How Not To Be Invisible On The Job

                                                         Make Yourself Seen 

When it comes to the degree of visibility in an organization, most people would agree that keeping a high profile is better than going unnoticed. If you’re not convinced of that yet, read the rest of this article.

Keep A High Profile

There is an old Chinese story about a man who had a cat. The cat was very good at hunting mice, and the man was glad that he didn’t have to worry about too many rodents in his home. One day, however, while he was visiting his neighbor, he heard a lot of noise coming from the attic. The explanation he got was that the neighbor’s cat was busy chasing mice. The man started suspecting his own cat of laziness, since he had never heard such noise coming from his own attic. Of course, the good cat knew perfectly well that, while chasing mice could be done quite all right with a lot of caterwauling and racing around, it took a silent and patient hunter to actually catch them. But the man didn’t know that, and he was the one with the authority to judge.

Participate In Extra-Curricular Job Related Activities

As many other examples, the one above uses an exaggeration to prove a point: if you don’t make yourself noticed at all, people will be tempted to think you’re not doing anything. The same holds true at the workplace. If you never participate in extra-curricular activities and always maintain a low profile, you’ll go unnoticed or, worse, your boss will start suspecting that you’re not doing anything at all.

Get Noticed While Being Productive

Of course, since organizations normally evaluate their employees in terms of productivity rather than noisiness, the idea should not be taken to extreme. Still, when your boss considers different candidates for promotion, an employee who has just as good results as you do, but who knows how to attract more attention will probably have better chances than you.

To conclude, don’t be too silent; make yourself heard when you have something relevant to say. Arrive a few minutes before office hours and don’t disappear at the strike of five o’ clock. However, don’t be like the neighbor’s cat either, because you’ll need to show significant results too, not just to seem omnipresent.