Keep Your Eye on the Bottom Line

When you are being courted by a company for a job, they show you the perks. They show you how the job will provide for you above and beyond your salary. They rave about your compensation package and the idea of "total compensation".  Things like health insurance, 401K matching, and other wonderful add-ons are highlighted to show you just how people friendly your job is.

But don't be fooled. Your job, like any other job, is all about the bottom line. The most important thing to do is find out how productive you are supposed to be, and just how much you are supposed to be adding to the bottom line. No matter the structure, no matter the hierarchy, everyone is expected to add to that bottom line. And if you don't, your position will be eliminated or you will be replaced.

The best way to do this is to talk to someone who did what you do, or someone who does something similar. If they have been employed for more than a year, they probably have a good idea of how productive you are expected to do. Always pick the person to provide experience who is obviously good at their job, but not competitive and will purposefully offer you bad advice. I have been there; the best person might not be the best person to ask. It is also not presumptive, and makes you look good, if you ask about the value you provide to the company in a way that show you seek to exceed expectations. 

There is also a chance that these expectations are unreasonable. In the current economy, companies have been scaling back for years and trying to find ways to have one person do the job of 3 or 4. Be aware of this, and see what support services, if any, are available. Does someone do all the word processing? Use this resource to make yourself more profitable. Does another department do the collating and put together the paper presentations you create in your head? Don't spend your afternoon sorting through papers. 

And finally, be mindful of your atmosphere. Some companies have unrealistic expectations and it makes the employees crazy. They might give you unreliable advice because they themselves have never understood how things work, because the structure is bad or the information is not properly disseminated. To save yourself headache, use a pragmatic approach and talk to the support staff or supervisor, in a positive way that indicates you (a) understand and respect their position or (b) you wish to exceed expectation. With a little respect and drive, finding the information and resources to help you make your impact on the bottom line is very possible. 

Now there will be times where a company simply has an unreasonable bottom line. You can find this several ways: (1) is your position a new position that eliminated two other positions? (2) does no one with your position "cut it" at the company? (3) are the employees who had your position single, lonely and bitter people?  If this is the case, you just might have found yourself a horrible job. But don't despair, learn what you can learn, and look for a way out.

Corporations today are all about the bottom line, and if you want to keep your job, you must be about the bottom line too! You must add value, and be cognizant of all your responsibilities. You must also learn how to use the resources that your company provides to do your job efficiently. It is a learning curve. It took me a while to realize that I didn't need to type everything myself, and that it wasn't a good idea for me to do my own copying for large documents.  But if you do these things, even if the company's expectations are far too high, you will learn valuable skills, learn to delegate tasks, develop contacts, and build your resume, all while adding value.