Written by: Peter Henry
Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:05 AM

8:00 AM	9:00	10:30	Noon	1:00	2:30	4:00	5:30 PM

It's 5:30, you're still at work......the million dollar question is, are you still as happy now, as you were when you drove into the parking lot this morning????!!!!  HEY?  HUH?  Well?  What's the answer?

Last week I wrote a comical (or so I hope it was LOL) look at my personal top 10 signs you've had it with your job.  This week, I'd like to write up the matching pair and talk about the top 20 signs you've got it good with your job. 

I've been lucky to have some fantastic bosses with great companies, and some, well, uuuuuuuh............., have you heard of what a PHB?  After my last post, I started to think about things my GREAT managers did time and time again.  What did they do that made them so good?  Why is it SO DIFFICULT?  Ironically the last list was easy to make funny.  I found it a bit more difficult to make the GOOD list funny, BUT I'm hoping you'll be able to share in some of my experiences/stories I'm about to share and maybe you'll share some of what YOU think makes your job FANTASTIC?!

Special thanks to people like NC, DS, DH, MH, PB, most recently SD and SG.

SO without further adieu, here is my list of the Top 20 Signs You've Got It Good With Your Job! 

	1. Your “performance review” happens once a week, or every 2w, or every month over chicken wings or a movie and consists of small, helpful and useful constructive criticisms (if any), and a whole lotta laughs!  Special thanks to DH and MH for this one!
	2. You feel GREAT after any discussion with your boss (good or bad), a good manager listens, a GREAT manager makes you feel good about you sharing your ideas!
	3. You feel confident in your skills and contributions!  When your manager closes the door, you’re not looking over your shoulder to see who’s in there, second guessing decisions nor wondering if you’re the next target?!
	4. People put out candy at their desk (when people do that, they are encouraging communication, yes, they want to hear your ideas!).
	5. Take a listen, hear anyone laughing?  Ok, maybe not at THIS VERY SECOND, but during the course of the day, do you hear laughter coming from the trenches?  That’s a good sign people are happy and also efficient!  Odd how that works eh?
	6. You think of solutions to tough problems while taking your shower!  Yup, you have most of your “AAAAAAAAAA-HA!” moments during “lather, rinse, repeat” and sudsing up!
	7. You’ve decorated your office/cubicle during Christmas, or you’ve decorated someone ELSE’S cubicle, OR EVEN BETTER, the WHOLE TEAM decorated your manager’s office!  Think of a football team pouring the juice jug over their coach after winning the Super Bowl, SAME THING HERE!
	8. You have NO problem kneeling down at a coworkers computer for half an hour to work through their problem together.  This happened last week, and I loved it!  This is where 1 + 1 = 3 comes from!  Your idea may not be right, your coworker’s idea neither, but TOGETHER it’s an explosion of cornucopia and the angels start singing and the sun comes out, and Bill Gates calls you to say kudos, ok that last one’s a slight exaggeration :>
	9. You forward to your spouse meeting your “friend’s” from work.
	10. You actually refer to your coworkers as “friend’s”.
	11. You find something cool while playing around/learning at night AND you can’t wait to share it with your coworkers!
	12. Ok, maybe you have a hard time getting up in the morning but on the drive in, you’re excited to go for your morning coffee and “shoot the gab” with your coworkers about that new cool idea you figured out during your "AHHA!" moment (see item #6).
	13. Staying after hours (within reason) is not a chore and you KNOW it’ll be VERY APPRECIATED my management!  Last week our management at Privasoft did JUST that by handing out VERY NICE game consoles to say thank you for our efforts over the holidays!  That kind of gesture buys SOOOOOOOO much good will!
	14. Your manager doesn’t come down on you for tracking your learning time in the timesheet system.  I have a small trick!  If my company has a timesheet system, I enter all the time I'm doing learning at night.  GOOD managers will see that, respect it, and even encourage you.  Other manager's will AHHHHEM........"ask" you to stop it.  This is cool too, check it out, watch HOW they ask/tell you to stop doing it.  Play poker?  Watch for certain tells here!
	15. You feel really jazzed about learning outside of work and actually use that knowledge in your day to day activities!
	16. You feel good about how your boss and company treat your customers!
	17. You have a healthy amount of blind faith that upper management knows what they're doing in steering the ship towards prosperity.
	18. You "ask" your boss if you can leave work early instead of "telling" him.  You know they're going to say yes, but you ask completely out of respect.
	19. You have enough confidence to challenge some of your boss' decisions.  And when you're right, your boss makes you feel GREAT about it, but when you're wrong (this is the biggie), he STILL makes you feel good about it!  Try to think back when was the last time you disagreed with your boss and you STILL left his office in a great mood?  All of my good managers had/HAVE this ability!
	20. And  lastly, you have the confidence to write blogs like this one (and the last one)! LOL
Bonus Ones
	* You hear people giving other people credit in meetings (even though you know DARN WELL that person does deserve the kudos, they are sharing it, that's cool!)
	* You hear "I have confidence you can do it!" from your boss, AND you honestly believe in his/her sincerity!  It is AMAZING how POWERFUL that one little statement is!  Say that to someone, and if you truely believe in it, you will be AMAZED at what your partner can accomplish!

Copyright ©2010 Peter Henry

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