The Pro Code isn’t about getting rich or finding happiness. If you are looking for the secret to finding your dream job, getting rich quick, negotiating your way to success, doing what you love… Just go to any bookstore, walk to the career section and pick up a book at random. If you think any of those books can actually fulfill those promises you are an idiot.
The Pro Code isn’t a self help book. The Code is a survival guide.
Offices are mini-societies, each with a complex set of written and unwritten procedures, power structures and codes of conduct. They are all a little different, like every tiger has a different pattern of stripes. To ever get to know your tiger by its stripes, you must first avoid getting eaten.
Over the years, Pros have figured out how to tame their tigers. But just like a magician never reveals their tricks, the true Pros kept the code close to their chest as a massive advantage over the bumbling non-Pros surrounding them. But I’m sick of working with bumblers and sick of some of the best people fucking up the simplest things. So I’m writing the rules down.
Of course, you may think you are don’t need to read these rules. You may think that being professional is really easy and this site shouldn’t exist. You may be right. But the Code isn’t just for rookies trying to figure it out. Being a Pro gets harder and harder as the days and years stack up. Being professional for your first year on the job might be pretty easy; but doing it every single day for a decade is hard. Really hard.
So whether this is the start of your journey or you are feeling lost – please accept this survival guide to help you navigate your way. I sincerely hope the Pro Code serves to remind and protect you, as it has me.
Pro Tip:
Jobs are marathons, not sprints. No one expects you to follow all the rules all the time. If you can pull most of them off, most of the time, you will do fine.