The barbed zingers are flying so fast Andy Richter can barely keep up.
As his days as host of The Tonight Show dwindle, Conan O’Brien has been laying in to his employer, his competition and anyone else who stands in his pasty way with a zeal that has never made the redheaded comedian more fun to watch.
“There’s a rumour that NBC is so upset with me they want to keep me off the air for three years. ... My response to that is, if NBC doesn’t want people to see me just leave me on NBC,” Mr. O’Brien joked during a recent monologue as co-host Mr. Richter laughed along. He then went on to suggest programs the network could replace The Jay Leno Show with, including “Monkey Picks the YouTube Clip” and “Rock with a Laugh Track.” (Mr. Leno appears slated to return to the 11:35 time slot currently occupied by Mr. O'Brien.)
It’s every employee’s dream, but (unfortunately) career experts say “pulling a Conan” is a bad idea, even when you know you’re headed out the door. Venting frustrations at work, or playing out elaborate revenge scenarios, can only hurt your career – unless you happen to be a multimillionaire who makes his living by mocking others.
“The business world is a very small place, and word travels fast,” says Franke James, editor and founder of the advice website www.OfficePolitics.com.
A few years ago her site received a letter from a man who had been passed over for promotion.
“My solution to the problem is to find a new job and once I have accepted the new position, I plan to order in pizza for the entire office (it’s a small company) and while everybody is eating I plan to stand up and tell the boss to take his job and shove it up his ass. Doing so in a calm cool voice and then simply walking out of the room and out to my car. Do you have a better solution?” the man asked.
The answer was a resounding yes. “The people who are your co-workers and even your bosses will move in to other companies in the future,” Ms. James cautions. “That can give you inroads and connections that you can’t even imagine.”
“The last thing you want to do is burn bridges,” says Mary Salvino, principal and senior consultant for SMART Career Planning, a Vancouver-based career counselling company.
While many people are tempted to criticize the boss or company when leaving a job, doing so will usually follow a person to the next step in their career, experts warn.
“You want to leave on the same note of dignity that you arrived with,” says Ms. Corbett a director at Cenera, a human resource and business consulting company in Calgary. “It’s a hard thing to hang onto when you’re feeling emotional.”
“I think Conan O’Brien is having some fun with his particular transition,” she adds. “We coach people to take the high road.”
And while Mr. O’Brien’s actions may run contrary to all sound career advice, he has arguably never been funnier. Ratings are up – highlighting one of the hidden upsides of choosing to lay your cards on the table.
Too often, fear of veering from the company line “prevents people from reaching their full potential,” Mr. Friedman says.
“And I also think it prevents them from really being themselves at work and taking the kinds of risks that enable people to change their career, accelerate their career, broaden the sets of responsibilities and duties that they have.”
Just how willing a person is to criticize the boss will usually depend on their age.
“If you’re young and just starting out, then by all means [criticize your boss],” Ms. Salvino says. “If you’re older and you’re fearful of finding yourself in the unenviable position of having to look for another job you may have a tendency to not say the things you would normally say.”
But there are some things a person should never say.
By publicly eviscerating his employer, Mr. O’Brien has committed a cardinal sin of career management, says Penelope Trunk, CEO of BrazenCareerist.com, an advice website.
“If you don’t like what your boss is doing, go get another job. It’s your job to support your boss. That’s what you’re paid to do,” she says. “Help your boss get your boss’s work done, make your boss’s life better and in turn your boss will make your life better.”
There is a difference, however, between criticizing the boss and criticizing her ideas, says Steve Tobak, who writes the blog The Corner Office at the business management website BNET.com.
“Address the issue, not the person,” he says.
Making a case for why you deserve to keep a job or a promotion rather than a prospective rival can be done politely, Mr. Friedman says.
“It is entirely possible to tout your own success without disparaging other people,” he says.
It may not be as funny as Mr. O’Brien’s rants, but it may save your position. Unless Jay Leno wants it. In that case, all bets are off. Hey-oh!
