Suck-up Big Time

Every office has at least one employee who sucks up to the boss. In fact, chances are there are a lot more than one. You know the person: Maybe there’s an employee who constantly hurls flatteries at superiors or laughs a little too much at their jokes. Maybe there’s an employee who brings in sweets for the manager or offers to grab them a coffee from time to time. Or maybe there’s an employee who constantly offers to take on extra work to impress the boss.

The truth is that most workers resort to some of these tactics at one point or another. For better or worse, sucking up has become an essential part of getting ahead in the workplace – we just tend to use more positive terms to describe it, such as “enthusiastic,” “ambitious” and “people pleaser.” Those who don’t do a little sucking up should probably start.

Ask your superiors what they actually want
Before you start hanging around your boss’ desk each day chatting and complimenting them, take a minute to have a serious conversation about what their expectations are for your position and how he or she would prefer to be communicated with.


Always volunteer to do more
Flattery and nice gestures can be a useful tool to get ahead in the office, but they should never be used in place of hard work. Take the initiative and volunteering to do more work whenever possible.

Don’t forget to ‘suck down’ as well
Every employee wants to impress their manager, but you shouldn’t just suck up to that one person. “You also have to suck down because you just never know where people will end up.

Avoid too much empty flattery
There’s no sin in complimenting your boss’s new haircut, just be careful not to do it too much or it might get awkward.

Don’t overdo it on Facebook either
Sucking up doesn’t just happen in the office, it can also take place on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and the same rules apply. “If you are friends with your boss on Facebook and constantly saying how cute her kids are or how brilliant her posts are, that gets a little creepy,” A better option is to use Facebook to show off a little bit of your personality and insight to impress your boss that way. Just make sure you’re careful not to share too much.

Rethink your position if you aren’t comfortable sucking up
Some bosses are more susceptible to shameless flattery than others. So if you notice your boss gives favorable treatment to those kind of suck-ups, you have two options: either play the game or don’t. If you choose the latter, it’s probably time to move elsewhere.

“If you work in an environment where your boss is swayed by that, then you are not in the right position, because you will not be promoted as quickly as someone who is willing to do that,”. Just remember that wherever you go, you’ll probably still need to do a little bit of sucking up now and then.