Is Your Boss Reading Your Blog?
August 1, 2007
First, I’d like to give a shout out to my boss, since I know he’ll be reading this. Hi, boss! Now, I know a lot of people may think that smacks of insincerity or satire, but it actually doesn’t. See, a few weeks ago, I sat down and told my boss about my blog.
Know what happened it? He bookmarked it and now reads it regularly. Now, to some people, this might seem more than a bit scary. Your boss reads your blog? In fact, he does. But it’s more than that. He supports it. As well as my success as an individual. He realizes that this outlet is a great tool for professional development, which he is a huge advocate of.
Now, I will also say that my decision to tell him about my blog was not without great consideration, thought, and even apprehension. But that’s pretty much the same way I approached telling my sister, my friends and my mom. Not that there’s anything here I’m not proud of. Simply that it’s a big step to tell people you know in the real world about your professional/personal thoughts in blog form.
I will also tell you that if I didn’t have a great relationship with my boss and know that he fully supports me as a person as well as the entirety of my career, I probably would have had a bit more pause in my decision. But in the end, it turned out to be the best move.
For me, I knew for sure I’d made the right decision when I asked my boss about a new professional development opportunity and he told me I could go for it, but that I should consider whether I have the time to spare so that it didn’t take away from this blog.
Yep. That felt good.
Now, telling my boss about my blog doesn’t mean he didn’t already know about it or that he wouldn’t have eventually. But that really isn’t a big deal if you don’t have anything to hide. And given how much a bylined, professional blog can enhance your career, I wonder why people bother spending the time writing trollish, immature or unprofessional blogs anyway. But I digress.
It’s normal to have some apprehension about telling your boss about your professional blog, but if you don’t have anything to hide, why not go for it? You might have more to gain from telling them than you realize.
As I start writing this post, I’m also brainstorming, talking to a friend, adding to my to-do list, outlining a project, remembering what groceries I need to pick up and eating lunch. Chances are, I’ll finish this post later, while I’m watching the news or catching up with my sister or a friend on the phone.
Young workers today are accustomed to the always-on-go, do-several-things-at-once mode. Growing up, Gen Y had schedules so full, weekdays lost their names and became things like “Soccer Day” and “Piano Lesson Day.” Post-high-school was no different, and we’re still going strong as we begin our careers. We can eat, write, watch TV and have a conversation all at the same time without a giving it a second thought.
In popular terms, we are expert multitaskers. We’re by no means alone, but it’s a skill we bear proudly as a badge of honor. But, as we enter the workforce, we face some interesting challenges – work isn’t exactly the same as catching up with our MySpace friends while watching the latest episode of Lost and eating dinner. Each time an e-mail pops up, a new idea hits us, the phone rings, a boss or co-worker wants to chat, or a training opportunity comes up, we quickly turn our attentions to it.
The problem with this is, to the typical office worker, it seems like the distractions and interruptions never end. You don’t seem to have time to even start that project your boss gave you three weeks ago and said, “let’s meet once you’ve had time to work on this,” never to mention it again. Even though we are great at multitasking, it seems almost impossible to get everything done because of all the interruptions. And there are a lot of them. According to a report from Time on research at the University of California, the typical worker can be interrupted every 11 minutes.
The other problem is, most of these daily distractions fall under the umbrella of “work,” but that simple fact doesn’t make them easy to manage. Sure, we can check our e-mail while typing up a memo and reminding our co-worker that word he’s thinking of. We are doing a lot at one time. But, for some reason, the work always seems to keep piling up. So, does the “skill” of multitasking actually help us better manage our time?
Read the rest at Employee Evolution.
