Work ethic is the ultimate form of investment in yourself

We get easily distracted nowadays because we want to be distracted. We invite distraction. We procrastinate and avoid tackling the important work tasks because we might find them tedious and unattractive or because we might not feel competent enough and we get stuck and we’d rather do any of the million small, unimportant things instead.

But if you do not want to be distracted, you won’t. Your email or work chat groups are simple technological means. It is you who has developed this automatism of always checking these tools. So if you need to break some hearts because you won’t join colleagues for a smoke or social breaks then be it. If you can’t respond to a comment on your social media for a couple of hours, so be it. If you decline some tasty gossip session or even an internal meeting because a client is waiting on your promise to deliver something, so be it. It’s not the end of the world. 

Office desk and chair, with a suit jacket hanging on the back of the chair

You should want to do your jobs properly, fully engaged - mainly so that the companies you work for continue to exist, so that you can keep your job(s), so that you can keep paying for your lifestyle but … also because if something happens to the company, the first ones to be fired are the people whose productivity is questionable. Doubts are oftentimes determined by the most insignificant things: a manager noticing one too many smoke breaks, a colleague noticing one too many days in which you might have left the work space early or not checking in regularly in remote working, or not participating in work events with the same enthusiasm from the beginning. The worst is that you might have proper justification or an alibi  for anything but if that impression sets in, it is almost impossible to correct it.

Of course, one may wonder: is it then better to pretend that you are working so that the management considers you reliable when in reality you truly are not and couldn't care less than actually being hardworking and enjoying one too many cigarettes? The answer should be straight but the reality is more complex than that. Appearances and impressions sometimes do create a reality.

It is then smart to not be overly attached to any employer in today’s fragile work environment, but to remember that your reputation is built over time, both with big things accomplished and small things you do not realise. So for as long as you are in a work contract with a company, you might want to actually do your job.

Think of it as strategic competence as it has a lot to do with building a solid and recognisable personal brand. If you want the praise, if you want the promotions or internal authority or you want to be taken into account when the management decides some things, you want to be respected, you want companies to want you .. then you have to start with putting in the work. Building up your professional brand will then have a solid foundation.  

If you are in full control of setting your calendar boundaries, your meetings, your focus time, your work environment (unless you work from home and you have young children… but even then), then you need to put in the time to create time. You owe it to yourself and to your employer to find ways to deliver what you need to deliver, in the amount of hours that you agreed to work for.

Nobody, ever, did better than the rest by working as little as possible, because skipping work means you’re not gaining skills and confidence in your competence but equally - you’re not allowing other people to put in a good word for you with confidence. Nobody wants to ruin their own reputation and credibility by recommending someone that doesn’t deliver.

And in order for this to happen, you must be covered. There shouldn't be any situation where someone says "I'm thinking of hiring X" (you) to which someone else could say "yes, they're ok, but I heard that they are impertinent or insensitive or gossipy’’ or etc. 

Don't give anyone the chance to cancel your chance because of words or behaviours that you didn't think through. You do not need to possess all the qualities known to man, but it is important to know how to make use of these qualities when necessary.

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Therefore, it is advised for your own interest, to work in a genuine manner within the boundaries of the job. Only in this way can you evolve and learn the skills that you can take with you in the future, and only in this way can you ensure that when asked about you, other people’s answers will be positive and encouraging.