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Maybe you should do less 'work'

johnwhiles.com

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Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#11

Post by digianarchist »

sudden_dystopia wrote: post #2

Can confirm this will not get you promoted, it will just get you more work. You are more valuable as a peon than management if you are this good at your job. Always act dumber than your boss.

I worked pretty hard at getting promoted at my last job which unfortunately didn't happen. In the end I did the cost/benefit analysis of the amount of extra work I was doing compared to the 15% raise that I would get from being promoted.

In the end I moved companies and got a raise of about 35%. I'm back to doing the same amount of work I was doing before I tried to get promoted.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#12

Post by giantg2 »

I'm glad they talk a good bit about perceptions. That's really what it comes down to at the end of the day. Who cares if you're doing a lot of work or a little work if nobody sees it.

I don't know what's expected of me, at least not in an objective way. They apparently want me to go faster. One thing they are looking at is if I'm finishing early and asking for more work. So they are using that as an indicator, which is contrary to this article's advice.

I wish I had time to learn new skills. The work is so disjointed that you can never become an expert in one technology. Just constantly bouncing between systems, stacks, and languages. It's a mess. I have no desire to learn a new technology right now just because I know I will never get the chance to use it or become good with it.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#14

Post by cowanon4757 »

This is very solid advice. Once you become so productive that you don't need all of your working hours to do your job, you should spend that time on skill acquisition - either learning about something adjacent that you don't do daily or learn something that will be required for the next level (if that is your goal)

This is the only sane way I have found to progress in a tech career. The daily and weekly learning really adds up too - in my experience this is the difference someone who has 10 years of experience and someone who has "2 years repeated 5 times"

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#16

Post by TacticalCoder »

0des wrote: post #5

Getting my task completed at my own pace makes me feel good. Often that is fast and on time. In my heart, when I touch the keyboard, I feel like a greyhound dog with a little Bob Ross afro - it can be a race, a competition, but it is also an expression of my art. This article makes me feel bad because in the authors world, people like me are relegated to worker bee monkies trying to please the bossman due to patholog…

> A bit off topic but as of late there is this creeping normalization of intentionally subpar or less optimized results I'm noticing in our industry but also general society.

> When did we become so not only complacent but also discouraging of any genuine effort?

And these same people are going to expect nothing short of the best of the best from surgeons / plane pilots / car manufacturers / etc.

So they can slack of... But doctors are expected to do the work!

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#17

Post by tnzk »

0des wrote: post #5

Getting my task completed at my own pace makes me feel good. Often that is fast and on time. In my heart, when I touch the keyboard, I feel like a greyhound dog with a little Bob Ross afro - it can be a race, a competition, but it is also an expression of my art. This article makes me feel bad because in the authors world, people like me are relegated to worker bee monkies trying to please the bossman due to patholog…

> Doing my tasks diligently and in a timely manner affords me more time to relax, review what I have created, and enjoy it rather than drag myself to the next task.

This looks like what exactly the author says in the article to me

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#18

Post by jacknews »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #8
jacknews wrote: post #4

One problem with this argument is of course that what is really expected of you, ultimately, is at least what the other guys are delivering, not just a certain amount of work a week.

Enter the prisoner's dilemma

LOL, I'm not sure that actual game theory game applies directly, but the name is perhaps apt, a bit like how "salary" is similar to "slavery".

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#19

Post by giantg2 »

muse900 wrote: post #7

Personal experience has taught me that there is a MAXIMUM amount of COMP that you will receive as an employee, no matter how much hard work you put into your company. So basically what is happening, is that you are working hard for some achievements, that someone else is going to benefit off.

And that max level is specific to each individual based largely on things out of their control, like politics.

Edit: why downvote?

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#20

Post by matheusmoreira »

muse900 wrote: post #7

Personal experience has taught me that there is a MAXIMUM amount of COMP that you will receive as an employee, no matter how much hard work you put into your company. So basically what is happening, is that you are working hard for some achievements, that someone else is going to benefit off.

Yes. Compensation is best measured as hourly rate: $/h. Working too hard just decreases that ratio because work hours increase while money stays constant.
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