Is there a reason to work beyond "just enough not to get fired?"

[Cattlegod]

nothing wrong with that at all.

after all, it is management's job to pay you just enough so you don't quit.

 

[D1gger]

I have yet to see anyone here get a merit based promotion... When the executive of the database team left did they promote anyone? Nah, they hired someone new. When we needed a new senior web manager did they promote anyone? Nope.. New person.. Marketing manager left - yep, new hire...

I guess they recognize what shitty employees they have and are trying to find some talent and dedication from outside. It is obvious from your statements that it isn't going to come from you and thumbs up to your managment for recognizing this.

 

[Tremulant]

The only thing keeping me at my current job is knowing that I'm leaving in a few months. If it wasn't for that I would've found a new job already.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If you want to improve your skills, take on more responsibility, and climb the corporate ladder....

yes.

Except that rarely seems to happen these days.

 

[daw123]

I don't bust ass at work. All that does is burn you out, and it becomes expected with no compensation. I do my job correctly, and at my own pace. I refuse to kill myself for any company.

This is exactly what I do as well, but I didn't used to.

When I first joined the company, I would work well beyond my contracted hours. All that happens is:
1. You do not get etra pay because the company doesn't pay overtime;
2. You get given more work because you are seen as completing the work very 'efficiently' during your contracted hours. This is because their productivity calculations do not consider the unpaid overtime you do because it is free to the company;
3 As a result of 2, they can dump work on you at the last minute and you will get it done during non-contracted hours.
4. Over time, you are tired more because of the long hours.

It simply isn't worth it. It took about four years to learn this lesson.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I don't bust ass at work. All that does is burn you out, and it becomes expected with no compensation. I do my job correctly, and at my own pace. I refuse to kill myself for any company.

This is the approach I've come to use as well. I've spent years working my ass off, getting top reviews and kudos, and in the end, I got one promotion out of it -- and that was because my manager left and I took his job. Otherwise, it would be no promotions.

It isn't worth it to kill yourself for any company unless you own it. If it comes down to it, they won't give it a second thought to get rid of you to save a few dollars, so remember that.

 

[RichUK]

What do you do for a living?

 

[chusteczka]

Character.

This and personal integrity. I typically work at 85-90% of my capacity. This is the rate I can handle without experiencing burnout. That last 10-15% is reserved for tasks with an immediate time constraint, increased priority, or highly noticeable situation.

Working at any less of an output capacity reduces my image of myself, my reputation among my co-workers and increases my manager's stress load. So, I find a comfortable middle point.

If I lose motivation to continue working at that 85-90% level, I then talk with my management about the situation. Sometimes, the result is more responsibility. Other times, the result is a pay increase.

Those times when management does nothing to fix the situation are when I find another job with new opportunities and this always involves a pay increase. It is typical to stay with a company for 2-3 years for these reasons. I seem to learn what is needed after 2 years in a position, then it is time to continue growth with new opportunities. If my current employer does not provide those opportunities, then I move on.

Also, it is good not to get comfortable with any position. I consider myself as a contractor even when hired full-time. I remain with a company only so long as the opportunity remains good for me. Of course, I must remain strong with my skills so I never get locked into a certain position with a certain company, thereby allowing it to be easier to find a new position somewhere else.

To compromise my work is to compromise my personal integrity. This has a way of getting back to me later. If I directly work with a certain number of people and indirectly work with more, there is a realistic probability of randomly meeting up with someone later at a new job. I do not want my poor performance from the past to affect future opportunities.

It is important to find a company that hires from within.

You guys could just outsource your own job instead. :sneaky:

That's F'n hilarious... and intriguing....

I considered outsourcing some of the more menial tasks of my work to others a few years ago. Things like application configuration for client customizations. It would have required me providing my passwords to allow this other person to remotely login. At some point, I realized that what may be menial work for me may not be menial work for others. Even though I could train someone else, it seemed to be more hassle than it was worth. I think it could work, though, if the conditions were right.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Nope. Fuck em and feed em fish heads.

 

[hanoverphist]

I enjoy my job and I enjoy not being a lazy slob.

i enjoy both.

that said, i do go through phases where i do the minimum. the last few months have been one of those phases, but im starting to get back into work mode again. picked up some cool projects that are getting me interested again.


that and i get to wear hawaiian shirts to work.

 

[Pepsei]

look at college football, why promote from within, when you can take them and their staff from another school.

 

[Hacp]

Your best bet is becomming your own boss. Save up a decent amount, go to a bank and get a loan.

 

[ShawnD1]

You guys could just outsource your own job instead. :sneaky:

That is so awesome. I love that board meeting of Indians yelling at each other

 

[Rumpltzer]

Work pretty hard at a job for four years, and got raises that allowed me to keep up with inflation. Got assigned to even more responsibility, so I went to my boss and laid out my case for a promotion.

He agrees that after 4 years, it's time but... *insert managerial nonsense here* He tells me that I'm in the top two of his guys (there are about 16 guys in my research group, and I am the one who was most recently hired), but... *insert managerial nonsense here*

I let him know that I'm unhappy with the non-answer and the non-promotion, so I go out and interview for another job. My workplace gets wind of it and people start freaking out that I might leave. They toss a 5% mid-year raise at me (the largest raise they've ever given me), but I'm still interviewing.


I'm like my work, but I am unhappy that I work with a lot of people who simply do only enough to not get fired. I'm also unhappy that I'm not being compensated for the effort and results that I yield. It would be a major blow to my research group if I left, and that might just be the price that my company pays for being cheap.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I could probably surf the net all day and not get fired. I would maybe get told every now and then, but that's about it. Eventually I would maybe get fired but think if I would do a few very good "super hero" moves in between I'd be ok. Though I would not feel right about myself if I did that. So to answer the question, the reason to work beyond is mostly for personal satisfaction, and to also have a good name. A good name often wont give you anything all that great but it will also back you up very well if you do screw up some day.

I'd say I probably give more effort then needed, but I don't go beyond to the point where I am overworked, either. Some days I'll hit a "High production mode" where I just get a whole whack of stuff done, though. Like I'll see all the tickets piling up and just be "ok, that's it, I'm closing at least 20 of these today!"

I also work on a "you rub my back I'll rub your back" basis. The rude people are at the bottom of my list if anything needs to be done. In fact when I worked at the help desk if I had a very rude customer, I would put their ticket aside and work on a previous ticket and get that one done before even touching that pissy customer.

But yeah in general I try to get everything done at a reasonable pace.

 

[Modelworks]

Quit wasting your life and go find something that you like to do. Life is too short to spend 8 hours a day in drudgery.

 

[ShawnD1]

I could probably surf the net all day and not get fired.

That's a pretty sweet job. The worst job I ever had was one that would run short of work on a regular basis, and we were not allowed to use the internet to screw around. After doing everything that could be done, I was left with nothing to do. There's no internet and I can't just stand there looking ridiculous, so I would take a tour of the plant, take a 30 minute bathroom break, "check" paperwork that has already been signed by QA, take another 30 minute bathroom break, etc. Not working is so much harder than working.

 

[JS80]

Work pretty hard at a job for four years, and got raises that allowed me to keep up with inflation. Got assigned to even more responsibility, so I went to my boss and laid out my case for a promotion.

He agrees that after 4 years, it's time but... *insert managerial nonsense here* He tells me that I'm in the top two of his guys (there are about 16 guys in my research group, and I am the one who was most recently hired), but... *insert managerial nonsense here*

I let him know that I'm unhappy with the non-answer and the non-promotion, so I go out and interview for another job. My workplace gets wind of it and people start freaking out that I might leave. They toss a 5% mid-year raise at me (the largest raise they've ever given me), but I'm still interviewing.


I'm like my work, but I am unhappy that I work with a lot of people who simply do only enough to not get fired. I'm also unhappy that I'm not being compensated for the effort and results that I yield. It would be a major blow to my research group if I left, and that might just be the price that my company pays for being cheap.

Some companies just don't have the money in the budget to give promotions/raises. In which case go find a place to work for that's growing and making money.

In the meantime you gained experience and made money, but you've reached a ceiling for that company. I don't see the problem (in general).

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I work damn hard at my job and most of the time I enjoy it. I'm passionate about food and good service. I work hard for me and I don't give a damn about management's expectations because my standards have always been higher than theirs.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Quit wasting your life and go find something that you like to do. Life is too short to spend 8 hours a day in drudgery.

Good advice. I am trying to plot a long-term strategy, but I don't have the answers yet. I thought about going back for an MBA, but I see so many people doing that and it gets them nothing. I'm afraid I'd spend all that time and money and nothing would come of it. I just don't know what to do to get ahead at this point. Great reviews, kudos, exceptional performance bonuses, etc. aren't moving me ahead like they should.

 

[Eli]

Had this discussion last night.. I pretty much always work, at my day job, at 10% of my potential and ability. I get the job done but am no longer the bright star that I once was - mostly because 2 years of being the office bad ass hasn't gotten me a promotion or a raise or even recognition. I understand that it's the economy, that no one is getting raises at my company... It also completely pissed that the company I work for doesn't promote within the company - they constantly hire new people for new positions (it's not limited to me). I'm guessing their attitude is that new faces help grow a company, but where's our incentive to work your way up??

Besides the fear of getting fired, I feel completely unmotivated and am honestly pretty bored as well... I constantly see kids out of college try so hard to be the rock star of the office, stomping down the hall way with purpose and having this attitude of being able to take on the world, but I just don't care anymore.. Am I doomed, or is this just life?

That's rough.

They just laid off 3 people at my place of employment. It's funny, because I didn't even realize it was the same time last year that I was about to get the axe... before some co-workers came to my rescue. So I wasn't expecting it, but now that I think about it, it isn't surprising. We only grossed 26mil last year. Better than they had forecast, actually, but still significantly less than the 32mil 2008 brought.

I suppose I didn't think about it because my job is solid as a rock. The place would crumble without me(shipping and receiving manager). Infact, they fired someone last October and promoted me because they thought I would be better at the job.

Anyway, lol.. It just depends on the day for me. Sometimes I'll bend over backwards and run around everywhere, sometimes I'll do the bare minimum. I'd say on average I'm at about 85% of what I can do, though. I like to please people. I figure.. if my boss is happy, I'm happy.

I'm really hoping for a $1.00 raise when I get my review in the next couple of weeks. In light of these layoffs though, I'm not sure if that's realistic.

 

[Modelworks]

Good advice. I am trying to plot a long-term strategy, but I don't have the answers yet. I thought about going back for an MBA, but I see so many people doing that and it gets them nothing. I'm afraid I'd spend all that time and money and nothing would come of it. I just don't know what to do to get ahead at this point. Great reviews, kudos, exceptional performance bonuses, etc. aren't moving me ahead like they should.

Have you figured out what your goal in life is ? I'm not talking about what you want to make in money but what you think you need to be happy . This is a big issue with me because I did what a lot of people do. Went to college, got the career focused on it and had serious money coming in , $300K+ , but I thought I needed to do more and it almost caused me to go insane. I was lucky that a good friend asked me what I was doing it all for. What good was all that stress and worry if I died in a car wreck tomorrow.

I am not saying people should not work hard or be dedicated, but make sure you are stressing yourself out for the right reasons.

 

[tranceport]

I do my job to the best of my ability because I actually like what I do for a living.

This. And in the end I have been promoted many times. However for many years I was not moving up as fast as I wanted.

 

[Jeff7]

I do what I can with the tools and budget that's available. Where I work can't afford lots of high-tech (expensive) toys right now. Buuuut it's a nice place to work, it's only about 5 minutes away, and the projects are still entertaining, most of the time. Plus with it being a small company, there's generally a feeling that you really are contributing something useful. Working at a large corporation tends to leave a feeling of, "If I die tomorrow, the company wouldn't notice." Here it's more like, "Don't get hit by a car, or we're going to be royally screwed.....at least for a few months."

 

[chusteczka]

Good advice. I am trying to plot a long-term strategy, but I don't have the answers yet. I thought about going back for an MBA, but I see so many people doing that and it gets them nothing. I'm afraid I'd spend all that time and money and nothing would come of it. ...

Education is not about achieving the certification, it is about increasing your education and skills. The strength of any certification like an MBA depends entirely on how much effort was put into learning the material. A person can sit in class and pass the tests or they can focus and *learn* the material. A person is worth more when they actually *learn* the material.

A friend of mine went to a local, no-name, private university for his MBA. The reputation of this school is not good. However, he *learned* the material and has used his education to great benefit. As a mechanical engineer B.S. with a no-name MBA, he has worked his way into a solid businessman in a top executive position wherever he goes.