Your first 100 days at a new job is generally an indicator of how well you are doing in the new position. If you make it in those first three months, it’s likely that you will keep the job. Generally, it takes that long to get a handle on what you are doing — or what you should be doing. In the military we called it “on-the-job-training.” Whether the job is something you went to school for or not, school is almost never like the actual work.
Thinking back, often that I never made it to that length of time, sometimes even being terminated within a few days. Sometimes, the termination was because of a personality conflict. Sometimes, I just quit. One professor I worked for disagreed with my point of view on a philosophical issue. The friction had nothing to do with the laboratory work. I just walked out of the lab and never came back, in spite of his continuing attempts to contact me. Of course, the action cost me and I was out of a job. However, like I always say, “I’m not in it for the income, I’m in it for the outcome.”
Another reason one may not make it through the 100-day trial period is due to competition. Co-workers might wish to rise above you or have a friend in mind to be hired in your stead. My friend Michael Breen touched a bit upon this in his most recent opinion article, “When my colleague is my enemy.” He begins with the question, “Who is your competitor?”
Who doesn’t mind going up the ladder? I think the point of getting a more advantageous position is a rather natural thing to do. The problem is how to go about it without abandoning your values or having a loss of trust with co-workers or colleagues. One’s code of ethics and integrity must be maintained for a healthy identity, even if one is confronted with a room full of sharks. Ambition leads us to forge ahead and rise to the top. However, if we step on the backs of others while aiming higher, we may see our character judged to be wrong and bad rather than right and good. Too often in the summer months of success our reputation is tarnished and our character becomes perishable.
American actor Marlon Brando once said, "It's the hardest thing in the world to accept a little success and leave it that way." Is there such a thing as absolute failure, absolute success? I don't think so. I refuse to be consumed by titles, classifications, identities and business cards. I don't want people to know where I am but who I am. I refuse to be a workaholic, moving up the ladder of success as fast as my arms and legs can carry me without misgivings or acknowledging who or what is in my way.
There is presently no carrot in my view. I gracefully quit the rat race and have refused "a ten thousand-aspirin job." Of course, I still think about moving on, about new possibilities and about future stages of my life. The comfortable hats I wear now are chemistry lab coordinator and ESL instructor. I care not if some should see my capacities as diminutive.
The author ([email protected]) published the novella “Beyond Harvard” and teaches English as a second language.
Source: Korea Times News
