Repeatedly devalue workers through layoffs and never promoting
Workers give up trying to climb the corporate ladder and do the bare minimum
surprised pikachu
They taught me this shit as a kid when my dad got laid off. “This quarter” thinking can have very long-term consequences.
the only people who want to put in longer hours at the office have absolutely nothing to go home to.
they should be pitied instead of being vilified. drop them a “get well soon” message in social media should you encounter them.
You know thw thing is all the tales of really successful people arent about going to the office early and grinding down some stupid task a superior gave you but about following your dreams and putting effort into those. Quitting your job and taking out a loan to build a racecar or start helping people with pc repair or whatever your dream is, is better advice than putting any effort into something you hate. Its not work ethic but being a mindless slave.
This made me far more angry than your frying pan, just gotta say.
Aww I’m glad I stir your emotions sweet friend.
So, become the office janitor?
So you turn on the lights, get your coffee and read your newspaper/browse your phone until someone else is actually there.
Then you do the same thing once you are the only person left.
Congratulations. Flipping on and off lightswitches is the shittiest metric a company can seek and is evidence of bad management.
It’s stock-in-trade Boomerism. As though the social contract hadn’t already been obliterated by parasitical corporations and rampant nepotism and Peter-Principled middle management.
To say nothing of the capability trap that most large corps are in, after a decade plus of finance junkying themselves into a hole, because free debt was more profitable than their actual business ventures.
Fuck these zombies. Let them implode- the way an actual free market demands.
Congratulations. Flipping on and off lightswitches is the shittiest metric a company can seek and is evidence of bad management.
There’s an economic i enjoy reading names Richard Wolfe who bemoans the capitalist mentality of counting towards on productivity.
You clock in and you count up the hours. You get on the factory floor and you count up the widgets you’ve made that day. You check your portfolio and count up all the money you’ve made.
There’s no concept of an upper bound. No idea how much you actually need or benefit from. One more is always desirable.
But what if, instead of counting up, we counted down? Know we need 10 widgets every day, so we count down until they’re finished. Know we need 10 tasks done so we count down until they’re completed. Know we need $100 to pay our bills, so we count down until we’ve earned it. Then we go home and enjoy our lives, rather than grinding endlessly at the millstone to build a surplus nobody asked for.
Even if you are productive from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave… who does that even benefit? Are you doing anything genuinely useful or just doing bullshit jobs to look busy? Are you reducing the workload of your peers or creating extra work for other people?
Because in the latter case, you’re not a hard worker. You’re a ballooning expense. Everyone behaving like you would be a disaster for your employer and your community at large.
Look, a company makes money by not giving you, the worker, the surplus the company made.
This article was published more than six months ago. Some information may no longer be accurate
Hehe.
Tryhard was only in fashion for a couple of days before it burnt out. Slacker reigns supreme by default!
So if the same person is opening and closing, what is everyone else doing? If you’re going to saddle one employee with an important duty, you better have adequate compensation and opportunities.
There should be one person doing those tasks for most companies - the owner- who retains a lion’s share of the surplus value created by their workers.
Employees don’t owe the business anything other than their contracted labor. We are just still suffering the inertia of class traitors in the enormous Baby Boomer cohort, who made the work their entire identity, and who frankly love the taste of boot.
hope you choke on that nugget
Not just on the Americas side of the pond, apparently.
I’m applying for dozens and dozens of jobs right now in the UK, so I expect to get plenty of rejection emails, but today, Monday, two days before Christmas, 11 rejection emails so far, which is a record (I’m not upset, I am aware I will get far more rejections than interviews). Obviously people are working like crazy to get everything done right before Christmas, but I thought at least the UK was more relaxed on this stuff. You really couldn’t wait until January to send out rejection emails? Gotta grind right up to Christmas?
Good luck, job searching is the worst. Last time I was in that boat, I jumped overboard and started my own. There came a point where I wasn’t going to fill out the same fucking form again for another job I had no interest in doing.
It is and I hate it. In this case, though, I am both desperate and willing to live anywhere in the UK, which makes things a bit easier. I’m still supposed to have an interview today though.
Also, thank you.
“Should we promote Bob?”
“Hell no, he’s the only one here who does any work! We need him right where he is!”
Cries in Bob.
That said I’m a Bob who loves what I do and gets paid handsomely for it so que sera sera.
Experienced employees often make bad managers because they want to step in and do the work for other people, rather than handling all the status updated and workload balancing and reporting and new hiring that supervisors deal with.
If you’re a skilled specialist and you’re doing a challenging task there’s little reason to believe you shouldn’t be paid more than your direct reports.
This is not satire.
It’s called being pigeon holed and that shit is real depending on your company. Some hard workers get promoted some just get more work.
making yourself irreplaceable cuts both ways, sadly enough.
Totally worth it. You get the real raises from new jobs. If you were so irreplaceable, then they’d pay you for it.
Never accept a counter offer. They’ll just keep you on long enough to find any replacement. The counter offer is just so they lose less money over the next few months.
Indeed it is not.
I once worked at the new office of a company that just opened in the state, one of the first who was doing the job while the construction workers were still terminating wires and tacking up drywall. When a new supervisory position was created, all of my coworkers assumed I’d be the first one picked but I was told my experience and wisdom would be better served on the job and teaching new hires the ropes.
Didn’t take long before I stopped giving a shit about promotions and left for a different company soon after. Telling someone their hard work has been rewarded with more work and not more money for rent is a good way to drain the motivation right out of people you manage.
Before I go on, your comment is valid and I fully agree with you. I am not saying this is the case with you, but presenting the other side of the coin. Just because you’re the highest performer at a position does not mean you’re necessarily the best fit for a promotion. I work with plenty of people who were promoted for being the hardest workers. They are now managers who flounder because they cannot work hard to impress. They need to lead a team of hard workers, which requires a different set of traits than being a hard worker yourself. My manager when I started was promoted for being the hardest worker. That was all she knew how to do. She could not lead people. Couldn’t give constructive criticism, could not take constructive criticism. Any idea that was not her idea was not a good idea. Wanted to rule with an iron fist and feel important, but could not do anything that would actually get her there. Extremely hard worker though, and the work she did do was on point. Just could not lead a team. It’s shitty, but it’s the truth.
It may also be that someone does not WANT to be promoted. I get high praise from higher ups, everyone iny group comes to me for suggestions and advice.
I am, pretty low on the totem pole. I have no desire to move up to a position where Inspend more time making spreadsheets into lies tomplease upper management than doing actual tangible work. Plus the company seems like its always fucking over managers randomly the higher you go. Feels more secure down here.
Don’t hate on yourself for not wanting to move up. Your job is valuable, or people wouldn’t give you money to do it. If you’re asking me, there’s a certain respect you have to give people who prioritize their happiness over money or status. It’s the opposite of greed, which I find commendable. What’s the point of money if you’re not happy enough to enjoy it?
You may one day find yourself in a company or position where you do want to move up. But for now there’s no shame in being content.
Fuck you. Pay me.
Hahahaha talk about corporate propaganda. I feel sorry for the poor schlub that reads this and is like “yeah, I’m gonna do that”.
Capitalism promises everybody can be above average. In reality, a big majority of people is putting in an above average effort, but earning and owning way below it. Because some slobs in top positions vacuum up the doe while mostly stalling.
It is, unironically, good advice for new hires because it signals enthusiasm and work ethic. Getting in early let’s you talk to people before they’re swamped. Coffee room chatter is a good way to meet people and build relationships. Beating the traffic means less stress through your day.
But once you start having a real life, this doesn’t work. Dogs need walks. Kids come first. You’re not a 20 year old with lots of free time anymore, so you can’t indulge your boss with the fantasy that you exist exclusively for the benefit of the firm.
I’ve learned to be the one to turn the lights off. It pisses the boss off but ensures everyone knows the shift is over
Shit when im the first one in, i leave the lights off. Then i get mad at the person who eventually turns them on. If i have to be in that early, i dont also want to be miserable from the bright lights
“Why are you sitting here in the dark?”
Uhh, my computer is lit up and I can hear the damn fluorescent lights when I’m sitting there alone, piss off and let me drink my coffee in peace.
I knew a guy who kept his office dark except for a little desk lamp. He said he preferred cold and darkness. One time when we all walked to a group lunch in below freezing weather, I was shivering in my down jacket and he had shorts and an aloha shirt. Freaking reptile!
was it a UV desk light?
His chair is just a boulder.
And he didn’t really go out for lunch with them, he just rubbed his skin against some moss.
