In the unificaton of knowledge work, doesn't everyone think all other jobs are just a prompt away?
Doing Everyone Else's Job
71–80 of 106 posts
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#72In a hierarchical organization, solving real problems almost always means “doing everyone else’s job,” so the author is right if your goal is to succeed inside organizations.
That said, I’d add one more point: in China, where I’m from, it is getting harder for individuals to even survive inside organizations these days, let alone succeed. In that environment, the rational strategy is often to do less, take fewer risks, and make fewer mistakes.
Hard not to miss the golden days.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#73> and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs False, they punish by not crediting that work as work. Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly vis…
I can think of at least two people in my career who were, ahem, load bearing for the company. They did all of the BS, non-sexy work required to keep the place running. Never wasted time on vanity projects, just showed up day after day doing the actual necessary things.
They were criminally under appreciated by management. Their career trajectory significantly worse than those who engaged in the highly visible projects.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#74> and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs False, they punish by not crediting that work as work. Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly vis…
I can think of at least two people in my career who were, ahem, load bearing for the company. They did all of the BS, non-sexy work required to keep the place running. Never wasted time on vanity projects, just showed up day after day doing the actual necessary things. They were criminally under appreciated by management. Their career trajectory significantly worse than those who engaged in the highly visible project…
Was the company over 1000 employees?
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#75Nice post, but I would appreciate examples. Anyone has good examples of this, and of the "not like this" section?
A simple one that occurred to me is picking up litter in your neighborhood. Not exactly work per se but it needs to get done and almost nobody does it.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if you add the hours for free and dont punch out when you should.
It's not possible to do everything. That's when your coworker that dedicates every waking moment to the job will outpace you and then set the standards.
If they "dedicate every waking moment to the job" they will outpace you anyway. So either join the race or live a balanced life. Choices.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#77> and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs False, they punish by not crediting that work as work. Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly vis…
If the company does not recognize its importance just LET THE DAMN THING FAIL. That is how management will pay proper attention to it.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#78As long as you keep getting the performance review brownie points, because if you don't you are out and it doesn't matter.
No matter how dire things are, the people who can get something done that nobody else can (or on timelines they couldn't) tend to do okay in performance reviews. At least in my experience. There are easier ways to get a false positive though, if you're open to lying, hogging credit, bus chucks etc. I sometimes wonder if I'm the crazy one for Doing Things Right when I could be spending time with my family instead.
If you're working regular extra hours to "do things right" instead of spending time with your family, then yeah you might want to reconsider. But by all means, do it during the normal workday. Like you said, people notice and it gets recognized. Unless you're in a very disfunctional org, in which case find a better employer.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#79> and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs False, they punish by not crediting that work as work. Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly vis…
I can think of at least two people in my career who were, ahem, load bearing for the company. They did all of the BS, non-sexy work required to keep the place running. Never wasted time on vanity projects, just showed up day after day doing the actual necessary things. They were criminally under appreciated by management. Their career trajectory significantly worse than those who engaged in the highly visible project…
I've never understood why people would continue to care so hard when their efforts are unappreciated.
But I've also never worked at a large company.
Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job
#80> and most managers fail to punish at least some of these slow learners of theirs False, they punish by not crediting that work as work. Glue work, keeping things tidy, dealing with that annoyance that everyone else has been able to get away with suffering through (and ignoring), all of this will be worth approximately 0 at performance review time because your time is a zerosum game that is traded off with highly vis…
If the company does not recognize its importance just LET THE DAMN THING FAIL. That is how management will pay proper attention to it.
I like getting paid each month and not having to look for job. Letting it fail is directly opposing my need to pay mortgage.