The Office Martyr – are You One?

image source

Realize that your career can also suffer because you spend too much time on the extra projects leaving you without enough time to devote to your regular, more creative work.

The Pathetic Pushover, you are.

Throwing yourself into your job is great, but being the office “yes-man” or “yes-woman” will only get you a reputation as a wimpy worker bee. You’re acting like a slave, because you treat yourself like one. As a result, your boss and co-workers may end up exploiting you, and in order to feel OK about piling you up with work, they mentally move you down on the corporate ladder to devaluate you in their minds.

image source

The solution

Determine what your job parameters are and stick to them. It’s inevitable that you’ll be asked to do some tasks that fall outside your job description, so distinguish between promotion-worthy extra work (rolling up your sleeve and rubbing elbows with your bosses as you pitch in overtime to meet a deadline) and extra work that is lowly and mindless (spending half the morning fixing your co-worker’s printer paper jam). When you’re confronted with the latter, make it clear that those activities are the exception, not the rule. Saying, ‘It looks like it’s my turn to do double duty, but I’m glad Suzy will be taking up the slack next time’ sends the right message.

If you’re the enthusiastic type who starts nodding before the boss even opens his mouth, try buying yourself some time—and some respect. Give yourself enough time to evaluate and really think about your workload and your priorities.