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Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

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21–30 of 415 posts

Re: Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

#21
Host file the sites you like. You saying this and me typing this reminded me that I need to do that again... my current one:

127.0.0.1 arstechnica.com

#127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

127.0.0.1 reuters.com

127.0.0.1 techcrunch.com

127.0.0.1 slashdot.org

127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

Re: Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

#25
post #11
post #4

While I don't seem to have all the information here, what I do have is enough to make a really good suggestion. I have some of the same issues with goofing off and such like that. So with this, a couple of questions. 1. Do you find yourself avoiding work you don't want to do outside of the job? 2. Was this a problem in school? 3. Have you talked to a doctor about this? Number three is the most important. I have ADHD,…

I'm not saying this is what you're suggesting, but I also feel like medicating people with amphetamines so they can be 120% productive 40+ hours of week is also not the solution to everything We're humans and especially those of us with curious brains, we get bored easily doing the same unstimulating tasks over and over again Maybe it's fine if he does what he needs to do in 3 hours and slacks off for the rest of the…

I agree that you shouldn't work yourself to the bone for someone else's profit, but ADHD can be insidiously crippling, at least for me.

Seeing a doctor and getting medication (I don't take amphetamines) has been super helpful for everything from feeling better about my work and being more productive, to handling day-to-day life. The biggest improvement is just in conversation/meetings/engaging with people, where I don't find myself wondering about bizarre hypotheticals instead of paying attention to the topic at hand.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

#28
It's certainly not uncommon.

But: Turning it back to you: how is that working out for you? The title of your post — "feeling guilty" — may be telling you something. Either do it and enjoy it or don't.

You can be a genius "slacker". If that's fulfilling for you, great. Otherwise, focus on what you want to be getting out of the situation and not on the guilt.

Re: Ask HN: Feeling guilty for doing the bare minimum at work

#30
post #18

by the end of my employment at Google, I was working about 2 hours a day (and getting Meets Expectations at L6, which is OK but not great). While I'd be online and available to respond to chat for 8 hours, I only exerted about 2 hours and most of that was just explaining to executives just how bad our fleet was. Before that I had worked at least 6 hours a day. And I assumed that to be "right" i should be working at l…

> From the feedback I got, I wasn't much more productive working more hours

I've had this feedback too and I feel like it is likely not true. Really what it is is that your managers aren't paying much attention to your output and have sort of written you off for promotions, raises, etc.

This was feedback I got a couple of months after I had been working my ass off trying to impress management and then a couple of weeks before getting fired. C'est la vie.

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