Professional Etiquette Archives

Workplace Experiences

My Boss Doesn’t Have My Back: What Should I Do? My 5 Personal Tips

Do you ever feel betrayed by your boss? Does it seem like the two of you are always at odds, or that you simply can’t trust them? Unfortunately, this is something many of us can relate to. While we hope to have positive, productive relationships with our bosses, it’s certainly not a guarantee. Many of us feel like our bosses are only out for themselves – or even worse, working against us. In the land of the modern workplace and corporate culture, it can feel like work is just as much about office politics, individual advancement and covering our butts as it is about actually doing our jobs, and our bosses are no more exempt from this than we are. While our relationships with our bosses may feel worse in our minds than they really are, we may also notice certain patterns of behavior in them over time. Whether it be that our boss rarely offers us support, disagrees with us in front of others, throws us ‘under the bus’ or just plain doesn’t like us, we eventually reach the point where we think “My boss doesn’t have my back! What should I do?”. As someone who’s definitely been there, I’m happy to share with you the techniques I’ve used to mitigate this situation with success. Let’s get into them.

Pat Finnegan May 27, 2021

Project Management

Writing Skills For Project Managers: These 6 Are Essential For Success

When one imagines a Project Manager, they may picture a person meeting with team mates, reviewing reports or giving presentations. While Project Managers do all of these things, there’s one task that nearly every P.M. spends quite a bit of time on, especially these days: writing. Whether it be writing letters or responding to endless emails, a significant portion of a Project Managers’ performance is underpinned by their ability to write. For many Project Managers (myself included), it takes years of time and experience to finely hone their writing skills. While the best way to get better at writing is to simply spend time doing it, there are many easy ways to improve writing abilities too; many of them are more about what not to do than anything else! Let’s talk about 6 essential writing skills for Project Managers that I’ve picked up over the years. Note that some of these tips aren’t necessarily about writing per se, but rather the intent and strategy behind why you should sometimes write a certain way. Let’s go!

Pat Finnegan May 14, 2021

Career Planning

6 Project Management Lessons From Enron & Their Historic Collapse

I just finished watching “The Smartest Guys In The Room”. It’s a documentary about Enron, the once-revolutionary Texas energy trading company that famously collapsed in 2001. From the early 90’s right up to their downfall, Enron was a darling of Wall Street, ranking #7 on the Fortune 500 in the same year that news of its’ massive accounting fraud and unethical business practices swept the world. In the summer of 2000, Enron’s stock hit an all-time high of over $90 per share. In late 2001, Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is still known as one of the largest corporate scandals in American history. Not only was Enron a business titan on Wall Street, but they were also well-known on ‘Main Street’ too. Enron’s collapse led to nearly 30,000 lost jobs, thousands of evaporated retirement accounts and countless investors left with worthless stock. Enron was once a (mostly) legitimate energy company before it essentially became an energy stock market in the 90s. What the heck happened? The Enron story is complex yet simple at the same time, unpinned by human ego, greed, deceit and pride. As for the specifics of what happened, we’ll get into those too. Let’s discuss six project management lessons from Enron and their demise that came to me after watching the film.

Pat Finnegan April 22, 2021

Workplace Experiences

Surviving A Two-Faced Boss: A Few Tips From Experience

Most of us have worked for a bad boss at some point. Whether they’re mean, incompetent, selfish or manipulative, bad bosses all have one thing in common – the ability to drive their subordinates nuts. The vast majority of people just want to come to work, have a decent day and head home when it’s over. Unfortunately, the ‘vast majority’ still doesn’t mean everyone. Some people can’t help but to get involved in drama or negativity at work – even if they must start it themselves. Other people don’t crave drama per se, but their personality and mindset effects others anyways. That brings us to our main topic: dealing with a two-faced boss. Let’s talk about how they act and how to ‘survive’ working for one.

Pat Finnegan March 19, 2021

Project Manager Soft Skills

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

Bad bosses are the bane of many employee’s existences. No matter what industry you work in, how old you are or even what your position is, the vast majority of us have dealt with a bad boss at some point in our careers. There’s plenty of ways a boss can be “bad”: poor understanding of the company’s needs, terrible at planning ahead, being clueless on what’s happening day-to-day, and so on. Situations like those are surely annoying to deal with, but few boss behaviors are more insidious than bullying. One common way bosses bully employees is through humiliating them in front of others. These reasons bosses behave this way are varied and complex, but one thing is for sure – we all want to put an end to it. If you’re wondering what you should do when your boss criticizes you in front of others, don’t miss the five tactics we discuss below.

Pat Finnegan July 14, 2020

Project Manager Soft Skills

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Trust is a vital aspect of any relationship. This applies to our family, friends, romantic partners and coworkers alike. Just like our family and romantic partners, we must see our coworkers for an extended amount of time every day. In most instances, we spend more waking hours with our coworkers while working full-time than we spend with our families – that’s a lot of time at work! When we have great coworkers who we can trust, this doesn’t feel nearly as harsh as it sounds. What happens when we just can’t trust coworkers? It could be something they’ve done, rumors we hear or just our gut feeling – regardless, a situation like this puts a tremendous strain on our work life. In this article, we’re talking about how to deal with a coworker you don’t trust!

Pat Finnegan December 19, 2019

Project Management

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

As Project Managers, we get the ‘pleasure’ of working with people of every variety. Not only are we expected to work alongside everyone else involved with the project, but we’re also expected to help them, answer questions and provide direction. Simple enough, right? Well, on paper it is. Management gets difficult when personalities begin to clash. Maybe a teammate thinks you’re stupid and doesn’t want to listen to you. Perhaps they think you’re too smart and are threatened by you. Even more vague – they might just not like you for their own reasons. While this seems like a big deal when it’s happening to us, it’s statistically inevitable – no one can please everyone. Manage enough people over time and you’ll run into difficulty with some. Today, we’re taking about managing jerks as a Project Manager, along with which behavior we should act on vs. let slide. Let’s get into it!

Pat Finnegan December 17, 2019

Workplace Experiences

Is Dating A Coworker A Bad Idea? My Honest Opinion

Ah, dating in the workplace. The stuff sitcoms, dramas and movies are made of. We live in a society that idealizes the concept of finding ‘the one’ for you at work. But maybe that’s not what we’re after at all – perhaps we just want a casual fling with a coworker. Whatever the case may be for you, we’re going to go deep on answering this burning question: Is dating a coworker a bad idea? I will also give my honest opinion. Let’s begin.

Pat Finnegan December 12, 2019

Project Management

What Do Project Managers Wear? A P.M. Wardrobe Guide By Industry

Out of all the project management topics to write about, I never expected to write on about fashion choices. I do like to dress well when possible, but I never really considered that as part of being a P.M. It turns out that more people are interested in this topic than I expected, so here we are! So what do Project Managers wear, exactly? This varies from industry to industry as well as what the day’s activities will entail, so we’ll cover the basics of each!

Pat Finnegan December 11, 2019

Career Planning

How Long Should I Stay At My Entry Level Job? A Few Things To Ponder

We all start somewhere. Our entry level jobs are often our gateway into our respective industries. They’re an experience that will forever mark your humble beginnings; memories that will last your whole career. That’s if we’re lucky. Entry level jobs can also be a crap experience! Whether it be the pay, potential or environment, we find ourselves questioning our career choices. Regardless of which situation resonates with you, it’s a question nearly all new employees ask themselves: “How long should I stay at my entry level job?”. In this article, we’re going to try and help you answer that question!

Pat Finnegan December 5, 2019

CATEGORY | Professional Etiquette

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My Boss Doesn’t Have My Back: What Should I Do? My 5 Personal Tips

Writing Skills For Project Managers: These 6 Are Essential For Success

6 Project Management Lessons From Enron & Their Historic Collapse

Surviving A Two-Faced Boss: A Few Tips From Experience

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

Is Dating A Coworker A Bad Idea? My Honest Opinion

What Do Project Managers Wear? A P.M. Wardrobe Guide By Industry

How Long Should I Stay At My Entry Level Job? A Few Things To Ponder

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CATEGORY | Professional Etiquette

About This Topic

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

WORK LIFE

PAGES

STAY IN TOUCH!