Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

betterthanrandom.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 372 posts

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#11

Post by bravesoul2 »

I have always been useful not valued, worked at 8 or more places. Only people who value me are family. Businesses don't.

You find out pretty quick: suddenly on PIP, or get bullied thereafter because you phrased something slightly off in a Jira comment. If I can get paid and treated OK, I see that as good.

Don't put stock in business relationships. Try to have good ones but put stock in ... assets, family, health, etc.

Now I have seen valued people but they are rare. And if push come to shove I'm sure that bond could break.

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#12

Post by magicalhippo »

I recently had a bout of this at my current work.

For a while I was struggling to pinpoint my discontent, but I ended up realizing it was because I felt I was undervalued compared to the contributions I had made over the years.

As it happened, my superiors had come to realize the same, so when I asked for a talk, they preempted my plan by announcing this.

As mentioned by the article, I've since been included in much more strategic talks and discussions to help shape the future of the company, as we're moving our products from the desktop to the web.

It's still something I'll keep an eye on, but just realizing the source of my frustration was very helpful. It also made me more aware of how I shouldn't sacrifice too much unless it's being valued, as opposed to just being more useful.

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#17

Post by ktallett »

bravesoul2 wrote: post #11

I have always been useful not valued, worked at 8 or more places. Only people who value me are family. Businesses don't. You find out pretty quick: suddenly on PIP, or get bullied thereafter because you phrased something slightly off in a Jira comment. If I can get paid and treated OK, I see that as good. Don't put stock in business relationships. Try to have good ones but put stock in ... assets, family, health, etc…

This is key. Such nuances and changes can be seen as a real negative behaviour by some when of course they are not.

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#18

Post by lnsru »

elric wrote: post #7
shahinghasemi wrote: post #5

But if you want to be valued you must be useful at the first place.

I don't think so. A lot of managers value people who excel at talking big while doing little (if any) useful work, while they ignore the useful people who actually get things done.

Playing office politics right is the most important thing at work. Doing real work is secondary. On other hand as a workhorse I punch occasionally every management’s darling in the face. They don‘t like me, but they know, that somebody must do technical heavy lifting. Of course, I am number one in the layoff’s list :-)

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#19

Post by dotdi »

> I had become the go-to person for making things run smoothly, for fixing urgent problems, for delivering. But every time I pushed toward more strategic and ambitious directions, there was a lot of can-kicking and “let’s think about it” that went nowhere. I was incredibly useful to the organization, but not necessarily valued, and at some point, I started feeling a sense of stagnation. Compensation was good, the actual job was aligned with my interests, but that sense of being just a useful caretaker was hitting my motivation. In the end, I had to move on to another role.

this hits home, hard.

Re: If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued

#20

Post by dopidopHN »

elric wrote: post #7
shahinghasemi wrote: post #5

But if you want to be valued you must be useful at the first place.

I don't think so. A lot of managers value people who excel at talking big while doing little (if any) useful work, while they ignore the useful people who actually get things done.

I used to think that.

And then I started working for a different kind of companies.

I screen out any structure with VC money.

It means I work for company that you never heard of, but that are profitable year after year.

How? They are very careful who gets in. And they make sure everyone is actually useful. Ration manager to worker is really really low.

Oh, and they build a product with the intends of selling it. Crazy, I know.

Post reply on HN