送给同事的5个新年计划

    到目前为止，你或许已经制定过一两个新年计划。或者你的每一个计划都坚持了下来。但如果能为同事制定一些他们愿意坚持的新年计划，岂不是很好？

    不妨参考下面的愿望清单：

    提供有用的反馈

    当然，如果你的上司决定给你升职或安排一些国外出差的任务，自然是再好不过。但对于大多数上班族来说，只要老板能就他们的工作提供一些具体实用的建议，他们就心满意足了。毕竟，我们经常听到的是一些不切实际的目标，或不分青红皂白的批评，甚至更糟糕的是，老板对员工的努力工作没有任何表示。我们把大部分最有效率的时间用于工作，只是为了找到生活的意义和目标。所以，进入2014年，请不要让我们的努力白费。（当然，这条计划并不包括有关我的着装或亲人的那些不请自来的建议。）

    善待厨房

    还有比公共厨房更令人焦虑的地方吗？你或许看到过厨房里堆满了半拉纸盒，上面有黑色马克笔留下的标记，还有午餐剩饭被锁起来以防偷吃。这些反应过度的措施都源自同事们那些令人不快的经历，比如自己的食物被人偷吃，或者是因为赞助了某位无名氏喜欢喝咖啡的习惯等等。

    洗干净自己的餐具。不要把面包屑弄的到处都是，也不要留下油腻的指纹。请尊重这个公共空间。请不要再用微波炉加热有异味的食物。如果一定要加热那些会溢出来、或溅得满墙都是的食物，请在午餐“爆炸”之后收拾好残局。

    最重要的是，请不要在办公室的厨房里存放你的三瓶色拉酱调料、两种口味的芥末、奶酪或其他原材料。没有人想看着你的科研项目绽放“霉菌”，也没人想看到它们把整个公共空间搞得臭气熏天。

    不要消极抵抗

    我经常在想，我们不应该对咒骂他人的人罚款25美分，而是应该对那些在办公室低声发牢骚或采取其他任何消极抵抗措施的人罚款1美元。比如对你的紧急请求拖拖拉拉的行政助理，对你的电子邮件视而不见的团队成员，在开会时用低到让人无法捕捉的声音说风凉话的同事等等。

    如果你在整场会议中都是多余的，甚至全程都在玩《糖果传奇》，大可以找借口离开。如果我们所有人都得忍受无聊的会议，你凭什么要例外呢？如果必须接一通紧急电话或者需要回复电子邮件，可以请求离开会议室，虽然这种情况极为少见。

    除非你希望遭到禁令限制，否则不要说那些过于热切的话。恭维同事戴的围巾是一回事。而关心同事个人习惯的变化却是另一回事，这种做法会令人毛骨悚然。比如：“哇，你今天在用不一样的即时贴呀，”或者“你今天吃午饭的时间要比往常早。”

    有的同事会发一封电子邮件，然后在你面前看着你读完，或者在你还没有机会打开读之前，就打电话来要进行讨论。真希望他们也能看到这篇文章。

    By now, you may have made a New Year's resolution or two. You probably haven't broken any yet. But wouldn't it be great if you could make resolutions for other people in the office that they would keep?

    Here's a starting point for the wish list:

    Give useful feedback

    Sure, it would be nice if your supervisor resolved to offer you a raise or a few exotic travel assignments. But most of us working stiffs would be satisfied simply to receive practical, concrete feedback on our work from our bosses, rather than unrealistic goals, indiscriminate criticism, or -- sometimes worst of all -- silent lack of acknowledgment of our hard work. We spend our most productive hours at work, in a quest for meaning and purpose. In 2014, please don't let these efforts be in vain. (No, this resolution doesn't cover unsolicited advice about my wardrobe or relatives.)

    Treat the kitchen kindly

    Is there a more fraught location in the office than the shared kitchen? Maybe you've seen half-and-half cartons labeled with black permanent marker and lunch leftovers padlocked for protection. These drastic steps spring from our colleagues' traumatic past experiences of having their food stolen or subsidizing an anonymous coworker's coffee habit.

    Wash your own dishes. Don't leave a trail of crumbs or greasy fingerprints behind you. Respect this shared space. And please, resolve to stop using the microwave to cook stinky food. If you must heat something that spills or spatters all over the walls, clean up after your lunch explosion.

    Most of all, we beg, stop using the office kitchen to store your three bottles of salad dressing, two flavors of mustard, a cheese assortment, or any other staples. Nobody wants to watch your science projects blossom mold or begin to stink up the communal space.

    Stop being passive-aggressive

    I've often thought that instead of charging people a quarter for cursing, we should charge them a dollar for muttering under their breath or pulling other passive-aggressive moves in the office. That covers the administrative assistant who drags his feet in fulfilling your urgent request, the team members who ignore your emails, and the colleague who makes snide remarks in meetings, just low enough to escape comprehension

    If your presence is so superfluous to a meeting that you can play Candy Crush all the way through it, just excuse yourself. If we have to suffer through a boring meeting, then you do too. For those rare occasions when you must take an urgent call or respond to an email, excuse yourself from the table.

    Unless you're hoping to be slapped with a restraining order, keep the overly zealous observations to yourself. It's one thing to compliment a colleague's scarf. It's another to notice changes in habit that border on the creepy: "Oh, you're using different sticky notes today," or "You're eating lunch earlier than usual."

    And can someone please pass this article to the coworkers who send an email and then walk over to watch you read it -- or call to discuss it before you've had a chance to open it?