Opportunism in the Workplace

    Being an opportunist, by definition, is when a person takes opportunities when they arise, regardless of planning or principle. Before of writing about not acting opportunistically when given the chance to, I feel the need to talk about some instances that my parents told me about the experience with some of the employees at their company over the years. It really made me gain some insight on the word opportunism and I realize that it is far from seizing opportunities correctly.

    During July and August of each year, the HR department assesses each employee's performance and decide which employees to promote and/or give raises to. My mother, who co-manages most of the company's operations with my father, pays close attention to every employee and how they behave. She notices that during this time period, there are always a few of them who work abnormally hard comparing how hard they usually work for the rest of the year in attempt to be noticed by the HR department, so that they can get their raises and promotions. Some might even speak badly about their coworkers so they can get an upper hand in the performance assessments. Because of my mother's close relationship and observations with her employees, she almost always sees right through them, therefore not giving them the promotion or raise they opportunistically attempted to acquire. Whenever certain employees acts opportunistically like so, my mother would praise them for their hard work, but she also let them know that in order to get that raise that they wanted, they have to exhibit a more consistent trend of good performance. Regarding employees talking badly about their coworkers, she keeps and open mind and listens, but also makes sure she closely observes the employee who is being talked about to see if the information provided is accurate. If she finds out that a certain employee is deliberately talking badly about others and making false accusations, she takes note in that certain employee's unethical behavior and makes decisions accordingly (repeated offenses would lead to termination his/her job, for example) . This way, as CEO, she makes decisions on which employees to give raises to in the most accurate and objective manner as possible. When some of these employees act opportunistically right around the time period which the managers decide who to give raises to, they often only focus on what they want in the short term. Employees who actually get raises have more long-term goals and planning, which can be seen in their performance year-round. Taking short-cuts almost never result in anything advantageous, especially in the workplace, and there are often punishments for opportunists that make their opportunistic behaviors backfire.

    For me, personally, I have had several chances to act opportunistically but didn't. I was in a very difficult statistics class which had very calculation-intensive weekly homework that made up 20% of the entire course grade. Most of the homework had answers online, or similar answers with only the numbers different. In addition, whenever I asked my classmates for specific help, they would sometimes tell me that the answers are online and that I should just copy them. Instead of copying the answers, I decided that in order for me to actually succeed in the class, doing these homework assignments on my own would greatly benefit me, as opposed to mechanically copying which would not make me learn at all. I am glad that I diligently completed the assignments and that really helped me understand the course material which I later applied during my internship the summer after.
 Acting opportunistically might seem attractive at that moment; however, if we are able to think about it clearly, it almost never result in things we want in the long run.