Professionalism - Please Explain?

Anything to do with the traditional world of get a degree, get a job as well as its alternatives
Lucky C
Posts: 755
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:09 am

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by Lucky C »

1. Do your job in the manner prescribed by management.
2. Treat customers and colleagues with the utmost respect.
3. Do not make anyone uncomfortable through your words or actions.
4. Resolve all conflicts through the appropriate channels, which should not be a problem if you stick to #1-3.

dropoutretire
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:11 am
Location: Portland Oregon
Contact:

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by dropoutretire »

Olaz wrote:Someone please explain what "professionalism" means? Can be in your own words, or in those of our office overlords, or a mix of both.
Why do so many people care to be sooooooo professional. Sometimes I get idiots that call me and annoy me when I'm selling a car for my sons carlot and if they ask a stupid question I give them a stupid response, then they say that wasn't very professional. I respond I do this for fun and your not making it fun and why do I need to be what you perceive as being professional ? For I am retired. lol

User avatar
fiby41
Posts: 1611
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:09 am
Location: India
Contact:

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by fiby41 »

I did not know what professionalism was until subject courses started coming with a start date and a finish date. :?

There are vacation, regular, midterm KT and crash course batches. This pamphlet does not have it but all other prospectus have the line: Fees once paid will not be refunded or adjusted under any circumstances. The professors teach at a stretch without referring to any notes, books, written material, ppt. They only have a question set which is also given to students from which to solve numerical problems.

Here is a pamphlet of a midterm batch to show what I'm saying. :roll:

ellipsis_has_expired
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:19 pm
Location: Hawaii
Contact:

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by ellipsis_has_expired »

What a fantastic thread! Makes me want to change the way I interact at work.

I work on a team of 4, and we've been in the same bullpen for 3 years now. It's kind of impossible not to talk about your personal lives, I think we all feel work would be intensely boring if we didn't share some personal goings ons and get to know each other better. I consider myself one of the most professional of the group, although one other guy perhaps has me beat. We can rarely squeeze much personal info out of him. but let me tell you about the most unprofessional, for your entertainment if nothing more. We'll call him "Phil."

Phil is typically at work on time or a couple minutes late, he's intelligent, and he performs his duties. That's where his professionalism ends.
1. He often asks people for their opinion, but already has his mind made, and anyone else with an idea is made to feel stupid.
2. He takes care of his taxes or drawn out issues with his rental property at his desk. Or other personal calls which often include him telling off the person on the line.
3. He's arrogant. Any boss we have above us is a clueless idiot who does nothing all day according to him.
4. He's unpatriotic and certain that our economy will totally collapse soon. He's always down talking America and grilling the others about their political views. If someone tries to escape the convo by saying they aren't interested in politics he will beat them down for being complacent. (As an aside; He's been stocking up on physical silver bars, and is mostly invested in gold mining stocks.)
5. He swears often. He's called me and others "faggots" in the chat box. Just last week he noted the market had fallen a full %1 in a day. He asked me what I thought it meant. I told him it doesn't matter to me and isn't an indication of much, since it's only one day. That I'm investing for 30 years out, not today. His reply was "god you are so fucking boring." I replied, well that's how you know you're investing right, it's supposed to be boring.
6. He talks back to the boss, not so blatantly, but enough to show disrespect, or if he feels something stupid was said, he will make a remark calling them out on it.
7. He gossips and talks bad about the other employees outside our team.
8. He wears jeans on weekdays other than Friday. His shoes are skuffed and he wears short sleeve button ups, usually black. Meanwhile I'm in standard long sleeve work shirts and wool or cotton slacks. Fridays are casual.
9. He's basically unapproachable until he's been at work about 2 hours and had time to wake up/get in a better mood.
10. His phone calls often end with him SLAMMING the phone down.

ducknalddon
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 5:55 am

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by ducknalddon »

Lucky C wrote:1. Do your job in the manner prescribed by management.
2. Treat customers and colleagues with the utmost respect.
3. Do not make anyone uncomfortable through your words or actions.
4. Resolve all conflicts through the appropriate channels, which should not be a problem if you stick to #1-3.
Might be good advice for your career but it can be pretty soul destroying as well. I've had managers that have told me they don't pay me to think but my job requires exactly that. Some people need to be made uncomfortable before they will do the right thing. Although I try and treat all customers with respect some are just abusive and need to be fired. Also remember those appropriate channels are there to protect the organisation, not you.

Lucky C
Posts: 755
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 6:09 am

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by Lucky C »

It becomes less soul crushing if you are able to think of it like a game. Not a fun game, but a game nonetheless. None of this professionalism stuff really matters except in terms of playing by the rules of the game so that both you and the company don't lose. Other employees don't see it as a game and so they get stressed out and burnt out when presented with the challenges that are present to some extent in every job.

Expect personality conflicts, people not doing their job properly, and things going wrong on a daily basis. These are the expected challenges of the game, otherwise if they were not present there would be no point or reward - anyone could do your job if it was easy and went smoothly every day - and so it wouldn't really be a game. In your game you will face enemies, from the slacking coworker to the dick boss to the HR team looking to protect the company first. You employ strategy to address these challenges while following the rules of the game. Otherwise you will eventually lose the game, either giving up since you can't beat the game or being booted from the game from breaking the rules.

What I am saying here is that you can have a successful and low-stress career if you appear to take your job very seriously, doing the best you can while following protocol, when secretly you don't really care. Mastering this psychological challenge reduces the negative effects of all other challenges.

halfmoon
Posts: 697
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Professionalism - Please Explain?

Post by halfmoon »

I have the old-fashioned view that your employer has the right (within reason) to set the behavior expected of you. If you find it enraging, idiotic, soul-sucking, trivial or demeaning...find someone else to provide a paycheck without requiring this behavior. In most jobs, you're not being paid for your unique snowflake attributes; you're being paid to further the goals of the employer in the manner that the employer has defined as desirable. That includes catering to annoying customers, because they -- not you -- are keeping the business afloat. Sadly, it also includes dealing with lousy managers who have worked hard at fitting the employer's definition of desirable.

It's good motivation for ERE or self-employment, though I would caution that being self-employed doesn't really mean being your own boss; it just means you have more people to please, some of whom can be enraging, idiotic, soul-sucking... :roll:

Bottom line: if you want someone's money, you'll probably need to fit somewhat in their mold. Professional behavior in my mind is akin to good manners. There are certain social graces generally required if you want to pick someone up in a bar, no matter how awesome in bed you may be. Same goes for the workplace or dealing with clients.

Post Reply