1. Your company is not making money – Ok this is to make you feel better only.  Everyone in the company is not getting a good bonus this year.  Therefore, do not feel bad about it because you are not the only one.  Especially in a recession, when companies are feeling the threat of poor business or even closing down, you should feel fortunate that there is some form of reward in this period.
2. Your company is plain stingy about performance reward – Ok, now if the economy is good and everyone is making money.  Your company is making money as well.  But your reward is not fantastic at all even in these good times.  Now that is unreasonable.  They company do not really appreciate the hard work the employees have put in.  If that is the situation you are in, it may be time to find another company that rewards you accordingly.
3. Your manager just does not appreciate your work – Tough luck on this one.  Your manager is that type that doesn’t appreciate your work.  What you had been doing for the past one year is nothing but plain work to do them.  It is a job to them and that doesn’t mean anything to him.  There are two ways to work about this.  First, is to really understand your manager thoroughly and find out the things that are important to him, and work on those things instead!  That is, pin-pointing to what he wants and deliver it to appeal to him.  Second, if this is how your manager functions as a leader that does not appreciate his employees, it’s time to update your resume and make plans for your career.
4. You offended your manager in the past – This is another manager problem.  You may have offended your manager in the past in some way or another.  Example, you disagree of his proposal in front of the customer, or you overwritten his decisions on certain task and it turned out working better than what your manager proposes.  These managers are generally narrow-minded and do not see that you are able to contribute to the organisation.  They see their personal interests immediate.  If this is the case, our advice is for you to get a new job instead.  It is meaningful to work under him as he will always be basing on his personal interest instead of yours or the organisation when he makes any decisions.

These are some reasons that you are not getting a bountiful bonus than your peers.  However, at times, everyone in the company gets affected due to economic situation, market outlook, poor business or bad profits.  What’s worst is an under appreciative manager that treat you as pure labour without giving you the right rewards for your effort throughout the year.  Getting to understand these factors may make you feel better.  However, if things are within your control, take charge of it and make plans for a bountiful bonus the next coming work year.

Measuring performance becomes difficult when no direct profit is tied to the things the individual does.  It becomes a quality of deliverables.  Generally, it also depends on their management if they like the employees a not (favouritism) which results in recommendation of the individual. Quality itself is hard to measure and people have different likings in their employees.  So, before you start jumping on the pathetic bonus you are receiving this year, let’s look at some things that will land you a lower chance to get a bountiful one this year!

1. You are doing well in the organisation and area of work but that is not important to your organisation or your management – The first complain that you will receive in all non-profit driven organisations.  Yes, you had been doing well for what you are doing.  You ensure that the servers are running 24 / 7 a day, no down-time.  You always deliver reports timely.  You always ensure that you filed the right document in the right folder.  But all these are not important to them.  Importance is relative to each of us!  If you do feel this way that the organisation is not paying for your hard work.  Time to rethink ways to make you pay well instead!  Work smart, not hard!
2. What you are doing does not appeal to the management – The first point goes to this second point.  Of all the operational work you are doing, making sure that things are fine and normal, it is not important to the management.  It does not appeal to them.  It does not bring them further.  If that is the case, take a moment to understand your management on what it is important to them.  Remember, they are the ones that will put you on the recommendation list and it is always wise to do things that appeal to them!
3. You are working in the wrong department – The department’s function is generally operational and supportive.  They don’t bring in profit.  They don’t bring in strategic value.  They need to be there and someone has to do the job.  If you are in it, it’s either you learn to appreciate that this is the type of department you are in and you will definitely get a smaller share of the bonus pie.  If not, it’s time to move out to someplace that offers better!
4. You have limited exposures in front of your managers – The key thing of getting managers to recommend you is to increase your “exposure” rate in front of them.  They need to know you.  If you spend most of the time avoiding your managers, they will not know you and will not likely put you on their recommendation list.  They will only put those they know and those that bring value to them!  Make some time to interact with your managers.  It can be work or off-work stuff.  The key thing is to increase your “exposure”!

These are some reasons that you are not getting a bountiful bonus than your peers.  Take some charge and make changes to your working style.  Re-think of what is valuable and important to your management.  Increase the chances you interact with your managers and you stand a higher chance of a bountiful bonus this coming work year.

What you do not want to do is to be on medical leave for your most important meeting in the office for the week.  Often, we neglect the very basic need of our individual needs that is our personal health.  A healthy body allows us to think and work properly in the office.  It is required for personal productivity.  You won’t be able to do anything if you fall sick easily and therefore, it is essential that we take good care of our body to keep ourselves afloat of our busy lifestyle and schedules.

1. Listen to your body – Most often, we neglect tell-tale signs that our body is falling apart in the office.  We often push ourselves above our limits and tire the body.  If you get lethargic easily at work, it is time to take a more proactive observation of your body.  Your body might be signalling to you that it needs some rest.  Yes we got time line to meet.  But you will need the body to meet the timeline.  Before your body fully breaks down into colds, take a break and get yourself away from work for a few minutes.  When you are at home, pamper yourself and give yourself more sleep.  These necessary breaks will allow you to get back your energy and health so that you can continue your work the following day!
2. Learn your limits – Another problem with fast moving individuals these days, is not knowing their limits.   They push harder than what they can cope.  They rush to meet the datelines and ignore that they have broken their body limits.  Your body needs the rest and its working even harder when you are pushing over the limits.  The body will tell you signs that it is working too hard.  Take a moment to listen to your body and rest.  Record times that you feel stressful physically and mentally.  Learn that these are your limits.  Manage your work style in a way that does not push your limits overboard.  What you need is a healthy challenge, not one that will create health problems!
3. Stretch – The simplest form of relaxation that you can do while sitting on the chair.  Stretching is beneficial as it releases the tension on your muscles, improves blood circulation and gives you a logical break of whatever you are doing.  If you are reading this right now, take a moment to stretch real hard!  If you can, stand up and do a full body stretch!  You’ll feel refreshed and alert after the full body stretch and ready to continue what you have left off!
4. Take the stairs – You may have the luxury of time to exercise daily or even weekly.  Why leave the exercise routine to the gym and parks?  Why not turn the office building into a workout facility?  You can skip the lifts and take the stairs up to your office floor.  Taking the stairs is helpful in working out your leg muscles and also working out the heart.  Make it a daily habit and you’ll be glad that you started it.  You will reach office with a healthier mind and body and ready with the challenges for the day!
5. Enjoy the sun – Most of our time is locked up in the air-conditioned building.  You get exposed to the virus and bacteria that is transmitted through the central ventilation or air-conditioning system.  Get yourself out of the office and enjoy the sun.  The sun will brighten you up and give you a chance to break away from being exposed to the virus and bacteria.  Furthermore, the sunlight provides you Vitamin D that is helpful to your health!

1. The person maybe more capable then what you think – There are times when you take a glance of a person and he will give you that no-confidence look.  The assurance that he is able to give is almost zero.  But amazingly, at times of crisis, or critical situation, he is able to deliver as what you want.  He may not be able to shine in his normal self, but at extreme situations, he outshone everyone in his capabilities.  Now looking back, if you did feel he is incapable, you may feel that you’ve already made a wrong judgement from the start!
2. The person maybe less capable then what you believe he to be – Usually such people are good in delivering quality lip services.  They promise the whole universe for you.  But when it comes down to the crunch, they are unable to deliver what they promised to you.  They dodge questions.  The shift responsibilities.  However, the problem is, you never know if they are capable in the first place.  Unless you are really really good in determining a person’s true character.  What you should do is to give yourself time to observe this person.  Make him win your trust in his capabilities.  Take his words at face value till he can uphold what he is capable of.
3. You never know who you will end up with – By having the wrong impression of a person that he is not capable enough, you are likely going to look down on him or his achievements.  Now, with the world so small and the industry that you are working in small as well, there will be a likely chance that you will meet the same person again (especially in a small country).  Don’t offend the person as his achievements one day may be greater than you.  You might need his help in future too!  Do not be a snob now!  You will regret for doing that in future.  Learn to be modest when you are meeting people.

Our immediate advice to you on judging people is, do not judge people in the first place.  We are no good judge ourselves and it’s best to keep our modest opinion on others to ourselves.  Give some room for doubts.   Learn to observe the person more, find out if he honours what he committed to do.  If a person is always underperforming in your eyes, give some room for doubts.  He may not be what you believe he is to be.  Learn not to jump into conclusion after meeting the person.  Time will truly tell if the person is worth what type of person he is.  Again, the saying goes, “Don’t Judge the Book by its Look!”

Today, we are presenting an individualistic idea that will suit you when it comes down to the decision making.  Which means some might feel it is selfish idea or against their principles.  Whatever the case it’s fine with us.  Take it at face value and have a thought about it.  We must recognize one thing that is the pension days are gone.  Loyalty is not a selling point in keeping talents to stay.  It is the cash power that the organisation is willing to give to those that perform.  Therefore, think for yourself when you need to make a decision or take on tasks.

When you are assigned a new task, will it benefit you in anyway?  Example, the task is to track all employees’ daily activities.  Is this a task that is beneficial to you?  Does it help in your career progression?  When the time comes that you need to leave the organisation, can you put in the resume stating that you “track all employees’ daily activities” and have accomplishments such as, “I’ve caught 2 employees surfing Facebook daily”?  Of course, there are ways to package your job responsibilities in your resume in future.  But at the baseline, does such task bring any value to you?

Think if your organisation or your business function was to be disperse (be it for whatever reasons, such as sales is bad, merger and acquisition, or no longer find it strategic to continue the business function) and you need to leave (made to leave) the organisation, can you list down your selling points as a prospective employee with full of skill set?  What will they think if of you with your current job responsibilities?  Will your work experience (and the decisions make to contribute to the work experience) be useful to your prospective employer?  Think about what the market out there is wanting!

And remember, your decision is accountable to your family.  Of course, your decision may be accountable to your organisation.  But when you are being removed from the organisation, you no longer need to be accountable to them (you might even curse and swear at them!).  Instead, you are now accountable to your family in bringing the cash to feed them!  Do you have the right skill set to secure a new job and feed them?

The principles here are individualistic.  You work for yourself and your family.  Some may argue that this is a selfish mindset and hinders organisation progression or do not consider the emotions of other colleagues.  Agreed and disagreed.  Take this advice at face value and do things that you deem fit.  It’s not a 100% perfect solution and you might want to tune it here and there to make it perfect for you (and your character).  At the baseline, we are advising you that whatever you do, think for your career goals.   Do not blindly follow instructions from your bosses.  You may end up getting no where eventually!

1. Be a capable colleague – That is to able deliver the results as per what you committed and agreed with your colleagues.  This is a work place.  What is important is the amount of work delivered.  The quality of work delivered.  What your peers or bosses are looking for is if you are capable of delivering and not if you are approachable to take on the tasks!  At the baseline, you are judge by your ability not your friendship level.  Just think, who will you look for to do a project together when you are being assigned one?  You will always look for those capable ones to team up with, right?
2. Be a friendly colleague – After your colleagues feel that you are trustworthy in delivering results and abilities assured, you are now judged by your approachability.  Are you friendly enough that colleague are comfortable to approach you for help?  Or you always giving a black face in front of them that they feel you are “untouchable”?  Be friendly, and you’ll be surprised that you will have more colleagues approaching you and you might be happier too!
3. Be honest – Whatever you do, be honest.  Your peers will be unpleased when they find out that their colleague is not honest.  Nobody likes to work with a liar (minus those that tells a white lie or a lie that is beneficial for the entire team).  If you do not know certain things at work, admit it.  Do not attempt to cover up yourself.  If you can’t deliver as per the specified time line, admit the problem that you have.  In the long run, when your cover is blown, you get an even bigger discontent among your peers than ever before!
4. Be empathic – Being friendly involves the ability to listen with your heart.  Your colleagues will not want to be patronised.  They want good advice from the heart. If you exercise empathic listening at work, we believed that you have quite a fair amount of influence on your colleagues. J
5. Smile – Lastly, smile! And smile often.  Smiling breaks the cold wall barriers between individuals!  The more you smile to your colleagues at work, the more likely they feel you are friendly and approachable.  They will list you as one of the candidates of a potential team mate.

So, with these methods, you will definitely find yourself in a position that everyone wants to approach you.  Do you have other methods that make people want to approach you instead?

1. You are seen by your ability to deliver results – That’s a plus point.  Your peers are confident with your capabilities at work.  But if you are often not delivering results, your peers will be resistance to approach you for help.  That is, you’ve got bad credentials…
2. You are seen by your consistency in delivering results – This is different from your ability to delivery.  This is about your consistent deliver as per your specified time line.  Is it luck or other factors that allows you to complete?  As the given impression is that you may not be trustworthy or confident results, they may feel hesitant to approach you for help.
3. You are seen by your reaction in handling situations – Do you get all work out?  Does your emotion fall into pieces?  Do you worry all night long over the situation?  Your peers would not want a fiery monster or a worrisome loser to be in their team, right?
4. You are seen by your consistency in handling situations – Again, it is the question of consistency and integrity in the way you deal with situations.  Are you trustworthy or do you treat each situation differently?  Note, flexibility can be exercised in different context.  The key thing is do you work on the same principle?  Do you have integrity?  Think. You would not want to work with a two-headed snake!
5. You are seen by the way you dress at work – Oddly, an individual with a poorer dress sense is always labelled a geek.  Your peers will immediate stereotype you and will that you are not approachable or “That geek doesn’t understand me!”  Our advice for you if you look like a geek: go around the nearest shopping mall and buy some proper executive clothes.  Make an effort in your dress sense and avoid being seen as the garage geek from just across the road!
6. You are seen by your personality in front of them – That is everyday, what you look like in front of your peers.  Do you look approachable?  Do you look like a worrisome person thinking of everything to worry about?  Do you look like a walking volcano waiting to be erupting on the next thing that comes in your way?  That is what your peers label you.  In this case, due to your negative personality, your peers will be hesitant to approach you for any help!

Having read these points, what do you think you are presenting in front of your peers?

1. Keep your emails – The most simple thing you can do at work.  Keep all your email conversations and archive them if you run out of space.  These electronic emails will be useful as evidences and proofs against biased remarks made against you in the event that calls for it! J
2. Document all conversations in the workplace – Document all verbal and phone conversations in an email and send it to the party that you spoke to get their consensus on the conversation content.  Being the same as keeping emails, it will become useful as evidences and proofs in future!
3. Be sure to have someone to standby you in any major decisions make – Find someone to back you up in any decisions you make.  Why?  First, you want to have a witness in your decision and when things go against you, you have a witness to standy you.  Secondly, you may not be able to make a major decision alone.  If you do, you might get yourself into trouble and that may be used against you in future.  Therefore, get someone to share the risk with you!  If it involves management, the troublemaker will have to think twice as there are consequences to it. J  (Part of deterring these troublemakers is to make them think of the consequences and the risk versus effort taken)
4. Attempt to covered most of your loop holes in your work – We cannot cover all the risks.  But at your best effort, cover all risk and loop holes.  You do not want to be uncovered of loop holes by your back stabber, right?
5. Always hang around with the “neutral” guys of the organisation – Avoid the “bad” or “loud” guys of the organisation.  It’s birds of the same feather flying in a flock.  Generally, “bad” or “loud” groups tend to be at some kind of office power competition (of any kind).  Therefore, you can avoid being becoming a pawn in the struggle by not joining the group.  However, having said that, it’s still up to individual preference on their social circle. J
6. Be neutral in most situations – Being friendly and not siding to anyone leaves you safe from most office power struggle.  If you do have a point you want to drive across, be firm but at the same time give room for alternatives to those potential back stabbers.  Give them options to choose that will beneficial to them.  If you do not do that, you may end up making enemies instead!

1. Are you unhappy because the job is not what you want? – Simple, this is not the job that you truly dreamed off.  End the misery early by finding something you like.  Avoid hanging in this misery for too long!  You will continue to be miserable if you hold on to it.
2. Are you always doing the “dirty” work? – You are always been given tasks that are of low value operational work.  You are not given tasks that are of high value instead you are always assigned to those meaningless jobs…
3. Are you being rejected for all your training proposals? – Whatever training proposals that you made to the boss are always rejected.  What’s worst is your peers are entitled for the course while you stay in the office to clear his plate of work!  Favoritism at its best again?
4. Are you not appreciated by your boss? – Whatever results you delivered is just not up to the boss’es expectation.  They brush you off with insignificant remarks.   They don’t really see the effort you put into your work.
5. Are you lowly paid compared to your peers in the market? – If the salary you are getting is not comparable to what the market is offering, it’s really time to move on.  You can wait for as long as you want, but what you need maybe a fatter salary package to feed your family, pay the mortgage and the car now!
6. Are you always blame for anything and everything? – Whatever things that happened, you are always blamed.  What’s worst is even you have made significant contributions or have been performing positively but is still blamed for minor details at work.  Is your boss finding all avenue to piss you off?  Or is there some short-circuit mechansim in their brain that they need to pinpoint your every mistake?
7. Are you at the losing end of favoritism? – You are always given unfair treatment.  You are not on par with the other colleagues when it comes to welfare and career progression.  You are always not considered for anything important except to work on simple, non-strategic work.  Guess what, you are not being favored by your boss!

If what these are you are experiencing at work, it maybe time to update your resume.  The world is round and there are lots of opportunities up there.  Again, we are always being make believed to be a better worker in office but not many advocate to leave the organisation if you do not like it.  Take this piece of advice as a note and see if it can be planned and applied in your context.

1. You are always selected for training – You are are selected to attend training most of the time.  Most training budget is allocated to you and not everyone is having that same fair share of pie.
2. You are always selected for the most challenging assignments – Nope you are asked to run those errands or minor tasks anymore.  Your boss trusts your capabilities and is assiging you for control to work on most challenging ones independently.
3. You are always called into important meetings – You won’t be left out for important meetings.  Your boss have arranged for an additional person to tag along into the meeting and that is you!  Furthermore, you are asked to cancel other meetings or appointments to attend this one at all cost most of time.
4. Your boss approaches you for decision and discussion – During normal work days, your boss will approach you for small discussions or seek a 2^nd opinion from you.  The frequency and content of the discussion is more than that of any other colleagues.
5. You are given protection against most fault and errors – Whatever faults happened or any error made, you are given additional protection as compared with your peers.  You are being shielded and supported on your mistakes!
6. Your boss invites you for lunch or dinner – Frequently.  He most comfortable asking you along for lunch and dinner.  That includes gender difference favors with personal agenda as well… but that’s one of the possibility that your boss will ask you out for a meal!
7. Your boss invites you to join his personal sports – You are there!  He LOVES you and wants to share his interest together with you!  You have transit from a surbordinate to a friend!

Congratulations if you have most of these in your list!  You are well loved by your boss and your boss can’t wait to talk to you every morning when the work day starts!  If there isn’t any resemblence of the list, fret not!  The least you can know is that there are room for improvements!  What are your indicators that your boss likes you?