How to survive in an old big company?
When you are not used to work in big old company like banking, insurance etc, some practice and rules can be seen as... outdated.
They are.
But with some tricks and experience you may survive some months without therapy. Here is a non-exhaustive list.
In every big company, people need to contact you. To ask something, to give you informations or just a little chat.
If you don't want this, here's the trick :
Get your phone, put it on your desk and that's it. Skip the configuration, don't turn it on. You got your phone, it is on your desk, that's all your team wants.
And you'll never be annoyed by this phone.
In this big place, meetings is the way things are done.
Even if you don't want them, you have to attend... to survive.
Most often, we don't need you anyway and it's convenient because you don't really have to pay atention.
But when someone asks something out of you, you need to find an answer quick : « I forgot my laptop, can't show you » is the best options you can get:
- No need to get some work done
- No need to find some big excuses
And a final positive point is the little talks, here's an exemple:
- Aww, you didn't bring your laptop ?
- No, I prefer this old pen and paper, this way I can stimulate my memories and get the best out of every meetings
- Wow, this is great !
This is a basic tip.
If you get in the meeting on time, or worse in advance, everyon will know you don't have any real job to do.
When you're late, you're telling everyon you're important and busy without saying anything.
Don't look up for information before the meetings. It won't get you any usefull information about this meeting.
Nobody has a clue why they're here anyway, so you shoudln't.
Moreover, it might seems awkward if you did, some attendees can think you want their promotion. You definitely don't want to do that.