't send it right away. Let it sit for a day or two, then take another look with a clearer perspective.

A good tip: keeping a work journal, even if it's just a sentence or two now and then, provides insight and a valuable sense of continuity to the job.

Facilitate.

Make the job easier for your co-workers and they'll make your job easier, too.

Try on the boss's shoes.

Actually, it won't take a mile to get the point.

Check the wheel before reinventing it.

This especially applies to the young and eager. Leaping to change company procedures and structures can create serious problems. Odds are that those procedures and structures, however questionable they may seem on the surface, have evolved through years of costly trial-and-error. Find out their reason for being before trying to change them.

Don't assume you'll be automatically rewarded for hard work.

It may sound cynical, but it's true: the notion that hard work will inevitably be recognized and rewarded in the workplace is, with the rarest exceptions, false. Hard work most often is rewarded with a bigger workload. The truth is that hard work, like virtue, is its own reward. If you feel you deserve more, you have to screw up your courage, go to your employer and state your case.

I have to leave you with my very favorite proverb. It comes from Charlie Perry, a delightful guy who once was an editor at Rolling Stone and now writes food articles for the Los Angeles Times. Charlie, a gourmet cook, is also an Arab scholar who specializes in translating ancient Arab cookbooks and proverbs. This one covers working life and, well, everything. It goes: "Trust in Allah, but remember to tie your camel."