Rands In Repose: The Insiders
If you want a good way to insure your survival in your current position, read Rands In Repose: The Insiders.
I’ve alway tried to get along with our admin assistants (some have been good, some have been bad) but not for the reasons Rands supposes — I feel they get dumped on and they do a whole lot of stuff around the office. A few friendly chats, a “please” and a “thank you” and you may have made their day brighter. But Rands is right — they are always in the know.
I’ve never understood what our Program Managers do. Though I tend to get along with them — they just usually don’t hassle me.
Our HR staff impresses me, mostly because I have had little contact with them over the years and they still call me by my first name. I wonder if they can do with with the other 300 employees on campus.
The VP is a good one, too. Another people in that category are people that jump to your group for a temporary assignment, or if you get thrown into a group to help them out. It’s your time to impress them, and to get along. Then, if you group is going nowhere, or is getting the axe, you can see if anything is over there. If you didn’t have much contact with the VP/manager, the other people in the group can vouch for you.
Rand has many great entries, but this one is among his best.