One major difference between a slacker and successful person is that the slacker is just there to put in the time and collect the paycheck, while the successful person presents themself as a professional. Below is a short list of things you must do to be professional.
• be on time
• have perfect attendance
• dress appropriately
• socialize wisely
• speak correctly
Some people advise that to be successful you must arrive early and leave late. The problem with this advice is that spending too much time at work can lead to burnout and burnout does not result in success at work. In my experience, arriving at work early has little value. That's because nobody is there to see you. Even if your boss arrives early before working hours, they won't be disappointed if they can't find you before working hours start.
On the other hand, if your boss comes looking for you right as working hours start and they can't find you, that's not good. So it's important to arrive at work on time, but not necessarily too early. On the other hand, staying late at work after most people have gone home does contribute greatly to your success at work.
At the end of the workday, if there's still work to be done, and there always is, people feel guilty going home when others are still working, and the person who feels the most guilty is the boss. Even though the boss usually can't perform the work themself, they are the one responsible. But the boss can leave with a clear conscience if he sees a dedicated employee staying late to take care of business.
But there is a special technique to staying late for success. You can't just be standing around chatting at the end of the work day. No matter how much time you spent socializing during the day, as quitting time approaches, you need to make sure everyone sees you deeply involved in productive work. And it would be really great if, when you came in the next morning you had some stay late accomplishment to brag about.
But even if you didn't actually accomplish anything by staying late, mention to as may co-workers (and hopefully your boss) that you worked on this or that late after work yesterday. You don't actually need to stay very long to get credit for staying late at work, just ten minutes after almost everyone else has gone home.
Have Perfect Attendance
Put yourself in the company's position. You have work to be completed, and you hire someone to do the job, but they don't show up for work. You've got to be thinking, this person is not working out. I need to find someone who will actually be here all the time to do the work.
It's irrelevant to your employer if your excuses for not coming to work are legitimate or not. They still need someone to be there every day to do the job. And, except in rare circumstances like a death in the family, excuses usually have more to do with the employee's poor life management than with legitimate reasons for not coming to work.
I'm not saying you should not use your vacation time benefits, as this could lead to burnout and burnout does not result in success at work. But, whether you need to take work time off for emergency reasons or for vacation, always make sure you have made provisions for someone else to take over any critical parts of your job.
Dressing Appropriately for Work
Every business has a company culture, and part of this culture is the dress code. If you work in an office area where customers come as a matter of business, you must dress in a more upscale manner. Shorts and flip flops are not allowed in this type of area. You must wear appropriate business attire, and men may be required to wear a tie. If you're a service person, you'll probably be required to wear the company uniform.
Today many companies that don't normally have customers in the work area allow their employees to dress casually, thinking that comfortable employees are more productive. Other companies have special days when employees are allowed to dress casually, like "casual Friday".
In these circumstances, you don't want to dress in full business attire when everyone else is dressing casual. This might make you stand out as someone who is "sucking up". However, you also don't want to be the one who dresses the most frumpy and casual. Survey what your co-workers are wearing and dress just a little better than the best dressed coworkers. You still want your boss to know that you're serious about work.
Socialize Wisely
Spending a lot of time standing around chit-chatting with fellow employees does not result in success at work, and anytime your boss sees you standing around chit-chatting is definitely not good. On the other hand, never doing small-talk at work will make you look stuck-up and unsociable. This could cause co-workers to want to avoid working with you or even being co-operative with you.
So, much like everything else, moderation is the secret to success. You want to socialize enough to stay on a friendly basis with your co-workers so that they will want to work with you and assist you when you need help. But you don't want to spend so much time chit-chatting that it impedes your productivity and your co-workers productivity. And, you definitely don't want your boss to think you spend a lot of time standing around chit-chatting.
Speak Correctly
One of the best ways to tell a successful person from a slacker is by how they talk. Slackers use street talk instead of proper English. This makes them look stupid and uneducated. Don't start sentences with the word "like". Don't end sentences with "you know". The proper word for agreement is "yes" not "ya". The proper word for negative or disagreement is "no" not "na".
Everyone develops their language habits from the people they hang around with. If you use poor English, maybe you need to hang around less with slacker friends and more with sophisticated people. After all, your slacker friends aren't getting you anywhere.
Another way to get in the habit of speaking of proper English is to watch documentaries on T.V. Sure, watching "talking heads" may bore you to tears, but living a life of of low pay and no respect can get boring too. To be successful, you need to speak like an intelligent educated person. street talk does not result in success at work.
More Success at Work Information:
• Dealing With Stress at Work
• People Skills - Dealing with New Ideas
• People Skills - Complaining
• Techniques - Delegation
• Good Cop Bad Cop
• Five Ways to Create Job Security
• Delivering Difficult Messages at Work
• Dealing With Employee Insubordination
• Techniques - Should You be a "Jack of all trades" or a Specialist?
• How to Get a Promotion