The Office Jungle
A sharp, upbeat and essential handbook for anyone picking their way through the minefield of modern office life.
The Office Jungle is a punchy and practical look at the pressures and pitfalls of today’s working environment. Thought-provoking and insightful, this books contains a wealth of information and vital tips aimed at easing the path to success. Drawing on fifteen years’ research and feedback, while training all levels of staff, Judi James considers:
• Strengths, limitations and incentives: uncover your views on office philosophies and discover your skills and values.
• Problem solving: invaluable tips on every subject from how to navigate your way through office politics to getting listened to when you speak.
• What to do if…: the corporate agony aunt section addresses questions and dilemmas such as what to do if you want a promotion and what to do if you hate your boss.
Aimed at everyone – men and women, first-time job hunters and long-term directors alike – this guide offers an unsurpassed insight into office life and etiquette. Through examining gestures, expressions, clothes and corporate style, Judi James also offers a unique chance to reassess your own self-marketing strategy.
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The Office Jungle
The Survivor’s Guide to the Nylon Shagpile of Corporate Life
JUDI JAMES
Contents
PART I – STRENGTHS, LIMITATIONS AND AMBITION
7 My Company Does … What, Exactly?
10 How to Communicate and Be Heard
11 How to Deal With Difficult People
12 How to Manage Your Time 107
13 How to Manage Perfect Toilet/Lift Etiquette
14 How to Handle Sex in the Office
15 How to Handle Office Politics
16 How to Deal With Bullying and Power-Posturing
17 How to Market Yourself in the Office
18 How to Look As Though You’re Working Hard When You’re Not
20 How to Meet and Greet Company Clients and Visitors
21 How to Juggle a Career and a Home Life
22 How to Survive the Corporate Lunch
23 How to Survive the Corporate Training Course
24 How to Survive the Office Party
25 What to Do If You Want to Kill Your Boss
26 What to Do If Your Boss Hates You
27 What to Do If You Want a Promotion
28 What to Do If You Want a Rise
29 What to Do If You Are Going to an Interview
Survival in the workplace requires an altogether disparate array of talents from those required to be merely competent at your job. To subsist, and even flourish, in the business environment you must be Confident, possess Interpersonal, Communication and Presentation skills and be proficient in Self-marketing and Assertion, as well as having a hefty dollop of Grade ‘A’ Animal Cunning in your genetic make-up.
It’s these Seven Great Secret Skills – the lifeblood of resourceful corporate existence – that this book aims to teach you.
Trapped in the Shagpile
Of course you are an idealist at heart. You want the best for yourself and you want the most out of your career. Eyes afire with ambitions and objectives, you have your sights set firmly on the window of opportunities – while your feet lie trapped in the grubby, nylon shagpile of political intrigue and emotional in-fighting that still carpets most modern workplaces.
Marketing Strategies
Your talent and career potential are not worth the paper they’re written on if no one at work is aware of them. To sell your capabilities you must first sell yourself, no matter what your qualifications and existing job-level. To market yourself effectively, however, you may decide a little Product-Tinkering is warranted first.
Being Realistic
You’re going to study your aims and objectives. You’re going to be positive about achievements and action plans, but you’re not going down the happy-clappy path to self-enlightenment. You’re not going to finish this book feeling that you’ve tapped in to unlimited inner super-powers that you were previously unaware of.
What you are going to be, then, is realistic: realistic about your objectives and realistic about the amount of time and work you intend to put in to achieve them. You know you could be Master of the Universe if you could only acquire the necessary level of focus. But maybe you want a life as well as a job. This book is not about creating resolutions that deep down you know you’ll never have the energy or application to accomplish.
Role Ambiguity
As an increasing number of companies pare down their staff to the point of corporate anorexia and beyond, in an attempt to stay solvent, so the defining lines of role and task fade into fuzzy ambiguity.
There is a similar cosy comfort to be found in role-clarity as there is in easing on the same old pair of slippers each night. You know what to expect of them and they – pretty much – know what to expect of you.
Some firms trade on a hierarchical pecking-order, using terms like ‘Fee-earners’, ‘Non-fee-earners’ or ‘Support Staff’ to keep everyone tucked in their place. Current trends, though, are moving towards redefinition – which aims at role flexibility and open-mindedness.
This ambiguity can lead to an increased workload – but, remember, it also means a sudden renegotiation of exactly what’s up for grabs, and for whom. It often signifies a shattering of traditional barriers, leaving the door open for you to reach your full potential in your career.
Curry Sauce
Then there are the people you have to work with. Office work without people is like chicken without the tikka sauce. Your colleagues add spice and flavour to the day’s tasks – but, unfortunately, they can also give you indigestion.
Playground Politics
It’s a fact of corporate life that most of us are still the same squabbling, jealous, terrified, demanding, territorial little brats we were at school. It’s just that some of us have learnt to mask or curb our rawer emotions in an attempt to appear user-friendly and businesslike. That doesn’t mean to say we still don’t feel the same when something goes wrong, or even react the same when we feel we’re being cornered.
