Personal Reputation

I hope that I have a strong reputation among all groups with whom I interact, however for the purpose of this blog post I will discuss my reputation at work. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I work at a bank in downtown Champaign. I started working here at the end of this past May, so I’ve been at the bank for about six months now.

I believe that I have a pretty strong reputation at work. I actually asked one of my coworkers what she would consider my reputation to be, and she said that she would consider me to be hard-working, but also fun and “goofy in a good way.” I started working on earing a good reputation at work from the first day. I have always made sure to dress very professionally and be professional with how I wear my hair and makeup. I paid very close attention during my training because I wanted to show that I cared about learning everything I needed to know for the job, and I wanted to pick up the necessary skills quickly. During my first few weeks on the job, I asked questions frequently about things I didn’t understand so that I could expand my knowledge, and so that I would not make mistakes. I still ask questions whenever something comes up that I don’t know about. Recently I told my manager I wanted to learn more about FDIC coverage, and he gave me some reading material about it. I think that continuing to try to grow my knowledge at work, even in areas that I don’t need to do my daily job, helps to further my reputation as a hard worker and as someone who is willing to put in extra effort. Another way that I have developed a good reputation as a hard worker at my workplace is by always being willing to do any task that needs done. I frequently ask my manager if there is any extra work that needs to be done, and I always offer to help if one of my coworkers seems extra busy.

My reputation for being fun is something that my coworkers see more so than my boss. It is important to me to have a good relationship with the people I work with because we spend so much time together. My coworker told me that at first, she thought I would be a “bosses pet” and that I was trying to suck up to the boss by asking for extra work to do during down times. She said that she soon realized though, that I actually did want to do extra tasks when needed, and that she really appreciated that I could still be fun and interact with her and the other teller. I have spent time with my coworkers outside of work, and we have also done small office pranks on each other. These type of activities have helped me to develop a good reputation as someone that is friendly and fun to be around, instead of someone who cares only about the work.

Some days I do “cash-in” on my strong reputation at work. Since I am a full time student taking 16 credit hours in addition to working 20-25 hours a week, it is sometimes necessary for me to use down time at work to get studying done. While this is okay with my boss, I think it would be less ‘okay’ if I did not work as hard when we were busy. Another way in which I sometimes cash-in on my reputation is by occasionally making calls at work, such as setting up doctor appointments or advising appointments and other things like that which typically must be done during the work day. When I need to make a quick personal call, one of the other tellers always covers my station for me. This type of thing also is much more easy for me to do because I am such a dedicated worker.