New York Court Reporters Blog

I have been writing about court reporting jobs as an employee and court reporter jobs and how to ensure that you keep yours when the need comes to cut staff or there are less court reporting assignments and who gets what.

What really makes one employee or court reporter more likely to keep their position or even advance in position? It is a total package that comes under the heading of work ethic. What is this phrase work ethic all about?

There are so many elements that comprise work ethic that are equally important for an employee as well as a court reporter working in a court reporting agency. There is so much to be said about work ethic and so little written about it.

A basic concept in business and especially annoying in our court reporting culture is being late. Too many reporters are late or just on time which is really late because they are not set up on time. Late says so many things about a person’s work ethic. It says, I really don’t respect your time as much as mine because, in essence, I am wasting your time by having you wait for me.

We, in the court reporting business, are in a service business. A service business is about providing a service, court reporting, and all forms of the service should be performed with care and respect. Coming a little earlier for assignments as well as in your personal life show that you care and are aware and respect somebody else’s time.

Thinking about the other guy’s time is definitely part of a strong work ethic for me and one that I respect in my employees as well as my reporters, friends and family. Being on time is definitely something that says a lot about you!

I have been writing about how to write resumes, interview and get work as a court reporter in a very difficult period in the court reporting industry.

In writing about how to get court reporting jobs, it seems to me an area that has not received proper attention is how to keep jobs. If you go that extra step, put forth that extra effort, you may not find yourself out of a job to begin with. How do you improve on your work ethic and stand out from the rest of staff you are working with?

Well, look around as if you were the owner of the firm. What are the things you observe that you may think the owner is unaware of. Believe me, most owners who have survived in business are aware. I am always amazed how my employees are unaware that I am aware.

I understand that you are not an owner and you probably feel overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. How many employees go to work thinking how great it is to have a place to go to work and not deal with the horrible problems facing our country in the unemployment area. Many people will be faced with significant lifestyle changes because of loss of jobs and the inability to replace their jobs. Have you given any thought of the ramifications of losing your job? Anybody who has a job should count their blessings because every day there are many people emailing and knocking on your boss’s door looking to take your job.

I would counsel everybody to look at their job a little differently today, to give it the respect and appreciation you have probably never thought about but perhaps in giving some serious thought to what life would be without it this thought alone hopefully should motivate you to look at yourself more critically and give some thought on how to improve on your performance.