Let’s take down another terrible saying. You’ve certainly heard “the customer is always right”. In Japan, the saying is more like “the customer is god”. Most of us instinctively know this isn’t necessarily true, and is more like a header of a PowerPoint presentation for a corporate sales training.
I want to go through two things: your relationship with your company, and your responsibility as a consumer (sorry, we are not always right, let alone god).
Let’s start with you and the company. I don’t want to start off with too many assumptions, but since you’re here, let’s assume you want to grow in your career. There’s one other preamble to the rest of what I am about to say, and that is let’s assume you like your company (Not completely satisfied, but like). If you don’t, I will address that problem later, but not in this blog post.
I have never worked for a company where there is perfect satisfaction between the employees and the management. It would be an unrealistic expectation, and there isn’t anything wrong with it. There is a way to position yourself to profit/benefit from it, and that is the most important thing I want to convey.
From wherever you stand right now, imagine that there is a two-forked road in front of you.
- I am dissatisfied with my company, and I don’t trust/enjoy the company of my colleagues. Life is short, but life is also not easy. My first suggestion is to look for new opportunities. I am not naive enough to believe that it is easy. Most people can’t afford to walk away and start looking, so update your LinkedIn, turn on the “open-to-work” setting, connect with at least 10 recruiters that support your industry (don’t worry, they’ll connect with anyone), and send them a DM. That’s the easy part. Next, make a plan and track something measurable. I’ll do a deep dive on this later, but for the purposes of this blog, create a proposal that involves tracking data. Collect data, visualize it, contextualize it, and share it. This does 3 things: 1. Gives you purpose. 2. Puts you on the radar of your colleagues and superiors, demonstrating your competency and understanding of corporate culture. 3. Arms you with a data-driven process that you will use as key evidence in your recruitment process.
- I am dissatisfied with my company, but I trust/enjoy the company of my colleagues. This one is the most common, and needs to be navigated the most carefully. Each one of these roads could its own post, and this is no exception. In a sentence, the mission is to side with the company while maintaining the respect of your peers. In many cases, managers know they are disliked by their workforce. Especially a large workforce that doesn’t interact with their managers regularly. That makes it easier than you’d expect to befriend them. If you are young they may adopt you as a protege. If you are “not young”, you may be seen as a valuable asset. Be friendly, do your job, work late now and then, and leverage it into dinner and drinks some time. Given that you are dissatisfied with your company, this could potentially feel disingenuous or shallow, but here’s where you’ll make a dark and important discovery. They know why you’re dissatisfied, they may sympathize, but they are in a corporate structure with KPI’s. Stick to your guns, express your concerns on behalf of your friends, but do it from a position of trust, with the understanding that you will ultimately side with the company if necessary.
- When I was a young Japanese-speaking flight attendant for a major airline based in Honolulu, Hawaii, there was so much division in the in-flight department due to a merger between 2 airlines that occurred a few years earlier. The merged team company’s employees felt like second-class citizens because they were adopted into the new company’s system, and they were now in without a union, as the controlling airline in-flight was non-unionized, creating discomfort and a lack of security.
- I was hired by the new company, so there was no reason for the old employees to trust or like me. I was part of a big hiring campaign to send Japanese speakers to the Honolulu base, and I got into the good graces simply by demonstrating competency in the midst of a generally incompetent workforce. Every time I joined the pre-flight meeting, I volunteered to take the Japanese announcement role, even if my seniority would’ve allowed me to take an easier job. Have something to prove. Set a goal. Take pride. It works. Being well-liked made me present and visible in the flight attendant lounge. I was noticed and befriended by the flight attendant managers. One of them saw potential in me and pulled strings to get me on a managerial track, and that is the beginning of my story.
- To pivot or to commit: You may not know yet, but do some consideration about which track you want to be on. Like I said in my first post, there is nothing noble about sticking to your predetermined path just because you’ve been doing it a long time. That being said, in the corporate world longevity often is equated with superiority at the lower levels, so if you think you can blaze a trail, stick with it. I did in the above story, but not for too long. As always, I stayed ready to pivot and take new risks.
- In part 2 I am going to talk about consumer responsibility and how to make it work for you. It won’t be too long, but I think you’ll find it interesting.
Jarom Reid 