Liz Ryan, Human Workplace
We are all stepping into the new-millennium workplace together. It’s a very different place from the traditional working world.
Long-term employment is a dim memory. We are all entrepreneurs now. The old rules are dropping by the wayside. You won’t retire from the job you have now, unless you are very close to retirement already or work for the government.
The rest of us will fend, bob, weave and manoeuvre our way from here to our retirement date – if there is such a thing as retirement at all when we get to that point.
We are firmly rooted in the Knowledge Economy now. The Machine Age is behind us. The only fuel that powers our organizations is the commitment of our teams, but many leaders haven’t gotten that message yet. They are still leading with an Industrial Revolution mindset.
They manage through fear instead of trust. That’s why so many working people are fed up and cynical. They’re tired of being treated like disposable parts by their employers, while company slogans and plaques on the wall talk about Team Values. That’s a huge disconnect.
Working people are tired of employers who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.
The old business world was constructed on a set of beliefs that are no longer true, if they were ever true to begin with. Here are 25 of the most prevalent and ready-for-the-dustbin business lies to dump in 2016.
How many of these lies have you been taught since childhood — and how many of them still rule the day in your workplace?
1. The boss is right, because he or she is the boss.
2. Your employer decides your value — you don’t. You get paid whatever your employer thinks is fair. If your employer thinks your pay level is fair, then it’s fair.
3. Your credibility comes from your employer, who bestows titles and honours on you. Your credibility only holds as long as you stay in the same industry. You have no credibility of your own, outside of the credibility your employer gives you.
4. Corporate policies are written in stone and must never be broken, no matter what the circumstances. The people who wrote the policies are smarter than you are.
5. The best employers are the ones who make it very hard to get hired on with them. The more you have to grovel and beg to get hired, the better the company.
6. Your work comes first, and your personal life comes second. If there’s an emergency at work, it trumps everything else going on in your life.
7. Numbers, data and logic rule business, which is a rational and analytical realm. Emotions have little to no place in business, but you must perform your job with Passion!
8. You should give 110% effort at work every day, no matter how you are treated on the job. You should do this because you are Lucky to Have a Job at All.
9. If you are so unfortunate as to be summarily laid off or badly used at work, suck it up. It’s not personal – it’s just business.
10. If the company needs you to neglect your family and your health to get the job done, keep in mind: we’re a team! All for one, and one for all!
11. Your boss will tell you what you need to improve on the job. If your boss doesn’t understand your job, take his or her feedback anyway.
12. Business is all about speed, because time is money. If you have a better idea about how to do something, keep it to yourself. No one has time to listen to it, even if it would save the company time and money.
13. If you hit your goals, then your goals were obviously too low. You sandbagged — that’s practically theft!
14. Only a very small group of people can be entrepreneurs and work for themselves. Those people are mutants. Normal people work for other people.
15. If you don’t have data to back up your argument, your argument will fail. If the CEO wants something to happen, the CEO will provide data to back up his or her position. Here’s what the data will say: “That’s what I want — go do it.”
16. If you have a good idea, it was probably not your idea. You probably cobbled it together from a half-dozen nonsensical things your manager said over the past six months, and now you’re trying to pawn it off as your own.
17. Business is all about efficiency. If you figure out how to do your work in fewer than ten hours a day, you are efficient enough to take on more work.
18. If it can be measured, it must be measured and you will be evaluated based on the measurement of it.
19. Everyone in business has to pay their dues, except for the people who don’t. If you are not one of those people, don’t ask why — there is a very good reason, which is confidential.
20. If your manager wanted you to know that, he or she would have already told you.
21. If you are unhappy in your job, you are Disengaged. Because we value Employee Engagement, any employee who is insufficiently Engaged should expect to be put on a performance plan until their Engagement improves.
22. We look forward to working with you for a long time unless our plans change.
23. Everyone is replaceable. We are a strong, united team. Go Team!
24. If you don’t like it here, go work somewhere else. Keep in mind that job-hunting while employed here is grounds for immediate termination.
25. Our employees are our greatest asset.
This article first appeared on Forbes.