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As a boss who also has a boss of her own, I can admit that I'm not the best employee. I often fail miserably at pleasing my manager. I know what I like in the people on my own staff, and I don't always meet all the criteria myself. There's nothing like having the perfect employee on your team for pointing out your own flaws. My perfect employee's name is Carl, and here are some of the things he does to make me happy:

1. He's agreeable. Not only is Carl friendly and easy to get along with, but he's also highly adaptable to changes in his work tasks. If I ask him to drop what he's doing and tackle a new priority, he doesn't hesitate. He just does it, and I don't have to chase down the completed work, because I can count on Carl to get it done. Not having to baby-sit a work task makes my job easier.

2. He's hardworking. Carl is easily bored. He can't stand downtime. Therefore, he gets his work done. If he finds himself with nothing to do, he seeks out new work. He offers to help his coworkers. He observes tasks that need to be done and just does them. No follow-up is required, and that makes my job easier.

3. He's detail-oriented. Although Carl makes occasional mistakes, he learns from them and doesn't repeat them. Any good supervisor recognizes that employees are human, and no human can be expected to be error-free. However, employees who make errors all the time become burdensome to manage. Carl's mistakes are few and far between, which means I spend less time correcting him. That makes my job easier. Noticing a trend?

4. He knows how to do his job. The most agreeable, hardworking, and detail-oriented employee doesn't do you any good if he can't get the work done. Carl came to the table with the right educational background, experience, and an ability to learn quickly. I spend less time teaching him, and, you guessed it: that makes my job easier.

5. He shows up every day, on time, and he reports to his area ready to work. Nothing is more frustrating than filling the shoes of a chronically absent employee. Everyone else has to pick up the slack, myself included. Do I even need to explain how absenteeism makes my job more difficult?

Just make my job easier by showing up, knowing how to do your job, being pleasant to be around, and getting the work done correctly and on time. Notice that there are no cookies on the list, and no desires for Carl to agree with everything I say. I'm not even sure if Carl bakes, and he questions me on occasion, which stimulates conversations that often result in improvements to the business. As a matter of fact, improvements to the business make my job easier, too.

Now, if I could just remember to be as agreeable and hardworking as my perfect employee, my own boss might appreciate me as much as I appreciate Carl.

Learn more about this author, Penelope Kitty.
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