Tips for Staffers Making the Transition To A Non-Political Job

Compiled by: Cincinnatus

Let’s say you’ve had a successful interview with a non-political outfit – perhaps a consulting company or a private firm of some sort.

The new place has made a generous offer of employment and you have decided to accept it.

You’ve just given notice to your minister, your chief of staff and your colleagues. And so you’re starting to sort through your files back in your office and pack up all your personal items.

Wait – did you stop and think that there might be some work habits you’ve picked up while in Ottawa that you’d be better off leaving behind?

Here are 10 common work habits of political staffers that you will probably want to dump before you start that new job…

1) Think twice before "tasking" colleagues with work once you’ve started working at the new place.  Not everybody works for you anymore. The civil servants you worked with before, for example, may have spoiled you a little. 2) Your attitude towards work procedures and work process may need to change.

Following proper procedure alone isn’t enough, for example.  The end-point for most political staffers’ work is to receive crucial sign-off from political or departmental superiors.  A staffer’s accountability for a document diminishes once that signoff is approved, and responsibility for the outcome can be plausibly severed if things go wrong.   While staffers try to get things “off their plate,” in the private sector, your emails pushing documents above the chain to your superiors will not insulate you from accountability for mistakes in the finished product.  Nor should you want them to. 

You’re all in this together and working on the same team, trying to make money with each other.  Signoff doesn’t matter -- outcomes do.

 3) Stop constantly checking and typing on your Blackberry during meetings and while people are talking to you.  Outside of Ottawa, it's rude and obnoxious.

4) Your time is someone else’s now.  The shift from the full-day “hurry up and wait,” halt-and-start political day to the private-sector model of billable hours can be an incomparably difficult shift.   The 45 minutes in the middle of the day spent watching Question Period would cost your employer hundreds of dollars of lost revenue, for example. There’s a reason why private sector offices don’t have a television permanently tuned to CPAC on top of every filing cabinet.

5) Avoid the urge to draft and send scathing emails to your new colleagues when they don't meet your deadlines.

6) In the political world, people cover their behinds by not putting anything in writing. 

In the real world, people cover their behinds by putting everything in writing...and copying everyone on the email.

7) A certain amount of leeway is given to staffers with respect to lunch hours, appointments and holidays because of the crazy hours they work. 

This is not necessarily the case in the private or public sectors, no matter how hard you work.  Schedules must be kept, seniority matters, and process reigns supreme.  So lose the staffer sense of entitlement, fast. 8) Don't think you have earned some kind of monopoly on understanding because of your previous political staffer title. Knowledge comes with time. It's a lifelong process. Lose that habit of automatically evaluating something as "wrong" when you're doing so out of a political grudge, rather than an objective desire to improve the situation.

9) When staffers shout at the TV after they hear something they disagree with, other staffers laugh with that person.

When your new colleagues hear you shout at the TV after you hear something you disagree with, they will laugh at you…so lose that habit fast.

10) After say a year or two in a political office, you’ve spent a fair bit of time toiling quietly behind the name of an MP or a minister.

But now that you’re going to the private sector, you will hopefully be allowed to have more of an identity. Indeed, your new employer may even want to promote you as you. (Whoa - wouldn’t that be a change??)

So be brave – think about starting a blog, or think about posting on Twitter. Express yourself (within reason and using common sense, of course)

And here are three bonus tips: 1) The reasons that led to why you left your minister's office belong to you alone. Don't burden others with them.

2) For a successful transition in your new job, you’ll need to be able to relax around and connect with those who have no idea (or desire) to understand politics... this is key.

3) A former political staffer may be tempted to maintain a political office-style pace when starting a new job. Let’s face it – many of us desire to be perpetually moving and doing something.

During your time in Ottawa, you may have forgotten that, in the “normal” world, when you join a new firm, you are very often provided time to learn the ropes during those first few weeks after coming on board.

(If only more political offices could operate on that same civilized premise!)

So if you’re lucky enough to have time provided to you for this purpose in your new position, learn to appreciate it, and make the best possible strategic use out of the time. Use the time to learn your way around.

(Cincinnatus expresses sincere thanks to all who share their tips.)