If you are going to work for somebody, it behooves you to make yourself invaluable to your boss. At the most selfish level, being invaluable to your employer is a form of employment insurance. It’s also a way to foster a relationship and maybe a mentorship that will keep giving for many years to come. Now, many, including me, want to work for ourselves. I’ll talk some more about that another time. But until the time comes to break out of office life, it’s important to make the best of it and do as well as you can. So, how do you stand out and position yourself for raises and promotions without pissing off your superiors or your subordinates? How do you create the most valuable asset you may ever have: your reputation.

Here is a list of do’s and don’ts in no particular order. Let’s get the negativity out of the way first and start with the don’ts.

The list of don’ts:

1. Don’t complain. Don’t force your subordinates to listen to your long stories or rants about your personal issues. They don’t care and aren’t interested. Don’t tell your boss how strapped you are with work, or casually drop what time you stayed at the office until last night. The boss has her own problems and was probably dealing directly with a client while you thought you had it rough (more junior colleagues rarely understand the attendant difficulties in being the client liason). You have no idea, so keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth zipped.

2. Don’t attempt to take credit for everything. Yes, it’s important to claim your place and let your boss know how you contributed. Do that. But give credit where credit is due. In an office, it almost never happened all because of you. Remember, sometimes the value of the junior person is the work, while the value of the senior person is an idea. Don’t be a pushover or let others take credit for your work- but be generous with your colleagues and team. This only applies internally. If you are in front of a client, the one who always gets credit is the boss.

3. Don’t ask the boss to do it for you. If you are assigned a task, usually you are going to get all the information you are going to get up front. You then need to figure out how to get the rest of the information or research to fill in the gaps in your understanding so that you can actually accomplish the task. Go to the company archives, files, or other staff. Make friends with the administrative crew- especially the established career people. Become their little brother or sister. They will help you out if they feel valued.

4. Don’t come in late or leave early. Part of your purpose is to be present in an office. It’s the old face time principle and it matters. Get there before the boss, and leave after the boss. What a lot of people do not realize when they see the boss leave for 2 hours at lunch and disappear out of the office at odd hours is that the boss is doing stuff that brings in the clients and the money that pays your salary. Often, these things generate their own stress. The reason you get a salary, in part, is that you are holding down the fort. You need to be available to keep the work humming along while the boss runs around. In the beginning especially, your presence is more important than you are.

5. Don’t badmouth anyone. An office is like junior high. You want to stay outside the fray. Anything you say will be reported back and discussed. You do not need to create hard feelings in that environment. Similarly, when you are part of a working team, be supportive. Don’t say things that may make someone feel stupid for making a comment or volunteering an idea. They call this psychological safety over at Google- and they are onto something. For a great article check out the NYTimes.

6. Don’t allow yourself to be ruffled. Never yell or cry. You will get a reputation that will never be rehabilitated while you are in the same workplace. Do whatever you have to do—Mad Men style—go to the bathroom and get mascara all over your face, leave the building– but do not lose control in the office.

The list of dos:

1. Anticipate your boss’ needs. There are two components to this. First, don’t let anything drop. If the boss asks for a task, calendar it. Check on it after a week. If it’s not done, let the boss know by email what is happening. This serves to take the task off the boss’ mind, which is why the boss gave you the task to begin with. If the boss ever has to ask you if you did X task yet, you have failed. Never let the boss ask you if you have finished a project you were assigned. And please, never be in a position to respond to the boss that you do not have an answer because someone never called or emailed you back. Second, if the boss gives you a task, think about the objective and exceed it. I cannot tell you how many times I have asked for something and the person did a literal interpretation of the task without accomplishing the goal. Listen, ask questions, think about what the goal is, and take all steps to achieve the goal, even if they have not all been outlined for you.

2. Be pleasant. Enjoy what you are doing, or pretend that you do. Make small talk. Smile. You are there for a good chunk of your waking life, so make the best of it.

3. Be interested. Even if what you are doing seems dull, find something interesting about it. And when you figure out what is interesting, ask your boss and colleagues about it, and learn more about it. This will foster collegiality and more importantly, mentorship. It is critical for you to develop relationships around the work you do for your advancement. Being interested is a way to build rapport. And you just may learn some things that will set you on a tremendously successful path. It’s hard to know what these things are when you first encounter them. So stay interested.

4. Step up to the plate. Volunteer for projects that no one else wants. Be the person everyone can depend on. I always think of a new job or client situation as the opportunity to go back to graduate school- except someone is paying me to do it. So the extra work I get to do to learn a new area is something I get to add to my personal skill set, and I can learn how to do it in the company of highly skilled professionals—it’s a win-win.

5. Dress appropriately. You are a reflection of your company and your boss. Whenever you appear in front of a client, you are making a statement on behalf of the company. Ask yourself what is the image that your company is hoping to project- the closer you come to that ideal, the better you will do in that company. The farther you are from that ideal, the more likely it is that you are at the wrong company or are in the wrong profession. Depending on your industry, there may be acceptable levels of casual. But it is imperative that you notice what everyone else wears, especially the more successful people at your company. Emulate them.

6. Be thankful. This is the last in the list, but not the least. In fact, it’s probably the most important for the job you are in now as well as for every day for the rest of your life. If you are in a position to be reading this post on the world wide web- and you have any kind of office job in an office that has air conditioning or winter heating, you are living a better, richer, more privileged life than most other people who have ever inhabited the planet. Remember this every day when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep.