Could Favors Kill Your Career?

Is it me or are there two kinds of people in the world when it comes to favors? Those who ask for favors and those who end up granting them.

On the job, the person who asks for the favor sometimes takes advantage of the one helping out.

Let's say Jimbo asks his colleague, Bob, to help him put together handouts for a meeting.  Jimbo is asking for the favor so he can leave work early to go to a football game.  Bob ends up staying late, working on the handouts but he leaves the job feeling good, knowing that he helped out a co-worker.

The next day, Jimbo approaches Bob and says that the handouts were supposed to have been put together slightly differently and as such, they were out of order.  Bob remarks that he followed Jimbo's instructions precisely.

Jimbo snaps at Bob when he hears this and says, "You really need to pay more attention to what you're doing.  You really let me down."

Bob feels horrible.

Unfortunately, this is a common situation in the workplace. Someone asks for help but then is upset when the help given is not judged to be satisfactory.  Some might call this ungrateful behavior, like a person who is openly disappointed in a birthday present they receive.

In this case, I'm not worried about Jimbo.  He's a lousy coworker who has no right to complain about someone helping him out so he can go to a football game.  Regardless of the outcome, the handouts were his responsibility no matter who did the actual work.

I am worried about Bob.  It's likely he will be blamed for the outcome instead of being recognized for helping a colleague as well as staying late to get the job done. He tried to be a "go getter" but will likely be perceived as the "fall guy."

In the future, Bob will think twice before granting another favor. He'll keep these things in mind:

1. Is the person asking for help someone who has helped him in the past?
2. He will make it clear to all that while he will help, he is not the person ultimately responsible for the outcome.
3. People like Jimbo don't see what they're doing as being wrong.  Bob pledges not to let his nice guy instincts allow others to get special treatment.