How to land that promotion you deserve

Hi friends. Not to make you feel old or anything, but 17 years ago, we were blessed with Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad album, which gave us hits like “Umbrella” and a personal fave of ours, “Please Don’t Stop The Music.”

Song of the week: And in honor of the anniversary of GGGB, we’re dedicating our entire work day to listen to it, so join us.

PS. Have a question for us? We’d love to feature it in an upcoming issue of WorkDaze. So drop us a line here! 

—Rod

How To Land That Promotion You Deserve

 question 
I’ve been in the same position at my job for two years. I’ve gotten raises/bonuses but never have been promoted to a higher position. My boss always tells me what a good job I’m doing, so I thought I would be promoted by now. How do I get to the next level instead of just getting praise?—H.

 answer 
When gunning after a promotion, the first thing to do is to figure out the requirements and responsibilities of the role you’re hoping to land. Check out a few tips below to help figure that out.

• Look at the job description for your desired role and take note of the qualifications you may be missing. 

• Set a few SMART goals to help you reach that next level. What are SMART goals you ask?

  • Specific: Make sure the goal helps fill the missing skillset you need for a promotion.

  • Measurable: These goals should be measurable in some way so you can track your progress and growth.

  • Achievable: Although challenging, ensure these goals are attainable and don’t require unreasonable lifts.

  • Relevant: These goals should directly correlate to helping you gain the experience needed for that promotion.

  • Time-Bound: Set a reasonable deadline that helps with task prioritization and motivation.

• Not everyone wants to keep climbing the corporate ladder! Chat with your manager to clearly communicate that you’d like to move to the next step and see if they have any specific advice on how to do so. Share your SMART goals with them so they know you’re serious.

• Once you hit these goals and have proof to show for it, schedule another meeting with your manager to review them and show your progress to this point. 

We can already smell that promotion for you and know you’ll get it. Good luck, and let us know how it goes! 

A quick note for the managers out there: If you know there isn’t room for your employee to move up and get a promotion, BE HONEST with them. Nothing is worse than lying and gaslighting someone when you know you can’t deliver. 

Got a Q for us to A? Submit yours here.

Your Way Isn’t the Only Way, and That’s Okay!

 question 
I manage someone who does things differently than how I trained them to do. While they seem to be doing a good job, I can’t help but feel annoyed that they aren’t doing their work as I had originally shown them. How do I get over this? —L.

 answer 
Slow your roll, Backstreet Boys. We hate to break it to you, but as much as we love to think that there’s no better way to do things than our own, that’s just not the case. Look, everyone’s journey is different, but as long as the outcome is the same, it shouldn’t matter how they get there. Three things to ask yourself about your coworker in this situation?

• Is their way of doing things affecting any internal processes? Are they skipping steps when inputting data in the company’s CRM?

• Is their work style disrupting your or any other coworkers’ workflows? Is their process creating additional work for your colleagues?

• Are they missing deadlines and/or delivering unfinished work? Do you constantly have to remind them of tasks?

If you answered “no” to the questions above, we suggest trying your best to warm up to your coworker’s work style so you don’t stress yourself out over nothing. And hey, you probably don’t want to hear this, but it may be worth asking them to walk you through some of their own processes to see if there are easier ways for you to do things yourself!

Things To Send in the Group Chat

…while watching Mamma Mia! in the background of your work day.

We love a good hack, especially when it comes to our sweet treats. The next time you open a bag of gummi bears and don’t eat the entire bag (a rare occurrence for us, tbh), use this storage hack until you open it back up and finish them 10 minutes later. 

We only want to hear the word “rockstar” if we’re singing Nickleback at karaoke on a Tuesday after the work happy hour went a little too long. 🫠 We know you don’t possibly have the “bandwidth,” so we did the research for you and defined some of our least favorite workplace jargon.

Nelly Furtado’s new Tiny Desk concert instantly transported us back to the 00s… what was your favorite NF song growing up? Email us, we’d love to know! 

That’s all for today! Two more sleeps until Friday; you got this! We’ll catch you next week.  

—Rod & Gabi