Angelina Darrisaw was recently featured in Ann Brown's article for The Network Journal offering career advice on the value of a paper trail.
Here are some snippets featuring Darrisaw:
"You should keep track of any communication or feedback (both constructive and positive), deadlines, expectations, role responsibility, and planned time out of the office. You should also keep track of any positive reviews from clients and peers. Any communication that could affect your performance evaluation should be on record," adds career coach Angelina Darrisaw. In fact, establishing a paper trail can be important for various reasons. "A paper trail keeps track of
agreed upon expectations, deadlines, and the time those expectations and deadlines were communicated. It's necessary for both managers and their team members to have a reference point for when these types of communication are shared," says Darrisaw. So how to create a paper trail? Emails are simple to track, but other forms of communication can be tricky. "If important conversations are had in person or over the phone, take notes and follow up with some brief bullets outlining what was shared in the meeting. It is a good opportunity for your colleagues to affirm your takeaways or clarify if they had a different understanding," offers Darrisaw. Can a paper trail protect you in the workplace? “It can help with employee evaluations from a managerial perspective. And for employees, it can help in managing up (e.g. Am I constantly getting project deadlines at 5 pm on a Thursday for work expected at 9 am on a Friday? Using the paper trail to point to it consistently happening can help you communicate your need for a different timeline for receiving deadlines.)," notes Darrisaw.
See the full article here.