Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Lost Art of "Sucking Up"

SUCK UP: Definition: to deliberately try to make a good impression or influence someone in authority by either positive or questionable methods.

Whether we like it or not we are live in a society where sucking up is an age old process--and the sad thing is that we have lost the ART OF SUCKING UP. We are either the "sucker" or the "suckee" and it happens all the time--but we need to improve on the art...

Here are some guidelines on "sucking up" properly:

1. Always be genuine. Anyone who has a shred of common sense can spot a phony.

2. Be generous in your praise. Everyone likes to be appreciated.

3. Learn to write thank you notes/emails. I can guarantee you that anyone who works for me and expresses their gratitude will be invited back again.

4. Don't create problems with griping, complaining, and bad attitudes. All of those things make sucking up useless...

5. Don't suck up to your boss in front of your co-workers. That's just not cool...

6. Don't whine if you don't get your way. That negates all the good effects of sucking up.

7. Always be good and kind to the people around you (ballboys, linespeople, score keepers). Your reputation will always precede you.

Special teachings on sucking up:

1. Never ever try to go over someone's head to get your way.

2. Never ever send an email to someone and copy it to someone in authority over them. That will always come back to bite you...

3. Never ever go to a tournament and rip your previous referee. All officials love to tell on other other officials...

4. Never ever file a baseless grievance because of something stupid. Once you get the reputation of being a "grievance filer" you can kiss your career goodbye.

5. Never ever lie to someone in authority over you. Trust me, they will always find out. Specifically don't lie in order to get out of an assignment to go somewhere else.

6. Don't run around with an inflated opinion of yourself and your abilities. Huge egos make me car sick.

Sucking up is part of life--we just need to learn to do it the right and proper way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your Texas officials have a lot of suck ups! It must be the special training classes they take down there.

Anonymous said...

If you want to be a major suck up, you must work an event in College Station. If you want to be sucked up to, you must assign a certain official from College Station.

TTFN