When employees feel slighted, they work less • Hacker News Board

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#151

Post by diogenescynic » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

staindk wrote: post #100

diogenescynic wrote: post #81

I just got my annual review and for the 4th year in a row, no changes. I'm still "meeting expectations" but apparently not deserving of even a crumb of the millions in additional profits I've brought in. I am damn sure not going to work as hard going forward when working hard doesn't even lead to a positive outcome. I may not control the scope or even volume of work assigned to me, but I do control the pace and why b…

That sucks. The following is unsolicited stuff you probably already know - feel free to ignore. I would heavily suggest speaking frankly about this with your manager or even going above their head if needed to ensure someone hears and acknowledges this. With your review in hand and any other additional info that can help back you up. Ask what you need to focus on to secure a substantial Y raise/promotion and bonus et…

Thanks and appreciate it.

I did try that last year but it honestly went no where. I work on a financial system at a fintech company but I am on the finance side and my managers and above have never even logged into the system so they don't understand, appreciate, or really have interest in it. All they hear about are breaks in data, or some trivial error (99% caused by the bank or employee inputting a payment incorrectly, etc.) so they hear more negative feedback which I think biases them instead of them understanding that the failure rate is less than 1% and when you have 50,000 payments there's going to always be something that goes wrong--it could be as simple as the date. I implemented a change that allowed us to invest more funds and added almost 10 figures in interest income, but I'm not sure anyone but my manager even knows that. I ultimately blame my manager, he's old and useless and seems to be unmotivated to deliver anything for his direct reports.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#152

Post by dghlsakjg » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 5:49 PM UTC

andsoitis wrote: post #101

pinnochio wrote: post #21

There's a lot of jeering, I suspect at the headline more than anything, but having documented research can be helpful in changing management behavior. The changes in employee behavior documented here are not ones that managers would easily connect to their past behavior, such as a late birthday recognition. When you train a dog, you have to give a reward very soon after the desired behavior, otherwise the dog won't a…

> late birthday recognition. if someone is going to feel slighted and similar things add up to them working less, they probably are not a great colleague to begin with. What matters more are: assignment to rewarding work, get paid top dollar, not be bored, get recognition for success, coaching on career growth, given leeway to make mistakes, not overlooked for promotion, etc. Now, as a people manager, if you're not s…

The example was a birthday card, but the mechanism is more important: the manager disregarded a policy in a way that was disrespectful to a specific employee.

People don’t care about the birthday card. They care when the manager does something nice for everyone but them.

Nobody cares about a pizza party, they care that the manager didn’t think to save any pizza for the team that had to do an emergency call out to a client site during lunch.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#153

Post by paradox460 » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #147

paradox460 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a past company, we originally had a fairly flat org structure. Jr, Mid, Sr, for the ICs. It worked, and everyone was happy. Eventually they brought in some new leadership from one of the big tech companies, and the new leadership brought a levels system. Suddenly we went from a large and flat org, to having all sorts of letters and numbers for levels. And none of the existing staff was promoted to the new levels,…

>At a past company, we originally had a fairly flat org structure. Jr, Mid, Sr, for the ICs. It worked, and everyone was happy. Eventually they brought in some new leadership from one of the big tech companies, and the new leadership brought a levels system. Suddenly we went from a large and flat org, to having all sorts of letters and numbers for levels. And none of the existing staff was promoted to the new levels,…

Sadly I think its a fairly common approach. I later found out that I was passed over for promotions because a manager two or three levels removed from me didn't like that I pushed back on an unsound architectural decision. Said architectural decision was rammed through, and eventually blew up and got egg on several people's faces.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#154

Post by dbcurtis » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #107

nsgi wrote: post #25

As a Brit, the birthday card example feels oddly American. The effect seems plausible, but the UK equivalent slight would be something much more informal

As an American, I would be totally creeped out if a manager even knew my birthday, let alone gave me a card. When I've seen people feel slighted in the workplace, it's usually due to uneven praise or criticism, or discriminatory stuff like passing over all the black workers with years of experience to promote the one white guy who's been there for 6 months.

Well, if your manager can see your employee file (which they can.... certainly in Worlday) they will know your birthday. Oddly, at my employer, celebration of individual birthdays is discouraged, I have heard it is because it might make someone feel uncomfortable being called out for aging. As someone who is probably in the oldest 1% of the company... I find that amusingly curious. Birthdays are a good excuse for a team celebration, and that is almost always good team bonding.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#155

Post by tarkin2 » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

catlifeonmars wrote: post #116

tarkin2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have we got to the point where we need an article telling us that slighting people doesn't help their motivation? Perhaps the answer is yes when we also compare a worker's motivation to a dog's motivation seemingly without irony.

> When you train a dog, you have to give a reward very soon after the desired behavior, otherwise the dog won't associate the reward with the behavior. Likewise, a manager is not going to associate a slight towards an employee with an increase in absenteeism or lower productivity that happens days and weeks later. Note that GP is comparing the _managers_ motivation to a dog’s motivation, not the worker. It’s about a…

The point is that /anyone/ is being compared to a dog, that the whole relationship is being compared as such. It's demeaning and is pretty much a slight, ironically enough (albeit directed towards the manager in this occasion)

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#156

Post by nasmorn » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

greenchair wrote: post #61

doubled112 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d take “slightly below average but is generally good to work with and tries hard” over “genius asshole” almost any day. Few projects require the latter. There’s also the problem with how useless so many are at their jobs with no way to be sure until its too late.

mostly agree but the below average try hard is also the one introducing the most bugs so I'm torn on this.

I literally inherited a dev once that was so bad we vastly improved velocity once he left. Every couple of months we fixed a weird bug in the code he wrote and laughed about it. The middle manager loved him because we was very eager to work and always around

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#157

Post by aleph_minus_one » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:06 PM UTC

kranner wrote: post #16

leothekim wrote: post #9

I understand the co-authors are research fellows at the Maximegalon Institute of Slowly and Painfully Working Out the Surprisingly Obvious

If only it were Surprisingly Obvious. IME there are a large number of emotionally stunted middle and upper managers that could use a pedigreed reminder that being a jerk at work is not good for anything in the end.

> that being a jerk at work is not good for anything in the end.

The problem with such phrases is that the opinions what being a jerk means differ a lot between people.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#158

Post by aleph_minus_one » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:13 PM UTC

SilentM68 wrote: post #121

That sounds about right from my experience. There's nothing worse than feeling excluded or manipulated by management or coworkers.

> There's nothing worse than feeling excluded or manipulated by management or coworkers.

What people call "social skills" is nearly always manipulating other people into liking you. People of who its is said that they "lack social skills" are often more honest and much less manipulative.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#159

Post by throw__away7391 » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

locao wrote: post #129

hypeatei wrote: post #64

Maybe I'm a bit jaded, and corporate environments have taken their toll, but I see the employee-manager relationship as adversarial by default. Whether my boss wishes me happy birthday or not doesn't move the needle much. I'm there to contribute as an individual and he's there to answer to his boss about staffing, budgeting, and performance. Although, I do feel slighted when a manager acknowledges the absurdity of al…

Maybe I'm a bit childish, but I feel neglected when I am asked to sign an work anniversary card for a colleague and next week my manager doesn't even acknowledge my work anniversary. It happened for the last 4 years and, yes, it affects my productivity in the day.

Some time ago I had my 10 year anniversary forgotten once in a company (where I had written almost the entire codebase for their core product myself) and I did feel slighted. I had felt invested in the company, to me this day was a big deal and my company was completely unaware. It felt like a disorienting mismatch of unreciprocated commitment and made me feel a bit sick in the pit of my stomach. I started looking for a new job the next day.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#160

Post by metalman » Sat, Jan 24, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

mystraline wrote: post #135

metalman wrote: post #119

As a small business owner who often has to deal with that worst possible ratio 1:1 for management/employee, I can promise you that emoloyees are premptivly looking for reasons to get there digs in, and often show up enacting vengence? in the form of vandalism from day 1. As I have never taken shit from an employer, I walk out and get another job imediatly, I have no sympathy for passive agressives whatsoever and desp…

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*ikF... When nobody wants to work for you , that should be a strong indication that you are the problem. And thinking that employees are "enacting vengence? in the form of vandalism from day 1."... You must be terrible indeed.

I get unsoliseted offers from job seekers, every day. Any destructive actions on the part of employees has been completly unprovoked, the reasons might be conected to a perception of metal working bieng a "macho" tough guy, right wing, field, but I am more of a "nature boy" back to the lander, and aint shy, or small, or tollerant of "dog whistles".......so in that way, oh fuck ya!, I am a n8ghtmare on preconceptions.