Don’t Be A Jerk

"The most important thing I do is make you look good."  

Yes.  I have the audacity to not only put that on my LinkedIN profile but on every cover letter I send out.  I mean it. 

On Facebook and other social networking sites, the posts abound about how much so many of us hate our jobs.  I find it disconcerting.  If I owned the business and seen a negative post about my company or our clients or customers, even from the person lowest on the totem pole, I would find the reason I needed to terminate them.  Our first career objective should be to make our business appear to be the best no matter where we are at in the company directory.  We are all salespeople for our company, whether we make a commission or not.  In the economic times we live in, no employer can afford to retain negative people.

These are the hard and fast rules of a true professional:

1.    You work for the best company there is for the excellent product or service created.

2.   Your clients and customers are the highest quality people in the world.

3.   You are honored to be involved with both.

I realize its difficult after a hard day’s work, dealing with problems caused by co-workers lacking professional skills or unreasonable clients.  The truth is the customer is not always right and sometimes the workload is just impossible, but it isn’t our place to blast these troubles out to the world. If its solvable, fix it.  If you need help, ask. For all other issues just “deal with it”.  We don’t get perfect lives or perfect jobs.  If you are that unhappy you should be looking elsewhere anyway.  Even then, there is no excuse to publicly criticize any company you work for. They hired you and you work for them.  Where’s your loyalty (and your gratitude)?

A wise person once said:

"When you point your finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you." 

Believe it.  

The first question that pops into my head when someone I barely know starts making negative comments to me verbally or publicly on social networks about their job or customers is “Then why does he/she work there?” 

The answers are not good.  Maybe she is unable to master the privacy settings on her mouth or internet.  Maybe he speaks negatively about his friends and relatives too. More likely is she is more motivated by money than success, he is too lazy to look for a more suitable position, or she is resistant to change.  I always wonder what he says behind my back.  

The truth is that he/she is being a total jerk. 

                      Yes, A. TOTAL. JERK.  

Don’t be a jerk.