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Doing Everyone Else's Job

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Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#81

Post by esafak »

ozim wrote: post #80
esafak wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Presumably your official duty is not to make sure that the company does not fail, but something more circumscribed. Work on your responsibilities, and if your manager is nagging you to fix something that isn't that, have him make it official so you get recognized for it. If it should not be your job, push back.

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#83

Post by jltsiren »

dust-jacket wrote: post #79
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you exercise because it makes you stronger and faster? Or because it's something you enjoy, and it also keeps you healthy?

Many people get satisfaction from doing their job well. From their perspective, if they are already happy with what they have, why would they make themselves unhappy by constantly pursuing more?

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#84

Post by airstrike »

two_handfuls wrote: post #74
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In my case and experience, yes.

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#85

Post by seizethecheese »

jimmydddd wrote: post #61
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #27

I worked for a Japanese corporation, and a big part of their HR policy, was to move staff around the company. It was usually in 1- or 2-year stints (people would spend their entire careers at the company, so they could do this). Eventually, they would end up doing longer stints, where they would specialize. They would couple this with things like standardized coding and documentation styles, common tools, etc. Traini…

In the 1990's UPS spent a lot of effort grooming promising junior employees to move up the ranks and become managers. They would then move the managers around to different locations, thinking that good manager can manage any dept. Many of these guys had moved up from being delivery drivers. It became interesting when they would get assigned to manage the IT division, which was developing and supporting internal and e…

It’d like to hear more

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#86

Post by maerF0x0 »

esafak wrote: post #77
maerF0x0 wrote: post #70

> 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.

> LET THE DAMN THING FAIL

Fully agree, enterprise failure is one of the most important mechanisms in market economies.

This also applies to gov't bailouts

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#87

Post by jacobolus »

dust-jacket wrote: post #79
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some people have the primary goal of making things work for everyone. Other people have the primary goal of personally benefitting. These are often in conflict. The better a company or team can align these goals, the more effective it is, and the more everyone tends to benefit, but in many organizations the folks looking for personal advantage are most likely to end up in charge.

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#88

Post by pixl97 »

dust-jacket wrote: post #79
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

These people exist all over the place and they are the reason why society generally works. Shit would, and shit does go sideways when they stop doing their jobs, small and big companies alike.

>why people would continue to care so hard when their efforts are unappreciated.

So quite a few marriages.

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#89

Post by 98codes »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #73
maerF0x0 wrote: post #70

> 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…

As someone that has done a lot of that work, can confirm.

Re: Doing Everyone Else's Job

#90

Post by atoav »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #70

> 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…

Exactly. As a media tech guy, my best feedback during the past decade of work was always linked to some lazy fuckup of someone else that I "heroically" rushed in to fix by fixing some noob level misuse.

Meanwhile the actually most heroic work I did was literal PCB level repair of a piece of ancient equipment whose function my boss wouldn't even understand, but the failure of which would stop our main room to a grinding halt. I then had to repeatedly ask to replace that equipment with a new replacement.

The highly visible work is often not the one that really counts, especially if you do not understand the subject matter.

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