Work Smart To End Career On Good Note

It is always sad to me when I hear about someone who ends up retiring on a bad note or who has been pushed out of the workplace. You think that after someone has worked for 30+ years, particularly at one company, it would be a time of celebration of hard work and loyalty. But too many times, you hear about such people leaving under a cloud of some sort. I know two such people right now.

Granted, I am not privy to their workplaces or the conversations and interactions that go on there, and I have only heard their side of the stories.

But from what I can gather, neither of these people have "worked smart." There are a number of ways you can work smart, but I am going to mention two that might apply to these situations.

One of them is a woman in her 70s, who has fabulous credentials and has worked hard all of her life. Young acting and thinking, you would think she is 10 years younger. But she is under a cloud right now and for all practical purposes is being targeted and forced out. What does it sound like to me? After talking with her and others who work in that department, it sounds as if some impressions were made about her early on when there was a change of leadership at the top. A rumor had gotten around that she was adverse to change, something all too simple to put at the head of an older person, but that is not the case. But she did not work smart to directly change that impression. I think she should have talked to the higher ups about this impression early and told them that it was not correct and then reinforce that through her actions. She did not see the need to do this at the time and is now struggling to turn things around when it may be too late. A bad early impression is really hard to change.

The second friend is a good 20 years younger, a man in his 50s. His problem is work overload. He is very behind in his work, which is time sensitive. His higher up has targeted him for this and written him up, the first step towards a termination. I think he should have tried to figure out a way to get his work down faster, or ask for help. Again, I am not in his shoes and have only heard his side of the story. But one thing I know is that today you have to work smarter. Even before this bad economy, you had to learn to work not only smarter but faster. I don't mean cutting corners but figuring out how to be more efficient. In my previous job, I had to do that. I had to figure out how to manage editing a magazine and all that entails faster at a time when my job suddenly was laden down with a lot more meetings. Somehow I was able to do that. But you have to be aware you have to do it and then actually work at doing it. I think too many people don't see the need to change the way they work or don't know how to change. Awareness of the need is the first step.