91–100 of 372 posts
“ I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental cla…
I have met useless, dumb or insane, but charismatic people who can instantly be in charge of any room they walk into. It is not rational. It’s monkey stuff. One of them is currently the President of the USA, and truth be told I think most presidents have these qualities to varying degrees. (The current one is just a very pure example.)
That being said, it doesn’t always work. It tends to work best on people who are inexperienced or who have some emotional need for a parent figure. But that's a lot of people.
If you engage in that kind of work, it's not just that you'll not be recognized/valued, but rather - be thought negatively of, for doing that.
“ I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental cla…
I worked as a small elite unit in a world leading airline, team of about 5 poeple that went down to basically 1 ( after I was finally labelled as "difficult to work with" - ( I actually was always quiet calm friendly used to working in critical teams and worked basically close to 12 hour days. Eventually a deadline was missed and "someone had to be blamed". Having worked in countless companies I was ready for this an…
Judging from your description, you could actually be a threat to his position. So that might be a preemptive strike.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's almost like you could create a 2 x 2 matrix of Useful Vs Valued - Not Useful, Not Valued: Get good or change jobs/industries. - Not Useful, Valued: talks a good game (or is doing useful stuff that is not apparent) -Useful, Not Valued: Could be useful at non-strategic stuff, or does good work without self-marketing, or has bad management and needs to leave. - Useful, Valued: Ideal situation.
Some of these may also work in different life stages. Want reasonable job security & compensation but currently pursuing a masters / raising an infant / dealing with elderly parental care - "useful¬ valued" may not be so bad for a few years.
Isn't being incredibly useful actually a pretty solid way to be valued, especially in the trenches? Maybe 'useful' is just 'valued' in work boots instead of a fancy suit.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of these may also work in different life stages. Want reasonable job security & compensation but currently pursuing a masters / raising an infant / dealing with elderly parental care - "useful¬ valued" may not be so bad for a few years.
Isn't "not valued" at odds with "reasonable job security?"
I was valued. Then the company laid off the whole country and stopped hiring in that country. In the end it's just luck.
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…
I've heard what you're describing phrase as follows: "If you want to know who truly values you, look for the people who would not be able to replace you with someone else." That usually has us pointing to friends and family, with the odd exception.
Sure you might get a surprise 50% bonus during a layoff. So you work even harder and put your heart in the company because you feel "grateful" for the appreciation -- the company apparently values you a lot. Guess what? You might be the perfect guy to lay off in the next round (as soon as within a few months), whether because of your role/performance of the quarter/relationship with new boss or just no reason.
Good for you that it didn't happen like that. But plenty of people had such experience.
Which is why I never put more effort or emotion than necessary for my job. When I think I need to work overtime, or when I get frustrated about something/someone at work and keep thinking about it after work, I ask myself, what if I get laid off tomorrow? Then the answer becomes apparent.
It's funny that peasants tell each other the difference between "useful" and "valued". Capitalists can't get more of these. Executives are laughing in their chair reading this article.