How to work with colleagues who do the bare minimum and use them to your advantage

How to work with colleagues who do the bare minimum and use them to your advantageHow to work with colleagues who do the bare minimum and use them to your advantageTrying to work with a colleague who is always lagging behind and barely makes an effort to catch up is a tough spot to be in.Heres how to manage.Talk to the person directlyYou should talk to the colleague who isnt contributing as much by speaking either face-to-face or on the phone.We know, we know - this is much easier said than done. Thats why its important to contain it to just you and the person, instead of critiquing them in front of other people.If you go above and beyond, they can make you look even betterChances are, if youre notlage doing as little as they are, youll appear to be a better fit for the company.Karin Hurt and David Dye, authors of Winning Well A Managers Guide to Getting Results - Without Losing Your Soul, answer a readers question on their site about how to stay driven when colleagues are lazy and the supervisor doesnt seem to notice that theyre doing more work than the other.They suggestto keep rocking your roleStay focused on your MITs (most important things) to serve your customers and the business. Stay creative. Chances are your boss is picking up a lot more than you know. Performance management conversations happen behind closed doors. I wish we could tell you how many performance issues weve dealt with that we longed to share with the high-performers we knew were frustrated, but couldnt. Be sure you keep building your brand with a strong track record of results and collaborative relationships.Set clear work boundariesWhat do you say to that person who constantly wants you to do their work?Leigh Steere, co-founder of management training tool Managing People Better, tellsMonsterto zone in on whats going on and suggests telling your coworkerI dont mind helping every once in awhile, but Im noticing that you are asking me to help with things from your to-do list frequently . I have a full plate without taking on more, and I need to say no.Have a conversation with your supervisorAlison Green, author of the Ask a Manager blog, features something you can say to your supervisor if your colleagues inaction is affecting your productivity in U.S. News World ReportIm spending significant amounts of time talking to Janes clients when they cant reach her and finishing up her reports when she leaves for the day without completing them. Its causing me to have to push off priorities like A and B, and I dont have as much time to spend with my own clients as a result.Escalating the situation this way will demonstrate that youre really paying attention to how you could best be using your time at work, and that you dont want anyone or anything getting in the way of that.

Administrative Chief

Administrative ChiefMarine Corps Job 0193 Personnel/Administrative ChiefPersonnel/Administrative chiefs perform supervisory duties as midlevel office managers in a variety of administrative assignments. Personnel/ administrative chiefs must possess a thorough knowledge of the capabilities and requirements of Marine Corps voreingestellt word processing and database software packages, and the Marine Corps Total Force System (MCTFS), which encompasses the Online Diary System (OLDS), and the Unit Diary/Marine Integrated Personnel System (UD/MIPS). Normally, personnel/administrative chiefs are assigned at the reporting unit level, to include consolidated administration centers, adjutants office, staff level billets, i.e., HQMC staff section, G-1/S-1, etc., or independent duty in an administrative billet. Personnel/Administrative chiefs must have an overall knowledge of personnel (general and operational) administration procedures to establish, direct, and supervise the administrative func tions of the office to which assigned. The personnel/administrative chief must maintain technical proficiency in the duties performed by Marines in MOSs 0121, and 0151. When assigned to staff billets, personnel/administrative chiefs supervise the flow of paperwork to ensure proper staffing of all inbound and outbound correspondence, drafting/publishing, and supervising the maintenance and distribution of directives and correspondence. Type of MOS PMOS Rank sortiment MGySgt to SSgt Job Requirements All Marines are expected to qualify for this MOS by completing the advanced Personnel Administration Course conducted at MCB Camp Lejeune, NC. When a Marine is unable to attend this course prior to promotion to staff sergeant, MOS 0193 may be assigned at the commanders discretion if the Marine has demonstrated proficiency in the duties and tasks identified in MCO 1510.53. Upon promotion to staff sergeant, assignment of MOS 0193 does not exempt the Marine from attendance and completion of t he Advanced Personnel Administration Course. This MOS will not be assigned to Marines below the rank of staff sergeant. Must have previously served in MOS 0121 or 0151. DutiesFor a complete listing of duties and tasks, refer to MCO 1510.53, Individual Training standards. Related Department of Labor Occupation Codes Supervisor, Personnel Clerks 209.132-010. Related Marine Corps Jobs None Above information derived from MCBUL 1200, parts 2 and 3

Biomimicking the Archer Fish

Biomimicking the Archer Fish Biomimicking the Archer Fish Biomimicking the Archer FishAlexandra Techet, associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT, has long been fascinated with the ocean and its creatures, but it may have been a water sport played by humans that helped spark her interest in a particular fish.I used to play water polo and watch people get out of the water, but in the limiting way humans do it, Techet says. But how fish do it? There was an interest in a shark jumping. They go down deep and come up to the surface but its different than a jump from a dead stop. The archer fish fit better and it was exciting to think about the possibilities.Archer fish, Techet explains, are thin, near paper thin, but they end up looking almost like the shape of the ace of spades in playing cards. So for the first study, they looked at, among other things, the archer fishs kinematics.They jump, they spit, and then they jump to capture prey in the water, Techet says. Th ere isnt a guarantee that the fish gets food but other fish arent there above the surface so if you jump, its yours alone in your mouth. You get to eat it. We were seeing the hydrodynamics of jumping. You have all this velocity, all this power into the jump.Archer fish jump sequence. Image Anna Shih / MITIn order to study the fishs movements, they utilized a high-speed camera. It lets us look at their body motion and see, for example, the number of tail strokes relative to the height of the bait, Techet says. One of the first things we noticed when we plotted this was an almost linear correlation, which was interesting to find. High-speed video was our way to understand the fish in motion and fluid motion.Leah Mendelson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Harvey Mudd College, who started work on the project as a Ph.D. candidate at MIT, has also been encouraged by the results.This linear correlation involved the times of its feeding, its tail, and how high its able to j ump, not necessarily pushing harder to jump harder but just more times, Mendelson says. If athletes want to jump farther, they do it harder. But the archer doesnt have to do that.3D imaginghas also helped their work. Weve been working on getting a more complete picture of fin-pushing instrumentation, Mendelson says. I was able to play with how we arranged the cameras to get better information near the body film tracer particles, much closer to where they were being pushed against the fins. Originally when we started with one 2D camera, we were looking at the tank wall and in some studies, which are under review to be published right now, we rearranged and had seven cameras in a 3D configuration. We set up the camera rails so none were looking down when it came to the tank. We had no problems with surface reflection this way.Techet says there is more work to do but believes this could ultimately help create more efficient underwater vehicles and even vehicles that travel on the water s surface. The archer fish has impressive efficiency, she says. Were leise learning.Eric Butterman is an independent writer. For Further DiscussionThe archer fish has impressive efficiency. Were still learning.Prof. Alexandra Techet, MIT