A friend of mine often works late on the job. The problem isn’t from an overly ambitious workload from her boss or a desire to pick up extra hours. Instead, she’s fulfilling a long list of requests that come from her coworkers. ?The woman is?cross-trained in several positions and is known as a person who can get the job done. She’s a pleaser and wants to be helpful. ?But she also realizes that it’s adding up to lot of extra and unpaid work.
Is my friend being a good team player or is she being used by others? In the workplace, I’ve found that there are two kinds of people: Wings and Claws.
Wings
- Remember favors
- Like sharing success and recognition
- Thank you for helping them
- Will reciprocate assistance and will try to boost your career
Claws
- Have a strong sense of entitlement
- Want all the credit
- Believe you have a duty to help them
- Aren’t interested in helping others move up in their career
People are usually wings or claws. It’s rare that they are both or that they will change.
My advice to my friend is to figure out who are the wings and who are the claws. ?Claws hold you back and wings help your career soar.
Help the claws only if you need to. ?If you don’t give them extra help, they’ll find someone else for assistance.
Embrace the wings and let them take your career to new heights.
