Welcome back to another episode of the corporate Cowboys podcast my name is Alex and as always I’m your host if you haven’t followed us on Instagram you should it’s at corporate Cowboys with a z we’re on patreon also it’s the corporate Cowboys podcast on rumble on YouTube and many other spots that distribute
Audio and podcasts if you don’t know what the format of this podcast is it’s very much form of cathartic therapy for myself as much as it is some self-education some self-training I’m developing myself professionally by speaking to you in somewhat of a long form we’re treating this as a free 30-minute
Consultation of sorts right where I take questions I read the facts behind them and then I answer to the best of my ability with an opinion an opinion of sorts it’s not legally binding right that’s a disclaimer anything we convey across our social medias should not be construed as legal advice
If we don’t represent you directly everything we put out should be taken with a grain of salt right we don’t promote nor condone any wrongful activity any illicit conduct but you can write to us and you can mail us stuff P.O box 3372 Rancho Cordova California 95741 now today’s question
Today being a little proof of life here Tuesday March 7 2023. today’s question is coming from r slash career advice and I read the question beforehand and I think this would make a really good topic on which to Riff on and uh really pontificate if you will
Also the facts on this one are pretty short the body and small right so they’re not going to give us much in terms of context that we can make create inferences from in order to provide an opinion so I think in situations like this it’s going to be more experiential experience informed
Anecdotally informed even right given what I know what I’ve lived what I’ve seen what I’ve heard and that of the associates that I work with so they’re asking here in our slash career advice if if you complete a task at work that’s scheduled to take a month
In one week would you pretend to work for about three weeks question mark essentially they want to know if you’re working on a project right a task that you’ve been assigned to has a deadline of about a month out right and you finish with your work
We don’t know if they’re working in a group or not right but you finish with your piece of the deliverable product you finish that within a week they’re asking here would you just continue to tag along for three weeks right now as a corporate Cowboy as as someone striving
To be a consummate professional always me I would say no I would say no but we don’t know completely the situation surrounding this decision right and the body doesn’t give us much else they’re asking here would you pretend to work I guess just the repetition would you pretend to work
Or would you be honest with people at the company and say you completed the task early why or why not would you choose either way hmm well as a career consultant if we had the hypothetical client we would want to know a lot more a ton more as far as
What kind of work they’re into the experience the expectations what they’re getting paid with what frequency right if they get paid by the project cache the project in and move on to the next one if you’re working in a group and you’ve delivered on your end renegotiate your contract and help somebody else
Remain productive otherwise you won’t be earning any money you’re actually losing on time you could be productive and billing more or making more yeah if you’re getting paid by the project I don’t think it’s in your best interest to prolong you getting paid right unless somehow some way you’re finding time to
Develop yourself on during off hours that really is in your best interest to stay on board the project and Vlog the hours as if you were working but in the meantime you’re developing yourself professionally right now that Teeters on unethical but again if they’re expectant the
Project to be done at the end of the month or you’re working in a group and the group deadline the deliverable for it is at the end of the month you don’t win anything you don’t gain anything immediately at least you don’t gain anything by letting them know that
You’re out of work when you could Coast and build yourself outside right you could continue building and developing yourself professionally while coasting on a project because you don’t know if something changes up if uh circumstances require you to change some aspect or some feature of the project
So the fact that you’re done or you think you’re done a week early doesn’t mean that they won’t need you in week three or week four as changes are being made and the project is finalized you don’t want to jump the gun too early I mean you’re a professional you signed the agreement
Your deadline is in a month and short of any exigent circumstances you should follow the agreement as you agreed to it as you signed on to it because you’re bound by a contract and the contract is enforceable right now there are ways and this is higher level thinking and for this we would
Need the hypothetical clients again in front of us to ask them whether or not there are opportunities to take advantage of the extra time to help others or to contribute and improve on the project as it was delivered to exhibit to exhibit yourself to show off in a sense
To exhibit the good work you’re doing and potentially cultivate a little uh positive reputation and extract a little recommendation letter from it right massage and finesse whatever supervisor or employer you have in order for them to recognize and later vouch for you if necessary that you are a professional about your work
So much so that you strive to finish early you strive to complete your work early there’s nothing wrong with finishing early it’s just how you present and how you deliver to your employer what matters because at the end of the day you’re a professional and you have a client
You want to manage your client in a productive manner keeping them happy and also keeping them thinking about you as a professional as their go-to dependent Reliant trusting why because you have that background you have that relationship with them having built rapport and having earned your reputation
I don’t think this is going to be too long of an episode I mean I’ll still stretch it to 30 minutes I mean I’m a I’m a professional and a man of my word and I need this time just like you need this consultation right this is as much an exercise in consultancy
As it is a consultation right which is why it isn’t official which is why I leave the disclaimer but we move into the theoretical we move into the philosophical at times to the ideological really what we’re doing is informing your your Professional Profile what it means to be a professional
And what that means to some it’ll be different but as a corporate Cowboy you want to be able to manage your clients in a manner that keeps them happy but at the same time keeps them coming back see it’s not just satisfaction but you also plant the seed for trust
You plan to see it for confidence where they will keep coming back you’re the first one they have on their mind when they have whatever work it is that you do you become that someone that they know oh I know someone oh I know Alex does this
So I’m gonna call Alex for this issue I know Alex will take care of this I know Alex is a professional when it comes to that kind of work so Alex is going to be the first person I call now that comes back to you managing the client as much as you
Manage the work finishing early like I said Is Not a Bad Thing but there is a fine line between finishing early and doing it right you finish early and say you rushed it or it’s mediocreally done half done or other opportunities within the project weren’t explored where the value was maximized right
Then you may effectively be doing a disservice to your employer and you never want to do that but there is a way to be accountable for the work that you do on top of which you can highlight the value that you added additionally I mean this goes back really to just
Cultivating your reputation as a professional so that your past employers your past supervisors your past managers and speak highly of you that’s what’s going to make you more money that’s what’s going to get you more work at least secure you more work because of your reputation
Folks won’t have to vet you out as much or interview YouTube be sure you’re the right person because your reputation will precede you I mean better that than you just coasting just floating on by and not doing much else except showing up for the check at the end of the month
When you’ve been done one week into the contract I don’t know if I should be including examples into this but there could be additional client relations you could be handling in week two or week three and then at the end of week three if you’ve exhausted all possible options to maximize the value
For the contract or for the employer then you let them know that you’re done and you’re done a week early but you know in your mind that you’ve completed your obligations satisfactorily and you actually went above and beyond in some cases it might be fruitful it might yield a bonus
For having finished early or having cemented positive ties between partners between entities between agents whatever it is that you’re handling in your contract if you do it right and you do it well you do it good and you do it quickly that’s what separates the professional from just the employee
That separates the professional from just the independent contractor the consonant professional is is a status that we should all strive to attain regardless of what title we have consummate professionalism is qualifier is something ethereal almost you could be a constant professional even as a dishwasher
But you do it right you do it well you do it good you do it fast they could pitch you a bonus at the end of the night right just like an executive and we’re going back to the question at hand if you’re an executive and you have a project with
A deadline that’s at the end of the month and your team finishes in three weeks what are you gonna tell your team oh just take the week off and pretend you’re working hold on hold on let me take a step back if you’re gonna tell your team to just continue to pretending working
So continue to protect continue pretending work continue to pretend working I mean I guess I could say it either way right and that’s the exercise or or would you instruct your team to go back revisit what they’ve done be sure that their eyes are dotted their T’s are crossed any interdisciplinary communication that
Needs to happen should happen or should have happened explore other options maybe secondary objectives that weren’t necessarily targeted but now lend themselves to pay a little bit more attention to because you have time you have the resources available and if that’s all checks out then you could submit the deliverable a week early
You look good for doing so and your team gets the credit I mean you are part of your team are you not you all share the credit I mean that’s that’s entire level thinking when you’re in the mix I mean it doesn’t come naturally to some it comes with time
You learn by trial and error you learn through having experienced this in the field be at school be at work be it in the family even if you need help if you need added perspective let’s call it our rates are more than reasonable and we’d be happy to hit us up
I’ll read you one or two of these comments and critique them you know provide a some commentary of my own but I think because the question is so Broad folks shouldn’t just going to say yes or say no say no and say no one Coast all the way
To the end and collect that check but they don’t know like I mentioned before they don’t know the frequency you get paid if it’s every week or bi-weekly or monthly buy the project right if you get paid per project then it’s in your best interest I mean
If you’re working alone at least if you’re working in a group you want to you might want to check in with your group members see where they are at in their progress and [ __ ] maybe you can negotiate with them take a little cut of theirs to help them finish theirs but I gather
In the comments that’s where we’re going to get a little um dichotomy of yeses and no’s yes because you can um you can be done with the work and move on to the next project or no because you can Coast to the end and continue collecting money I mean that’s a great
Assumption but we don’t know that without the hypothetical client actually answering an interview what context what circumstances they find themselves in and that’s that’s how you know that’s how you inform your next move it’s by having all the information available to you as a career consultant we could at
Least point you in the right direction by asking you questions you might not have thought to ask of yourself of your organization of your manager of your co-workers of your colleagues information matters the first comment here says personally I’d pretend to work for another week or
So and then submit It’s the Best of Both Worlds because and this is a good answer it’s a good answer so they continue because a you’ll have some down time slash keep their expectations reasonable and B they’ll still impress them by getting it done faster than they expected that’s true that’s true
I mean I would maybe temper the whole idea of some down time because in that down time you’re still rectifying any little uh issues or misfirings with your own project making sure that what you deliver is actually what you worked on it nothing has changed the circumstances
Haven’t deviated in a way that needs your hand and your attention additionally being able to do that will give you extra time to connect with your team let them know that your portion is done and that if they need help they can count on you so you’re either developing reputation inside or outside
Service goes both ways and that’s been a common theme throughout the podcast as well service goes up like it goes down like it goes across you want to provide good service to your own team like you would to a client don’t do anyone a disservice the next comment here says and it’s a
Little longer so it may take us to uh the outro it says that depends on the employer as to whether or not they would let them know they finished early right that depends on the employer I had a job at Harvard as a computer programmer the guy I replaced was legally blind
But instead of admitting I can’t see the screen and getting a braille reader or speech software which Harvard would have paid for in a heartbeat he used screen enlargement software to make it big enough that he could ostensibly read it in practice this meant he would blow it up until the
Entire screen was had one letter on it then spend several minutes I’m not exaggerating squinting at it trying to figure out what letter it is before moving on to the next one this [ __ ] comment sounds like a joke they’d give them a task and it’d take
Him a week to do it they were used to this and thought this was the amount of time it took he’d spend a whole week trying to puzzle out what letters it was they gave me a simple task I had it done in five minutes plus a little time for
The printer to run I brought to the printed results to the boss and I was yelled at because it’s obvious I didn’t spend adequate time to do the work right and it was handed back to me without even looking at it I went back to my office put it on a
Shelf read novels for a week took it off the shelf brought it back to the boss who said now it’s perfect in quotes now it’s perfect you see what you can do when you take the time to do it right I mean [ __ ] Harvard sounds it’s no
Wonder Harvard is losing a lot of prestige so I that’s really the fastest quip I have for that the wittiest answer I have is that no wonder Harvard is losing Steam Harvard’s gone back to re-segregating classes ass backwards as [ __ ] [ __ ] regressive not even Progressive anymore regressive they’re regressing in the name of
Academia in the name of scholarship right that’s too funny you can’t make this [ __ ] up and there really are dinosaurs who think that way because something has been done a certain way in the past any change and I’ve mentioned this before in past episodes any change even if it’s for the better
Just because it’s a different mode of working to them means more work to them means having to adapt to them means having to work on themselves and oh no you can’t have them work on themselves that’s a struggle it’s a sacrifice it’s it’s the disruption of the status quo they can’t live with
Right now it it’s funny that that introduces a whole new area as far as occupational Dynamics and the power dynamics the hierarchical interaction that goes and informs corporate but again that’s higher level thinking where if we had more information on our hypothetical clients here we would have a better informed opinion
Right and that’s also why this commenter chose to answer with an anecdote to necessarily get that point across that sometimes it’s the status quo you want to follow and sometimes it isn’t sometimes which is really always the status quo can be improved always don’t let some [ __ ] claim that
You didn’t take the right amount of time when you were certain when you are sure of the work that you do don’t let someone else cause you to second guess yourself even if they are hesitant and believing you let them hesitate let them fumble the bag
As long as you’re confident in the work that you did and you stand by it you don’t run from it you’re responsible for it you’re accountable to it that’s the content professional because you live and you learn even if you did do it wrong you want to keep your reputation
Then you want to take accountability for it and blend a hand continue the work and the service continues you’re in the service of business take care of business and business will take care of you undoubtedly the last paragraph on this comment says after that I made no efforts to bring
Them anything in a timely manner since I knew I would just get yelled at if I did if someone else asked me for something they would get it in minutes but if the boss asked and most things came from the boss it would take a week that’s just
And and this person this person who worked at Harvard supposedly that person will never move up he’ll never move up because you just want to adhere to the status quo you don’t have aspirations you don’t have ambition to take whatever status quo was there and start whittling away at it start manipulating it
Start conducting yourself professionally and move like a corporate cowboy [ __ ] it I mean if you just want to show up for the check and live check to check by all means status quo’s got your name on it matter of fact you’ve got status quo written on yourself you’re no better
Than what already exists out there you’re no better than the guy you replaced fully Knowing You Are fully knowing you have the duty to be better you are no better because you chose to remain in the status quo that’s your [ __ ] up not your managers your manager was under the belief that
This other [ __ ] was doing it right and they might have been doing it right they were just doing it too slow there’s ways around that there’s ways to speed up that timetable or at least make up for it you ain’t doing that this anecdote I don’t know if it’s meant
To brag that you had a cushy job or highlight the fact that you can’t handle your manager sometimes as employees sometimes as subordinates we have to handle our managers we have to manage managers just like we service customers our repeated service goes upward just like it goes outward
I’m gonna cut it right here I’ll let you go have a good one catch you all next time
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