About 10 years ago, when I realized that automating my job just means I get more work (when I share my automations). Now a days, I still share some of my automations, but I wrote and hoard scripts to make me look good (and also lets me write more scripts since it takes probably about as long as my mid-level coworkers).
Upside is I can look like an absolute wizard when I want to.
I recorded a vim macro the other day that made me feel like a wizard
It’s honestly just who I am, I don’t understand moderation. I’m from the US and moved to Germany, and it’s exploited a lot less, which is nice, but I either give everything or nothing.
In a better world, being highly motivated to contribute to your neighborhood’s well-being and improvement would result in… a nicer neighborhood with happier, healthier people living in it.
But now we’re all just miners, digging up gold nuggets and hoping it means we get paid a fraction of their worth, with no regard to what this giant strip mine will do to the land we live in or our successors inherit.
Do you manage to get by with English or have you learnt German?
I’d already learned German, but I did begin as an adult and I’ve got C2 German, so it’s not impossible.
As a person with ADHD. It feels like I always knew that working hard wouldn’t get automatic rewards. Because no matter how hard I worked, I was never like the rst of the kids, and was always told I needed to try hardrr.
16, 21, 27, 32, and 37. I just keep forgetting for some reason.
eh… havent figured it out yet tbh
I’ve known this on some level for decades, but it only really got through to me a few months ago. It was my 10 year anniversary at work, and no one even mentioned or acknowledged it. While it hurt at first, I’ve come to be deeply grateful for it. It really freed me of the last vestiges of magical thinking like in OP. Now, I do the absolute minimum and if they fire me, fine by me too. So freeing.
Half a year ago years old. I’m doing over 20 years in software engineering now. And apparently will have to repeat the lesson eventually.
In school when I realized that the people who copied homework and cheated in exams could get the same grades as me with a quarter of the effort + everyone else gave you shit if you told on them and the teacher still didn’t change their grade because you have no proof.
School taught me how to be lazy. I had no idea or motivation to be lazy before I saw how much effort I was wasting.
I taught myself how to read before going to school and the reward was being placed in an empty classroom to read by myself when everyone else was learning how to spell. Unsupervised. Alone. “Sit here and read” Bitch I could do that at home wtf am I here for
30ish. Working for a company that wouldn’t let me move to their QA department because they “needed me more where I was” even though the manager of QA wanted me. The QA department didn’t have anyone that knew how my department worked so they had never done any QA checks on us. Would have been a pay bump and no after hours support rotation. I got another job and they asked what they could do to avoid my leaving, and I said if they had done it then I wouldn’t be leaving.
Narrator: and they didn’t learn they lesson…
I’m 42 and it has worked out pretty well so far, honestly.
I joined the military, got good reviews (called “marks” for us), and tested well when I tried. Now I make good money, have the support of a lot of people in different departments and largely able to work on the projects I want, have gotten my #1 pick for station every time I have had to transfer, and will be retiring in 4 years with a bunch of ties to the community to keep me involved with things I enjoy after.
I get a lot of this is luck, and privilege (e.g. not everybody can join the military), and other factors. And regardless how hard I worked, many things ended up being popularity contests, so I missed some opportunties that way. But at no point did I feel like being nice and hardworking worked anything but in my own favor.
Yeah, I don’t know if it was my time in or what, but I came to the conclusion one day that we should just do a good job for the sake of doing a good job, and stop expecting people to fellate you for it. And I’m saying this having benefitted time and again from just doing a good job. There are times I did and times I didn’t, but I’m at a point where I won’t feel satisfied if I don’t do it right. Maybe I’m just old now.
Somewhat similar for me. I get my choice of positions at work because I can do every single one better than most everyone else. I play nice(but not too nice) so they’re willing to be flexible. Of course, sometimes management tries some shit, but that’s what the union is for.
But overall, I get more hours (which I want) because I work hard, and the positions I want. I’m aware it’s luck with my management team, but it’s still great
Preteens. My mom worked her ass off and we lived in poverty.
Career wise? The two metrics that matter is how well liked you are and how valuable you are perceived to be. Actually working hard and being nice can contribute to being well liked at work, and sometimes can increase one’s own perceived value to the employer. But being nice and working hard aren’t going to be rewarded in themselves.
I’m nice to people because it’s the right thing to do. But it also has generally made me well liked my whole life. So I’ve never had trouble negotiating above-market pay for my jobs.
And I used to work hard when the situation called for it. Which isn’t all situations. Most of my jobs had clients or customers, so doing right by them was usually more important to me than doing something right for the employer actually paying my salary.
But I also advocated for myself, made sure that a significant chunk of the “working hard” I did was towards actually documenting my value, or getting recognized for current contributions, and building my reputation for having the right skillsets and problem solving ability for future assignments.
Plus luck always plays a big role. Similarly situated workers at a booming/growing company paying out a bunch of bonuses, versus a failing company choosing which workers to lay off, are going to see very different results even if they’re equally perceived. Much of my own success is simple luck of timing, right place/right time type stuff. If I were born 5 years earlier or 5 years later, or simply 500 miles away from my place of birth, I think I would’ve been struggling a lot more.
Perception is so huge. Pre-pandemic, just looking around I assumed I was layoff-proof, but I got the axe anyway.
Last I heard there are two engineers and one manager sharing my old duties. 🙃
So many people got hit by a layoff during the pandemic it bet it opened lots of eyes. Mine included.
I was recruited to an ISP for my knowledge but my metrics were against new customer activations. I specialized in trouble calls so customer satisfaction. I bet I was one of the first to cut when they needed to tighten the belt.
One thing thst are me feel better is half the managers got cut too.
This is a good take. There is also a fair bit of luck in physical and mental health, and having a good environment growing up where you can learn all of the skills that aren’t taught in school. When I went through school the emphasis was on learning the facts and working hard… Neither of which are the top skills needed to make money.
I don’t expect rewards for being nice. I just want to be nice.
I’m bad at it though, but at least I’m trying my best.
I never figured it out, I just burned out so hard that I burned my bridges with the people who were abusing my time and willingness to help.
It’s a shame they were also paying me, but at least now my mental health is slowly recovering.
But you do get rewarded!..with more work.
