the Guppie Life

Toughstuff from Below the Belt shared today some insight on the process of evolving as a gay professional.

College was a time when I spent a great deal of effort on coming to terms with my sexuality and learning how to negotiate this new “self” with my old and new networks—friends, family, peers, etc. Graduating and finding a great first job was, for me, my way of proving to myself and to the world that even though I was a wishy-washy liberal and activist… I could do just as well as people who had not gone through what I did and probably majored in something more practical like business.

…

There are moments now, as I’m becoming comfortable in the workplace and confident in my ability to do work, when I realize I’ve become “a professional.” When someone calls for me on the phone I reflexively act happy and excited to hear from them, and grateful for the good work they’ve brought to the table. When I sit in a meeting, I always bring a notepad and pen and I try to anticipate questions about anything that might be brought up during the meeting. I offer to help with others’ projects I may not have anything to do with. I am outgoing at work, I always ask how people are doing, how their weekends were, what they’re doing for the holiday. My work identity has, in many ways, been institutionalized—and it’s crazy because those who knew me a few years ago knew me as a very shy, almost socially defunct kind of guy. In some ways I kind of like this new personality I can turn on. I feel that it has helped me to be more successful at work.

Though he writes through the lens of his own sexuality, I think most of us go through this struggle before getting to that Aha! I can do this! moment. Being gay adds another layer of ‘Other-ness‘ to the experience.

Read Toughstuff’s full post at Below the Belt

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As my readers from way-back-when will remember, I quit my first post-college job doing internet ad operations and found one in web development that makes me much happier. (I had meant to write about the new job, but I was afraid of jinxing it.)

Four months and one glowing performance review later, I can safely say the new job is going well.

But it didn’t look like smooth sailing four and a half months ago. I had received the offer from my current employer, and I had even negotiated a higher starting salary. The counter-offer was much better than the initial offer, but it still wasn’t quite what I was making whoring my soul doing online advertising. (OK, so actually if you factor in the 401k, better health insurance and saner hours, it probably did match my old job, but I love cold, hard cash.)

What’s a boy to do in such a sticky situation? I really wanted to take the job, but I didn’t want to take a pay cut. The boss really wanted to hire me, but was nervous about hiring a millennial employee for what he considered an experienced-hire position. And of course he didn’t want to waste cash on me if I couldn’t handle the rigors of the position.

The compromise
I agreed to be placed on job probation, for lack of a better word. The boss agreed to grant me an early performance review after four or five months. Assuming things went well, I would receive a raise and increased responsibility. If things weren’t going well… well, we never discussed that, but I doubt it would have led to sunshine and puppies.

The result
My performance review was scheduled for two weeks ago. Unfortunately, the boss had to fly out of town for a week to meet a client. The next week I didn’t want to mention my review because I hadn’t hit my target number of billable hours, and even though I wasn’t in trouble, it didn’t seem like the most auspicious time.

But my boss caught me off guard. Walking down the hallway, he saw me working late on a project (because we millennials have strange schedules) and he sprung the review on me!

Of course, I had been obsessing about the review for weeks. I had already come up with some answers to some pretty standard performance review questions:

• What do you think you’re doing best in this position?
• What do you need to work on?
• What’s your favorite thing about your position?
• What’s your least favorite aspect about your position?
• How do you think you can grow in the company?
• Can you think of anything the company needs to do to help you grow into your position?

Before I knew it, the performance review was over. It was way easier than I had imagined, and I was pleased with the feedback from my boss. But I was even more pleased with the salary bump!

Final Thoughts
Would I recommend this ‘probation’ strategy? It depends.

It worked for me. It worked out for my employer. But it might not work for you. I tried to assume the worst and hoped for the best. If the raise never materialized, I would have felt disappointed, but the starting salary wasn’t so low that I’d be destitute. I knew I could survive on the lower salary and I felt pretty confident that I could perform well enough to earn a salary bump.

I know this sounds a lot like paying your dues, an unpopular topic with millennials. Paying dues is about being the bottom of the totem pole simply because you’re the new guy—probation is also for unproven employees, but it’s based on merit, not on the amount of time you’ve been working.

I viewed the probation as a calculated risk. Besides, it was only for a few months and I had the performance review promised to me in writing. (Always get it in writing!)

Would I have put up with that for a whole year? Doubtful. I’m too impatient, and I don’t think it takes a whole year to demonstrate that you can do your job well. But I get the sense from talking to my cohorts that an unofficial six month probation isn’t uncommon for Gen Y-ers. It might not be called a ‘probation’ per se, but the same prove-your-mettle attitude applies.

What are your experiences with paying dues and proving your merit? Would you ever agree to job and/or salary probation?

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