The simplest method to deal with colleagues and work life is to tiptoe around them, right?
Since our childhood, we are trained not to break rules at work, dismissal and even get fired. For you, this might seem unbeatable workload, which makes us go nuts or even more troubles going on that keeps us in loops.
There are some rules and work culture that can be problematic despite what the actual situation is.
But if you want to be a winner then you have to take a stand and go for rule breaking confidently. I know it seems weird, but if it’s done a professional manner, you might notice a change and consider it the perfect time to go ahead.
The final thoughts that may end up you in regret are letting things go out of the emotional arena, and this is something that we don’t want to happen as the consequences can be severe and the situation can be disastrous.
Your work environment can be filled with employees who are afraid to move forward with confidence as they might be the ones who hate engaging in conflicts. However the reality is that it is essential to balance out the things.
First, let’s see why we break workplace rules?
There is no criminal mind behind the story of breaking rules in professionalism, it a normal thing and we all once a while in our professional field did this.
The habit of breaking rules from the beginning is the issue to think twice about the mindset and the mentality. But this happens in the rare case
The famous quote “Rules are made to be broken” can be pretty dangerous in the workplace. The following are the reasons we hear from employees who break rules on job sites.
- It’s hard to break habits – Like smoking, which is hard for a seasoned smoker.
- To save resources or time – Following shortcuts to save time, this might put you into problems later.
- Solidifies your uniqueness – Working on a job which does not allow you to express your individuality. Regular uniforms, airtight operational procedures, and repetitive tasks, hectic schedules might lead to lashing out and break the rules.
How To Break Rules At Work?
1. Trusting Your Gut:
Don’t underestimate your inner voice! But it might not be smart as you think.
If your last four trails were wrong, you develop a gut feeling which makes you feel sick when you think of doing that trick again. That said, the universe is in constant flux, so all those “faulty yesterdays” that gave you that gut feels in your head might not be the same today.
If your workplace is a predictable environment like as nursing and accounting, experience makes your intuition dependable. But for the rest of us (writers, judges, and stockbrokers) decision – making is challenging that “follow your heart.”
2. Speak Up Or Get Out:
You first have to assess the entire situation in order to bring a change in your workplace and overall career. You might be not able to break any rules if your passion is dead and you are simply wandering around.
If you are overlooking the political changes at work initially, then you would not be able to stand them at present. Though the market is robust, but your sanity is actually worth the situation.
Hence, try to be genuine to at least yourself. This will help you preventing lots of discomfort. If you are experiencing any troubles, then speak them out to your boss. Most individuals refrain from standing against their seniors and colleagues but if you handle the situation in a more professional and composed way then it can make a great difference.
3. Stop Emotional Outbreak:
In my opinion, bring out the personal issue into the open, even if it’s awkward or difficult. So you and a staff have different work styles or have grappled over a project, and as a result, there might be a serious tension between you two.
Tiptoeing around the problem might cause your productivity to suffer, so it is important to confront.
4. Be Your Inspiration:
Not following social norms makes you stronger and can make you feel independent. Stand for yourself when partisanship occurs.
For instance, if someone is taking all the credit of hard work done by you, then it’s your turn to speak about it as they must be in a habit of doing this again and again.
This happened to me once in a meeting when my colleague lied about the story behind the success of a project and took all the credit.
My boss thanked me for speaking up about the issue and then resolving the entire situation intellectually.
5. Busy Bees or Social Butterfly:
Don’t look for silly excuses to off head you from office. After shedding a lot of energy with same hectic schedules, go for weekends. Inefficient socializing with dear and near ones is often the cause to strike professionalism.
If it is not the urge of time to stay long at the workplace, just threw away all your files, your gadgets, and enjoy your weekends out. You can plan hanging out in parties, shopping complexes, or recreational environments.
6. Stop Chasing For Luxuries:
The story of circumstances is not same for all of us. Who knows what is the reason one is holding a position of disinterest. A job can be one’s passion or might be for another, the same work is just a key to survival.
We are not saying to quit a job if not willing to do, but ones rewind the passage of circumstances or situations. The best you can do is boost your interest in the ongoing profession if you can.
Still, if circumstances are not the keywords to hold a job, then move ahead. In fact, make other your days/time more interesting, with your passions and hobbies. Stop chasing for luxuries but chase for happiness.
7. Follow all the Rules First and then Break Them Later:
If you follow the rules religiously and then start breaking them then there is no better way than this to break the rules.
There is no need to behave differently to become a rule breaker. Just follow each rule whether it is written or unwritten, mentioned or not mentioned. Then slowly you can avoid following them one by one. So, while you maintain an image of a rule follower in the workplace, actually you are breaking them to the fullest.
8. Develop Healthy Relationships with Other Employees:
One common thing that other employees have is accentuating the mistakes and limitations of their colleagues. If you want to break rules at the workplace and don’t want to get noticed then you need to win the confidence and trust of your employees.
This is essential so that they never complain about you to the human resource manager or to the respective seniors. You can work for them, build relationships and be indispensable if you don’t want your mistakes to be noted. This way, you can break the rules at the workplace easily.
9. Work Late Hours:
Add more productivity to your work by working late hours. This can be considered working overtime. But make sure you find a good and amazing reason to work late. If there is any valid reason to work late then even the reason can be repeated.
Maybe you require to all the customers belonging to different time zones or might be you are able to deliver more productive results while you are working late, or maybe you are able to complete all pending tasks.
Make sure that there is a valid reason for you staying late in the office. This way even if you break some rules, then that will not be considered above your productivity.
10. Bring Benefits to the Company:
No company would like to warn or let go away any employee who is bringing more business and benefits to their company.
So, if you want to break the rules at work and still want to enjoy all the perks and advantages, then try to bring some great business or benefits to the company. Might be you need to put in some additional efforts to achieve this, but consider this as a payment against your breaking the rules ideology.
So, if you are bringing benefits to the company, then you can freely break the rules and enjoy landing in a win-win position still.
11. Break Only Those Rules that Matter:
One important thing that you must remember is that whenever you are breaking rules, then you are at a high risk. Hence, if you don’t want to engage in any severe payoff, then you must break only those rules that matter.
If there is a rule to wear a specific dress code then you must adhere to it. But if your company has the rule to wear casual clothes on Friday, then breaking this rule will not harm anyone. So make sure you break only those rules that will bring you the least harm.
12. Calculate the Risks before Breaking the Rules:
A lot of rules need to be ignored, but sometimes breaking certain rules can land you with severe consequences. Like you may take an extended leave for 15 more minutes during the lunch break, but if you will keep coming to the office late then you will be noticed and might be severely penalized for the same.
Also, you might be signing off for some time on an occasional basis, but if you are signed off for a much longer time period and that too on a regular basis then despite doing productive work, you will be considered guilty of severe consequences.
13. Break Rules that Can Help You Become More Effective:
Just like healthy flirting, healthy cheating, and healthy lying, even you can think of healthy ways to break rules.
This means that you can plan to break the rules, but make sure you are breaking them to avail more effective results. This is a wonderful way so that you can break a rule without causing any harm to others as well as feeling comfortable and delivering more effective results.
So, if there are any rules that can bring more effective results, then there is no harm in breaking them.
14. Break Rules Without Engaging In an Emotional Conflict with Others:
If you want to break rules but don’t want to engage in any messed situation, then make sure you break rules without hurting anyone’s emotional well-being or quotient.
Might be you want to break rules against a colleague, or you want to break rules against your seniors, but if this hurts anyone’s emotional quotient then this can be problematic for you.
Even this may cause your productivity to suffer a lot. Therefore, it is important that you work in a way and break rules so that you don’t upset anyone.
15. Avoid Messing With Your Own Work:
Last, but not the least an important way to break rules is that it does not affect your productivity and work.
There are various situations when breaking rules can lead to an intense situation and can mess with your own work. Might be you are breaking a rule and this is hampering your own productivity, or you got so busy in breaking the rules that you forget about an important project or assignment.
So, whenever you are breaking rules at work it is essential for you to consider that your work does not hamper your productivity and efficiency at work.
Hence, these are the best ways to break rules at work in a way that you enjoy this rather than getting punished or experiencing severe consequences. Make sure you follow all these ways so that you enjoying breaking rules without engaging in any trouble. Enjoy breaking the rules!
