RESEARCH CENTRE: Want a promotion? CC your boss
How do you climb up the career ladder? Turns out the secret is not in your attitude or competence, but in something more simple.
What you need to know:
- In an attempt to explain these findings, David De Cremer, the study author, says, “These findings suggest that when your co-workers copy your supervisors very often, they may be doing so strategically, as they consciously know what effect it will have on you.”
- The fact that men are more likely to use these tactics to get up the ladder and the fact that these tactics actually work means that women are continually missing out on opportunities in their careers.
How do you climb up the career ladder? Turns out the secret is not in your attitude or competence, but in something more simple. A new study says that the answer lies in how you treat your emails.
Researchers from Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge found that the availability of email on our smart phones has made it easy for people to gun for promotions.
In what they termed as ‘ego-mail’ the researchers found that in the present career world, employees are using their emails to get ahead of their colleagues. One such trick has been found to be showing off by copying management into an email thread. Other employees were found to be going out of their way to send their employers work emails at antisocial hours just to show how committed they are to their jobs. Many would schedule emails to be sent either late in the night or early in the mornings. This way, their employers think that they are working even when they are not.
Men who have no shame, the researchers found, are more likely to engage in these email tactics than women.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, this ego-mail technique has been found to work. The researchers found that employers and management are more likely to remember the more vocal and the pushy employees when handing out promotions and positive job reviews.
THE EXPLANATION
In an attempt to explain these findings, David De Cremer, the study author, says, “These findings suggest that when your co-workers copy your supervisors very often, they may be doing so strategically, as they consciously know what effect it will have on you.”
The fact that men are more likely to use these tactics to get up the ladder and the fact that these tactics actually work means that women are continually missing out on opportunities in their careers.
While the experts insist that employers should only give promotions based on actual productivity, it’s clear that this is not the situation on the ground. To get that coveted corner office, looks like you need to learn how to send flattering messages about yourself through the office mails that you send.
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