Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity • Hacker News Board

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#41

Post by dns_snek » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 1:41 AM UTC

slibhb wrote: post #11

nemomarx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you perform well enough that your boss doesn't notice, clearly it's providing the value you're getting paid for it? And getting 2-3 jobs out of a person is a multiplier to growth in theory, since they augment more other workers labour.

> If you perform well enough that your boss doesn't notice, clearly it's providing the value you're getting paid for it? Let's assume the goal of capitalism is economic growth. The fact that you can hold two jobs while doing no work is not evidence that your actions are helping either of your companies, or the economy, grow.

If those companies are unaware of how much work their (salaried) employees are capable of doing, they're by definition inefficient and deserve to get replaced by more competent competitors. That's the system working exactly as designed.

The employee working two jobs is doing something equivalent to price discovery.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#42

Post by pavel_lishin » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 2:03 AM UTC

camhart wrote: post #30

itqwertz wrote: post #2

If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

I wish employers would better encourage and reward those who put enormous effort into their job. Far too often you just get dragged along with a promise of a promotion down the road. Then its a 5% increase. Meanwhile the sub-par performers collecting the average salary are getting better compensated for their time. This is one reason why entrepreneurship can be appealing. Not only is there potential reward for hard w…

> I wish employers would better encourage and reward those who put enormous effort into their job.

I wonder if the reason they don't, is because the folks higher up are also dragging their heels & putting in 40% for the paycheck.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#43

Post by datavirtue » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 2:12 AM UTC

_visgean wrote: post #31

halfcat wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you get caught later, they can sue you for it if they find out Is it illegal to have 2 jobs in your country?

usually every contract for a job will have some clause like working hours etc. You would be breaking that clause.

Contract? We are at will.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#44

Post by imbnwa » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 2:31 AM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #42

camhart wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish employers would better encourage and reward those who put enormous effort into their job. Far too often you just get dragged along with a promise of a promotion down the road. Then its a 5% increase. Meanwhile the sub-par performers collecting the average salary are getting better compensated for their time. This is one reason why entrepreneurship can be appealing. Not only is there potential reward for hard w…

> I wish employers would better encourage and reward those who put enormous effort into their job. I wonder if the reason they don't, is because the folks higher up are also dragging their heels & putting in 40% for the paycheck.

Strange how little I hear this asked after

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#45

Post by steveBK123 » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 2:35 AM UTC

camhart wrote: post #30

itqwertz wrote: post #2

If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

I wish employers would better encourage and reward those who put enormous effort into their job. Far too often you just get dragged along with a promise of a promotion down the road. Then its a 5% increase. Meanwhile the sub-par performers collecting the average salary are getting better compensated for their time. This is one reason why entrepreneurship can be appealing. Not only is there potential reward for hard w…

Agreed re: entrepreneurship.

There is a problem with modern employment if you do not have an upside tether like pnl, profit share, equity, commissions, etc.

That is because all jobs have implicit downside tethers. If things go wrong for the company you can be fired, and if you get a cash bonus then they can also reduce your compensation by slashing bonuses after you do the work.

I've had jobs like this where you get worked dumped on you left & right. Literally doing multiple jobs as others leave, with managers unable to articulate priorities or what can be dropped because everything is important. Meanwhile knowing max raise is gonna be 5% with a random chance your total comp is flat or even down if the company has a bad year. The promotion path is slow and you are 2-3 years out from the next level.

It leaves the employee with a feeling of powerlessness and lack of control. Highly demotivating.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#46

Post by kccqzy » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 2:43 AM UTC

Rinzler89 wrote: post #16

itqwertz wrote: post #2

If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

>2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations I was never lucky to find such jobs in my life. Every job I had enough on my plate to not have enough time and energy for a second job. Plus, in my EU country working 2 full time jobs at the same time is impossible since employers can ask to see your social security contributions history before you start work to make sure it matches what you said in your resume,…

Oh American companies check too. There are things like The Work Number https://theworknumber.com/ that collects and stores employment information. The typical company does perform a background check on applicants.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#47

Post by rr808 » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 3:17 AM UTC

itqwertz wrote: post #2

If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

The best solution I've read for this is for companies to ensure you put your job on LinkedIn.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#48

Post by Spivak » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 3:22 AM UTC

padthai wrote: post #23

sesm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have several things to say about this: 1. Jobs with minimal responsibilities pay minimal salary 2. Influencers that promoted overemployment during Covid are now unemployed and trying to survive by selling informational products 3. If a scammer offers you a deal to scam someone, in reality the most likely victim of the scam is you

> 1. Jobs with minimal responsibilities pay minimal salary This is so wrong, I cannot even take seriously the rest of the points.

Yeah, one of the most shocking things I learned as an adult is that work is inversely proportional to salary. It's obvious in hindsight but it's hard to deprogram the lies you were told constantly growing up. Jobs with shit pay are offered by employers who are price sensitive and who are trying to squeeze every little bit of effort out of each dollar.

Take that not even $15/hr line cook and compare it to your software dev hourly and ask yourself are you working 5x harder than they are? Oh fuck no, I'm working less hard most weeks.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#49

Post by porknubbins » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 3:34 AM UTC

Rinzler89 wrote: post #16

itqwertz wrote: post #2

If you work remotely, a good cure for boredom is working 2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations. Spinning plates, keeping a mediocre output for keeping the job, is a great wealth and boredom fix.

>2+ jobs with minimal responsibilities or expectations I was never lucky to find such jobs in my life. Every job I had enough on my plate to not have enough time and energy for a second job. Plus, in my EU country working 2 full time jobs at the same time is impossible since employers can ask to see your social security contributions history before you start work to make sure it matches what you said in your resume,…

Like everything in US law its complicated because we are resistant to single unified systems. Working for two Fortune 500 companies is likely to end badly like you said in the EU. But there are many smaller companies here that are not as bureaucratized. So like startup + bigcorp would be safer, different industries even better. The tradeoff is we get fired all the time and have almost no worker protections except for in a few states like CA.

Re: Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity

#50

Post by collingreen » Sat, Mar 30, 2024, 3:39 AM UTC

dns_snek wrote: post #22

wryoak wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s about the moral contract with yourself, but that’s your business and no one else’s. If you compare your values to those of your CEO, or anyone, then you’ve likely lost sight of that. You become fearful of being who you want to be and fixated on attachment and loss prevention.

I've never worked two jobs like that, but if an opportunity presented itself, I'd probably take it. I'll save my morals for people who actually care about me. You can be perfectly moral in your personal life while being amoral in your professional life when it comes to matters like these. Trying to be moral in an inherently amoral environment is just opening yourself up for exploitation.

This isn't how I think of morality. Im mostly just being pedantic here but it stuck out to me in a weird way so here's an internet comment with my thought.

You can do whatever you think is right for you and I have no judgement for you either way, I just don't personally use morality to describe this kind of situation.

I think I agree with some of your underlying sentiment about the normal work and human experience being ruthless and cruel, and I understand the foolishness and danger in treating bad people like they are good by deciding to do that is your moral decision it isn't someone outside or morality in some way.

Morality is only really tested when it isn't the easy or most profitable way.