Regardless of the relationship you may think you have with your boss, maintaining a sense of professionalism at all times is always necessary. Knowing what you can and cannot say is critical for your success. Just because you and your boss have a great relationship doesn’t mean that you can say what you feel. Take caution when you are discussing things of serious matters. The following is a list of 10 phrases that your boss never wants to hear. In the instance that you have to express the following ideas, we have also listed a better way of saying it:

1. “This is not in my job description.”

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End-of-the-week initiatives like Casual Fridays are designed to excite and often inspire employees to enjoy the company culture. Some companies maintain a “jeans acceptable” policy for Friday while other companies may offer catered lunches or in-house lunch parties. While all these things can really excite employees, we conceive an alternative approach to improve employee morale as well as employee productivity.

These common initiatives of celebrating Friday workdays appear to be based on the logic that the end of the week is when employees are happier because the weekend is here. Therefore the company should use that day to correlate the employees’ happiness with the company’s workplace. However, we think that this strategy is counter-intuitive to productivity. We advocate that companies should shift their focus on creating fun and exciting initiatives for the one day of the week that is often notable for being the most dreadful day for employees: Monday.

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Managers perform annual (or quarterly) performance reviews to not only inform the employee of their successes and failures, but to also learn about what the company can do better, in the eyes of the employee. This feedback is essential because the the company can’t always assume that it has an accurate reading of employee morale and if it is as efficient as possible. Furthermore, this discourse should not be limited to organizations and employees. It should be extended to communities and its residents, because synonymously, communities can’t successfully grow without the voice of its residents.

Whether it may be at a city commissioner’s meeting, local government press conference,  the municipality’s website, or by dialing your local officials, there are countless ways in which residents can engage their community. If there is something that is occurring in your city or neighborhood that you don’t agree with, let your voice be known. If there is a better or more productive method of doing something, speak up. As a citizen of your nation, as a resident of your city and as a member of your community, you have a civic obligation to provide your opinion.

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