HELL

Facing rejection at work can kill your career and self esteem

Rejection at work could have everything to do with you looking down on everyone

By Angela Kateemu


There is that person at work who feels like they are prettier, brighter than everyone else at work and as such they are hated. Not because people don’t believe they are bright but because they can’t stand their condescending demeanor.  Are you so unpopular at work that you feel you want to leave the job and go on the street if you have to? Do your colleagues treat you with distance –they deal with you only because they have to? Did you get passed up for a big promotion because you are not a team player? Did you ask for something at work and was flatly turned down?  Rejection at a work place is the worst thing that can happen to your career because it not only makes coming to work hell, it gets in the way of your career building. This rejection can come from your supervisors, workmates or bosses: how you handle the rejection at work can serve as the cornerstone for short- and long-term success. It’s time to review those things that make you someone none of your colleagues can stand and change!

Change attitude
You are worthy and can recover from rejection in the workplace. They don’t say ‘it’s just business’ for nothing. The rules of engagement are different in a professional environment than any other. While you might be angry and upset, this is the time to take stock of the situation, evaluate your feelings and put some perspective around things. Now is the time to review your past performance, your relations with your colleagues and identify areas for improvement. You can use this as an opportunity instead of feeling sorry for yourself.

Develop a happy disposition
Getting all worked up about why everyone gives you the eyes makes you an easy target for the bullies at the workplace. When you have a happy disposition it is very difficult to reject you. Basically most of the people at your workplace are sad from the inside and that is why they try to make you sad too by needlessly criticizing you or rejecting you. This way they feel good about themselves. Don’t fear them, don’t be angry with them, just understand them and if you feel intimidated just pity them.

Widen your social circle

It is great to have friends at the workplace if you’re encountering a hostile environment. Social distance is one of the reasons that people get rejected at work. When you become an island at the work place, you isolate yourself and keep to yourself; you make it hard for people to befriend you. And like they say, if you are not with us, then you are against us. That’s where the rejection stems from.

Stop and listen
While the natural instinct is to go on the defensive and to churn out excuses, take a deep breath and objectively listen to the criticism offered. Stop looking at yourself as better than everyone else. There is a lot you can learn from your workmates if you can get off your high horse and relate with them.

Learn from your mistakes
If you were passed on for the job promotion because you don’t know how to work with a team, think about the changes you can make to move forward and ask for detailed feedback and possibly even action steps so you have a clear picture of how you can improve.

When Love, Work Collide

Maurice Mugisha and his wife Irene Birungi

Dating a colleague: how do you deal?

By Angela Kateemu 

You wake up in the morning and expect another boring day at the office: same old people, same workload. Wouldn't it be great if your company hired some great looking guy/babe to spice up the work environment? Of course it would, even if it means having to juggle work and love. Not too rough, you think. Well, think again.  If you're crushing on a colleague, you're not alone: A survey found that 40% of workers have dated someone on the job during their career, proving that it is a hook-up hotspot, even though one with parameters. Reason: Proximity. We relate easily with people we share space with everyday. Maurice Mugisha of NTV met Irene Birungi while they worked at WBS TV. The two fell in love and got married. They are presently raising a family together. So this office love can really work.  Here is advice for turning a flirtation into a potential relationship. The rules of pulling off a workplace romance have been sent out; don’t say that you didn't get the memo!

Testing The Waves
The main advantage to pursuing a colleague is that they can judge your sense of humor, intelligence and demeanor. This increases your chances of landing the office bombshell, assuming of course that these are your strong points! But make no mistake about it; dating, or even pursuing a colleague, is a risky maneuver. Before making a move, it is a good idea to subtly find out whether your work crush has the hots for you, too. 'Some tip-offs are if he starts hanging around your work space a lot or asks you to grab lunch or after-work drinks,' says Rachel who hooked her husband  from her place of work. It is also promising if he is in an unrelated department, yet asks your opinion on a project he is working on - it indicates that he is looking for an excuse to talk to you and values your opinion. You can do your own digging by jokingly saying, 'Everyone thinks we're seeing each other, ha ha. Crazy, right?' If he casts a wide grin or seems into the idea, the coast is clear to start flirting and see what happens. Let's not even entertain the failure probability; let's enter the realm of wishful thinking and assume that you do get what you want.

Avoiding getting busted
The obvious disadvantage to dating a colleague is that you are voluntarily submitting your personal life as office gossip topic number one; leaving yourself susceptible to rumors, innuendos and endless half-truths. Once you've gotten together, keep that info on the down low. If it turns out to be a two-week fling, nobody needs to know about it. And monitor how often you bring him up. Co-workers often detect a connection when one person mentions the other too frequently. But if you were friendly before, don't ignore him now - that draws more attention than the occasional friendly moment does.

When to come clean
Most companies are not too keen about dating. Obviously, supervisor/subordinate relationships are more sensitive, especially with the issue of sexual harassment lawsuits. But there may be rules about whom you have to inform - and when you start dating a colleague. If it gets serious (that is after several months of dating), it is wise to tell your boss - even if you don't have to - before she hears it from someone else. Just say, 'I wanted to let you know that Peter and I are dating. We'll be sure not to let it interrupt our work.'
It is not easy to bring this relationship to fruition but it has been proved to actually work out.

LIFE ON THE JOB

A day in the life of a journalist : So you think you want my job?
By Angela Kateemu

It is that time of the year when interns are flocking the work places to get training in the field work of the courses they are studying at the university.  It is important to know things about your job from the people who have been there and done that. We will take a look at the life of the journalist. In this particular job, you do research, write the articles,break news, take the photographs and tackle the desktop publishing of the newspapers. Usually, in many publishing houses/newspapers, there are separate people to undertake each of these tasks. A journalist will normally just write articles for the publication, or sub-edit the articles written by other people.

Typical day
A typical day involves interviewing people about their activities, or asking them questions about their opinions on particular topical issues or stories you are working on. “ My day starts as early 5am: That is on the days when I have not been up till the wee hours of the morning working an event/story or meeting a source. (Which is pretty much most of the week!) I wake up and whip up a cup of tea: it is therapeutic and helps to clear  the system. I get my laptop to catch up on the work that I have pending because I am at my witty peak in the early hours after waking up. I usually get to office around 7am to go through the papers before heading for the daily morning preparatory meetings.”  These meetings are basically there to plan the journalists work day.  The day is a mix of meetings with supervisors, sources and subjects for your story.

The Good
I love to write
You satisfy your desire to know as much as possible about everything and anything. A journalist assumes the role of know-all: at least that is how they are viewed by society. They are always on the ground; breaking news, giving advice, writing opinions on one thing or another.

Go places
When you are a journalist, you get to go places (and I don’t mean having a free pass to clubs and events!)  You get to travel, meet and interview people from all corners of society. You get a kick out of indulging in the vanity of name dropping – the people you get to interact with as you write your stories are so many.  You develop friendships with some of your interviewees and these friendships can propel you further in life.

By-line
Do you know how prestigious it is to see your name in print/media? When you are a journalist, you get your writing, your reportage published.

Make a difference in people’s lives
At times, your reportage results in an injustice being corrected, a lost person being found, a government department taking action: You accomplish something beneficial for society. Such things make you feel like you are making a difference not only in your life, but someone else’s too.


You matter
Your reportage makes you an important person in society. You matter. Reporting from a war zone, for instance, opens the eyes of people who see only stereotypes. You achieve name recognition and sometimes get rewarded for your efforts.

The bad
Getting this job done often involves working long hours: weekends and holidays too.  Finding time for rest is difficult –you just have to decide to take a leave if you have to get some time off to rest.
 
Creepy stories
Being a journalist doesn’t not always include going to cocktails and events, it also involves going to gory crime scenes, spending time at the morgue and at the end of the day you can’t get the stench out of your pores. You get to meet all kinds of people from criminals, to the terminally ill. This could be really challenging!

Failing to make the story
It is very frustrating following up on a story that you are unable to get written or published. Why? You are assigned to report on business or politics, the two playing fields of the most liars in society: they give you ‘bullshit’ and lies and they are gloating as they lie to you but you can't find documentary evidence to nail them. You set up appointments with subjects who don’t value your time and make you to endlessly dance to their tune only to be denied access to the information you were hoping to get. Sometimes, you work for over a month on an article and the publisher won't run it because of one thing or another.

Not measuring up
Your editor hacks apart your story –takes you back to high school when the teacher would bring back your assignment and it is bloated all over in red ink. This can be really frustrating but the editor is doing their job which involves telling you that you didn’t measure up:  you didn’t write the story the way he would have written it or the way he wants it.

Complaints
You write a great article and the interviewee - whom you admire and believe to have represented accurately – calls in too complain about the shoddy job. You know sometimes the subject forgets that whatever you say in the interview, unless advised otherwise, is on record. As such, they will forget some of the things they may have said. When they read the story, they call them lies/distortions.

Uninterested readership
The worst part of being a journalist is to find out that ‘nobody’ actually reads your articles: they just skim over them and throw the paper away. Not because your article is bad but because you write for a field that is not exactly popular like agriculture.

Work hazards
You get beat up or killed in the line of duty (expose on motorcycle gangs, war reporter, jealous spouse of celebrity etc) many journalists have been victims of tear gas, clobbering –reason: you are press!

Still interested in being a journalist?
Work exceptionally hard
You have to be prepared to go above and beyond. It is a tough job, so you have to make yourself indispensable.

Be creative:
People expect you to offer lots of ideas and be able to develop them.

Be personable:
This line of work relies heavily on relationships as you are the mediator between the readers and the world.

 Stay current:
 It is important that you keep up with what is going on around the world. Read widely.

Qualifications
Constant training and refresher courses will come in handy as support to your degree/diploma in Journalism or mass communication.