At this time of year it would be prudent to provide employees with a refresher course in office party etiquette. For many organizations the end of the year marks a time when spirits are high, the fiscal year is at a close, and celebrations are frequent. If the company has had a good year, congratulations, bonuses and office parties abound. The seemingly relaxed atmosphere can be deceiving to the unsuspecting employee. Contrary to the office merriment this is not a time to relax and let your “ party self” loose at work. Office parties are serious business and should be treated as subtle networking opportunities as well as an occasion for the employee to be seen in a social situation. How an employee acts socially can be as important to a CEO as his/her on the job performance.
Let’s pretend we are designing a training module for office party etiquette.  Consider the following questions: 
  What do we want the training to cover?
  What is the overall benefit to the organization if we do the training?
  What is the most effective way to present the material? 
  What is the time limit?
  Who should be trained?
  What is the cost?
  Who should do the training?
  How do we measure the effectiveness of the training?
The most important question is the first question. What do we want the training to cover? Each organization has a culture that would dictate the answer to that question; however, there are generic topics that all office party etiquette training should include. The answers to the subsequent questions will fall in line after question one is addressed. Business etiquette guru Hilka Klinkenberg stands by the following essential topics:
  Appropriate dress for a business affair/party
  Check if invitation includes spouses, date or children
  Arrival/departure time to/from the event
  How to mingle effectively (do not spend the entire time with co-workers)
  Eat and drink in moderation
  How to give/receive a business toast
  Manners (greeting, please, thank you)
 
I would also add reminders about the following topics: 
  Review of the organizational chart
  Diversity (people socialize differently, set a norm)
  Language (expletives, ethnic, sexual, age jokes inappropriate)
  Cell phones, electronic devices
  Improper liaisons on company time
 
This may have a Big Brother feel to some readers. It may even sound elementary or ridiculous for an organization to consider spending any time or training dollars on reminding employees how to act at a social function. However, aren’t actions at the office Christmas party a perennial joke?  Almost any seasoned employee can tell a story about a bad episode in a business social situation that stymied a career in the workplace. How many young employees think that an office party is a time to get loose with free booze and free food? They have not had the exposure to realize that making a fool of yourself at an office party can have far reaching negative effects on your career at the company.  Young people learn too late the ramifications of poor behavior at an office social situation by becoming the office joke at the water cooler, or by watching their contemporaries move into better positions.  
Whether it is HR or sectional leadership that takes up the gauntlet, an office party/social situation refresher training for employees is an idea that is worth considering.  Happy Holidays!

 
Wondering how to spend that end of the year surplus money in your training budget? Check out the many offerings at the APLS Online Store. Excellent resources at value prices.

As I travel around the country consulting, speaking and writing, one subject continues to surface:  change. Whether it is downsizing, layoffs, retirements or multiage employees struggling to co-exist, the impact of change is ever present in global business. In the current US economy, baby boomers are being forced to accept an evolving work consciousness that is foreign to everything they were led to believe about midlife careers. The “entitled” career ladder has collapsed and the midlife employee has to choose between change and retirement.

 Many midlife employees feel betrayed, cheated and disgruntled as perks and pensions have disappeared. Midlife employees find themselves being considered dinosaurs because they were not born tech savvy. These employees have worked at a company or in an industry with the implied agreement (based on past practice) that they would be rewarded with comfortable, authoritative positions in the mid to later parts of their careers. Technology, global consumerism, capitalism and global business have changed the value of employees in the workplace. Youth reigns supreme. To survive and flourish, not perish, the midlife employee has to re-evaluate his/her professional value in the workplace.

 Andy Warhol once said, “They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

I think Andy was right. In order to survive as a viable player in the current workforce, the midlife employee has to accept responsibility for his/her own fate. Change is inevitable and it should begin with the employee. Don’t let change be something that happens to you. Take charge and direct the change. Begin by exploring your personality and re-examining your preferences. Have you ever taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?  HR departments use the personality instrument to help managers form compatible work teams. It is an instrument that helps people become aware and understand their preferences for operating in the world.  The Myers & Briggs Foundation explained the MBTI best in company literature that stated:

             “… People often find difficulty defining what kind of work they    want to do or why a given field makes them feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Personality type is a practical tool for investigating what works for you, then looking for and recognizing work that satisfies your preferences.”

 As a midlife employee, it is the right time to re-examine your work preferences. Have you moved up the ladder or moved laterally in your company without much thought of whether the work suits you? Now is the optimum time to be introspective. Stop and ask yourself what energizes you? Energy sparks creativity and creativity in midlife is the catalyst for reinvention.

 The following suggestions are additional steps to managing change and reinventing yourself in midlife career:

• Do a preliminary assessment of your marketable skills
• Talk to an HR person to review your skill sets
• Match your skill sets with your department and company goals
• Check with HR about training opportunities to strengthen your skills
• Research local educational opportunities to increase your tech knowledge
• Seek cross training or retraining opportunities both internal and external
• Redo your resume in a contemporary style
• Make attempts to interact with multiage co-workers/ seek common ground
• Keep current on industry news
• Volunteer to help with company activities (good networking opportunities)
• Be appropriately visible
• Become an expert in some part of your daily work and be available to train others
• Write a five year plan to clarify your career goals 
• Learn a new sport or begin a hobby that you enjoy

Midlife and change do not have to be polar opposites. If you want to stay in the game, direct the change and start with yourself.

 For more information on how to manage change and reinvent yourself visit the APLS Online Store.

As an employee do you consider yourself political or apolitical?  I ask that question because recently the news reported that Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, is leaving the oval office to pursue his “dream job” as mayor of Chicago. I found the story odd since Emanuel left Chicago to take one of the most influential jobs in the country just eighteen months ago. Now we are supposed to believe that he wants to give that position up to run for mayor. I could not help but wonder what is the real story? Alex Spillius of the UK’s Daily Telegraph speculated that the relationship between the President and Emanuel is fine, however the same cannot be said about the relationship between the President’s inner circle and Emanuel. As the news anchor droned on and on with his commentary on Emanuel’s impending departure, it occurred to me that workplace politics are alive and well wherever one is employed. 

Could it be that Emanuel underestimated the importance of paying attention to the inner circle?  Did he concentrate on his relationship with the President and assume that everyone else would fall in line? If that’s the case Emanuel made a rookie mistake. Office politics is the ever- present white elephant in most organizations, including the oval office. It is the illusive office dos and don’ts that the “in crowd” knows, the climbers work feverishly to find out and the neophytes foolishly rule out because they believe their talent is going to revolutionize the organization.  Political savvy in the workplace is the secret to corporate longevity, the critical key to business success and can foster alliances that help you achieve your professional goals. 

If you have stayed out of the politics in your organization, it is not too late to get involved. The following suggestions are ways to get you on the right track: 

• Stop talking and start listening
• Never participate in company gossip
• Seek out the Old Guard and learn the company history
• Become familiar with the “real” decision makers in the company
• Respect the authority of assistants to titled organization members (they have more power than their titles suggest)
• Know your current status on the organizational chart and target your goal position
• Be confident when your opinion is required and aware when facts are necessary
• Be clear about your business ethics and how they align with the ethics in your organization
• Be prepared at all times with current information in your field (read, research)
• Network outside your organization both in and out of your field
• Develop a credible reputation among your peers
• Build relationships up and down the organizational chart
• Leave personal life at home
• Find a mentor and be a mentor
• Attend company functions and keep your behavior professional
• Learn how to play social games or sports to participate competently at company functions
• Accept responsibility for good and bad decisions (don’t play blame game)

 It is important to remember that politics in itself is not a bad thing. Politics is basically a game plan of how to run things. People give politics a bad name by being unethical, spreading rumors, creating suspicion, innuendo, and abuse of power. As previously stated workplace politics is the white elephant in the middle of an organization. Acknowledged or ignored, the politics of an organization play an integral part in the success or failure of the company as a whole. Employees are on their own to decide whether to be political or apolitical in their workplace.

To learn more about workplace politics be sure to visit APLS Online Store.