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

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191–200 of 372 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you weren't offered a relocation package, then you probably weren't actually valued. Probably along with the entire office in the country.

Maybe he was valued in his department but department was not valued inside the company.

That's... what I said.

The entire office was likely seen as "staff augmentation" rather than strategic.

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

#192

This is far more simple than it sounds. Do what others cannot to deliver success to the internal goals of the business. It is always more about capabilities and delivery and it’s never really about hard work. These capabilities can include authoring new tools but most often are soft skills and better written communication. Many people will fail at this because they cannot perform or independently determine their own…

> Simple... Do what others cannot to deliver success to the internal goals of the business. This is not simple at all: 1. The "things which others cannot" are, typically, not the tasks you are given. So you would be neglecting the work you've been actually given to work on other things which you believe are important. 2. Things which people can't do are typically considered as irrelevant-to-do, and thus not a goal. W…

It is astonishingly simple, but it isn't easy. Not everybody is willing to do the research and practice outside the job to make it easy.

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

#193
I guess the point is that the ~slaves~ paid laborers that built the pyramids were "useful", but the people that told them what shape to build were "valued"?

Tools are useful but ultimately can be thrown in the trash. Valuable things must be preserved and treated with respect. Strategic thinkers and VCs are treasured, but workers and ICs are dispensable.

This is just a lot of words to imply a moral hierarchy around social class.

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

#194

I feel like "useful" and "valued" are very poor terms for the situations described in the article. I think a much better explanation is that just because you may excel in one role (and be recognized as such) does not necessarily mean you'll excel in another role. And heck, I think it's important to recognize these qualities and limitations in yourself . Calling this being "useful" or "valued" puts an emotional/moral…

It is the dumbest thing ever for a company to evaluate someone as not useful based on their perceived skill set. What makes someone not useful is their tendency to show up to get shit done or not, nothing else.

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

#195

There is an enormous, invisible river of wealth flowing all around us. An individual can contribute to it, and draw some off from it as it flows by. In an ideal world, each would withdraw in direct proportion to the amount they contribute: A salesman goes out and shares a solution to a problem that a customer didn't know could be solved, and takes a commission for this information distribution, an executive turns a l…

Beautiful

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

#196

> If you’re reading this and wondering which side of the line you are on, I encourage you to take a moment to step back and look beyond the surface. Are you valued, or just useful? Thanks for reminding me again that my 20 year career has been completely useless, other than being a "seat-filler".

I've been heavily feeling that recently too. I think in 20+ years of working there were maybe 2 or 3 of them where I had even a little bit of "valued".

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

#198

If you earn some dough and are treated somewhat nice you have already hit the jackpot. Don’t give up a perfectly good job just because you have power fantasy issues. You will always be a worker bee, that’s just how the world is set up. Someone or something will own your ass regardless of your compensation structure.

Well said

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

#199

I guess the point is that the ~slaves~ paid laborers that built the pyramids were "useful", but the people that told them what shape to build were "valued"? Tools are useful but ultimately can be thrown in the trash. Valuable things must be preserved and treated with respect. Strategic thinkers and VCs are treasured, but workers and ICs are dispensable. This is just a lot of words to imply a moral hierarchy around so…

> I guess the point is that the slaves that built the pyramids were "useful"

just to nitpick - the consensus among historians now is that the pyramids were built by paid laborers, not slaves

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

#200

I feel like "useful" and "valued" are very poor terms for the situations described in the article. I think a much better explanation is that just because you may excel in one role (and be recognized as such) does not necessarily mean you'll excel in another role. And heck, I think it's important to recognize these qualities and limitations in yourself . Calling this being "useful" or "valued" puts an emotional/moral…

Sometimes you're an investment, sometimes you're insurance, and other times you're a luxury or even an impulse buy.

I think this is a better framing because it explains some behaviours that are otherwise baffling: if I'm hurting for cash, I'm going to stop adding to my savings before I cancel all my insurance, even if the expected rate of return is higher.

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