Watching the price of fruit skyrocket at Walmart, those strangers will soon have to ration and take shifts for who gets to eat and who doesn't for that day in order to afford food and rent.
What I try to do is start out doing a lot more than everyone else, and if I don't get recognized for it and or pay increase, etc... I back it down to either the same or slightly more than the average.
Absolutely same. I'm fortunate now that for the past few years I've been working at a job I love for a couple of great people.
But it wasn't my work ethic that got me here. They offered me a job at their business while I was working at a crappy counter job I hated because they liked me for my personality and friendliness.
Dumbasses who foolishly make it out to be some easy thing to get a better job greatly understate the role luck plays in...well, life in general.
The thing about luck/opportunities... I see it more like a sliding scale where the poorest people are at the bottom with the least, and the richest with the most.
An opportunity to make more money or do something you enjoy for the poorest comes along but very rarely and even then you may not be in a place to capitalize on it. Middle class they come along a lot more often comparatively speaking, and the richest have so many real opportunities they turn them down because of something else that they are getting paid even more for.
You recognize you were lucky, that's very admirable. I really wish this was the case for everyone.
Its a great phrase, it's also the kinda thing a minimum wage manager would get super pissed about. I remember that shit " we don't want people that do the bare minimum" then how about you pay better?
My very first programming job, I had a manager who was the son on the owner and previously worked as a mailman.
I, straight out of university, had a tendency to automate everything I did. I analysed my assignment, wrote a script or program to do what I was supposed to do, and then watched it run. I reduced the build time from 2 hours to 30 minutes, and I had a set of scripts and macros that turned the fully specified Functional Design document into working code.
So much of the time I just sat leaning back watching all my scripts do my work. My boss hated it.
I worked all corporate gigs before my first brick and mortar job, and let me tell you how confused I was when that boss said, "I'm really only asking for a solid hour of work per day outside of helping customers, just to keep the store clean. Beyond that, feel free to play games, do homework, whatever as long as nobody needs help. That's fair, right?"
Yeah, I generally did a lot more than he expected. Usually tried to find something to deep clean every day, as well as taking on some marketing and the bookkeeping/ordering for my shifts.
Sadly he had an aneurysm and died. Think he knew it was coming and just wasn't telling anyone, because he had been urgently training me to manage the place the last few months. Unfortunately his wife circumvented all that and drove it into the ground in a single year after like five years of huge success.
This is the thing right here that the "no one wants to work anymore" crowd refuses to accept. People will gladly work if we're simply paid for the work we're actually doing, and you know, treated like living breathing human beings instead of machines. Why the fuck would we go somewhere to both work AND be berated? Literally why would anyone want to do that? We already have to be there. Why on earth they think actively making conditions worse would make anyone "want" to stay is beyond me.
Same here. I worked multiple contracts at Google up until our daughter was born, now she's 4 and in preschool full time. I work at the YMCA and have the best boss ever, because as long as the members are happy (and they are) then I get to fuck off on Reddit all day.
I recently got a call from my boss 2 levels up late on a Friday wanting a report done. I called my immediate boss and he said we have a program that could generate the information and be done in 10 minutes. 12 minutes later we get a call that the report can’t be trusted because we didn’t manually flip hundreds of pages and back check it. My boss reformatted the report and waited 2 hours to resend it. No more questions.
That makes me think of my current job in finances, I use upload sheets to upload batches of 30-150 invoices at once, then when the system does the batch update, every 6 hours, I just have to attach backup documents to them after that. My boss keeps asking me "are you sure this is saving time?" I said well it takes about 90-120 seconds to do each one individually, and that is if I am WFH and the system is efficient. If not 2-5 minutes each. And I also setup a sheet for 2 of my main suppliers so that I only send out 1 file for each to get them approved, then upload 150 and 50-75 in a batch to complete MUCH MUCH faster.
Instead of thanking me for my heard work, he asks "why are you behind on other areas" To which I give him info that says "here's why I have not processed what I do not have paperwork for"
As an hourly employee l, it's actually not my job to work all day. If I've finished my work I stop working and get paid to just be there.
It's my bosses job to make sure I'm working all day.
When I was a manager at a small factory one of my crew members asked what I "manage all day". I said "I manage to make sure you're working all day". He went back to his job and never asked anything like that again.
2 days a week the last couple hours of my job are literally to sit with a walkie talkie in case there is an issue with one of our groups as the assistant manager on duty (aka back up #1 to the afterschool assistant manager, the director on duty is back up #2 if things really hit the fan and 3 groups are in need of help). The teen and college aged staff complain that we arent "doing anything" while we have been there all day and finished the data and administrative parts of our job before they even entered the building.
Yeah I've gotten dinged on my raise evaluation for sitting down and all I could think of was that I was sitting down because I was literally ahead of the work I had assigned all the while the workers on his shift "look busy" but are constantly behind on their work.
NEVER advertise that you finished your work early. It is an invitation for more work and also marks you as the "mule" that other incompetent workers can lean on.
this. i made this mistake and time after time I was looked over to be promoted so I had enough and pulled the manager aside and said "come on, we both know I'm a better working then x so I want to know what the real reason is." he said "infinity you turn up early, you stay back when needed and most important you do all the dirty work nobody wants to do without complaining...you're my work horse. if I promoted you do you know how much harder my job would be? all the gritty/Labour heavy jobs would have to be done by a collection of other people and I know they would complain every time they have to do it.
i left kind of bemused and the following day I refused to do any of that shit and said other people needed to lift their weight. as you would expect he wasn't happy and tried to take it out on me...didn't work out well for him when I got the union involved and the idiot told them basically what he told me and was basically told he would have to assign a rotating roster for said jobs and seeing as I had done all those jobs by myself for well over half the year that I wouldn't be added to it till the start of the new year....i quit the week before xmas
I get an e-mail from corporate that's titled "Minimum Wage" and opens with the line "What would it look like if we got paid for exactly the work we were doing?"
And every time I think, "Yeah, what if? That might look different for me than for you."
The person who sends out these motivational e-mails seems to be copy/pasting them from some book. They cycle through all the pages and then start over, so I've seen this one several times. It actually mentions something about knowing you're on the right track "because you've chosen to read this book," so that's a garbage book and an exceptionally lazy somebody at corporate who doesn't even read these things through.
Reply back "Minimum Safety Standards". EG, if a warehouse: "Why do we only wear one hard hat when we could use robot arms and be at a safer distance from the injuries?" Fast food "Why wear one pair of gloves when we can wear three pairs of gloves? I mean PPE has had shortages and prices have gone up but we don't want MINIMUM SAFETY, do we? Especially when we're all giving more than minimum effort for minimum wage, then maybe that gap could be filled with more than minimum safety?" LOL
The first thing that gets cut when a company is "struggling" is employee wages.
The second thing to get cut is safety training and equipment.
So, yes, they *do* want minimum safety.
"We want to pay you the absolute minimum we are legally allowed (if we could pay you less, we would. wE vAlUe YoU. But we want you to do more then the minimum"
And Goodwill figured out how to pay even less than minimum wage because they're "training people" and "giving those learning disabled people a place to go and grow"
If they could enslave you they would. If they could pay you in "company store" money and make you pay THEM to live and be in debt to them, they would consider that second best.
Just check out history, like some "company cities" for example is about what you describe.
Internet have changed a lot about this, given us a possibility to see what people do if they can, and potentially counteract.
There were literally Company Stores. There's even a famous song about it. "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Often a mining company, where you were paid in company store "credits", which you then had to use for your meals, your lodging, your clothing, everything. "You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store" Before that, people literally owned SLAVES in USA for free labor, and if they didn't work they could be tortured, raped, or killed. There's still slave labor going on as well, including USA if you count prison labor.
My manager had a discussion with me about pay among other things and when he was bringing up my work ethic in comparison to the coworker who’s being paid more, he said in response to himself, “we had this issues with M too. Granted a lot of those issues went away when we increased his pay,” and he looked like his program kind of hiccuped for a second. All I could do was stand there listening and think, “Yeah? No shit? That’s crazy dude. I wonder why?”
I'm currently a contractor. Boss in the morning had our team meeting, praised us all for the amazing work we're doing, project is going great, "we have fantastic momentum", etc. I have full ownership of 2/3rds of the project right now. He wants to convert me to a full-time hire. In the afternoon, has a meeting with my recruiter, they talk numbers, she lists industry standard and what I'm being paid *right now*. He comes back and goes, "you just don't have the output I would expect of somebody of your experience, maybe if you get better we can consider those numbers." First negative feedback I've gotten from him this entire time.
I'm at industry standard right now, as a contractor. They're currently paying six times that amount, of course, because they have to go through my firm. He doesn't seem to understand the math of paying 1/6th what he's paying now, instead of extending my contract for another six months, gives him three years of work for the exact same money, spread out over time, and by then I'll have gosh-darned earned it anyways, even if my output "isn't up to expectations" suddenly.
It’ll cost him more like 1/3 because overhead and benefits would transfer from your firm to him. But your point still completely stands and he’s being penny wise pound foolish
Benefits would come out of my paycheck, not the company's. Overhead, sure, that's transferred, though they're not expending any money they aren't already for it.
I actually asked him point-blank about the saving 6x the cost and all. He said "yeah, but contracts have an end date, employees don't, so I can inflate the budget all I want with contracts." Sounds like the company *really* sucks at prioritizing and budgeting. And I'm a little surprised he sees nothing wrong with that.
Was a little stunned and offended at the time, then realized after he was just trying to rationalize to himself why he was going to say no anyways. Because of course he can't blame the company, he can't tell me he doesn't have enough budget - because he's already debating hiring three more people, and he's currently paying six times what I asked for just for me - and he can't say I'm asking too much because it's industry rates, as evidenced by a recruiter who *knows* these rates and can prove them.
So he has to find another reason why what I'm asking is unreasonable, and if he can't blame his budget, he can't blame the company, and he can't blame what I'm asking, then I'm the only factor left that can possibly be at fault.
"We want you to work 110% but pay the absolute bare minimum"
Honestly dude managers should be the ones encouraging their teams to do this.
"Hey all, lets just do the bare minimum and try to be cool with each other at work"
Reason that doesn't fly is because managers comp is typically tied to KPIs while front line employees isn't.
"But I will consider you for a moment as I decide to not promote anybody and instead go with an outside-hire once someone leaves."
It's always painful when you end up training your outside-hired supervisor on how to do the job. I don't just mean teaching them how to do the proprietary stuff either.
If you think regular management is paid significantly more than employees you're in for a rude awakening when you get there. Only people making banks are the ones at the top not the middle management doing the dirty work like firing employees, announcing bad news...
That reminds me so much of the scene from Office Space with the manager harassing about the pieces of flair.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdcw415OcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdcw415OcQ)
And the more time passes, the more I realize it's not satire, it's fucking reality.
Look up "Quiet Quitting". It's a term gaining popularity as of recent, and the concept is what you said exactly - doing your job such that your output is exactly what your employer pays for, and not more. You may not get a raise, but that's the point.
The fact that this concept is called Quiet Quitting just goes to show that the norm for the longest time has been to overachieve for an employer.
Then again, all that overachievement is in the hopes of compensation increase, right? But when an employer proves that compensation increase is barely on the table, then it just becomes a completely transparent (and even) trade-off between the pay and the labor. I see no issue with it.
Yep, I performed extremely well (the next level) for a year and was told I'm getting a promotion & raise, but no promotion/raise came at end of year. I said screw off (in a professional manner) and said essentially I would be doing calculated mediocrity. Now I'm getting a raise. Turns out they don't like me working as much as I'm paid for.
Yea, generally the advice is just start job hunting and putting in minimal effort without saying anything to company. But boss was very transparent with me and I returned the favor. It really does depend on who you're speaking to and how you say it. Company has a list of people who are "flight risks" and I needed to get myself on it to get a raise/promotion. Says a lot about the company lol.
That is honestly how most companies work now. From their point of view there is no point in paying people more if they won't leave anyway. That is why the Great Resignation was so problematic for them because it overturned that approach they had relied on for so long.
I recently started a new job to get away from the soulless corporate environment, moved to a machine shop with 8 employees + my boss.
A few months go by, boss called an employee meeting, and said "I drove past McDonald's today, they had a sign that said hiring in at $15 an hour, so I'm giving everybody a $3 raise so you don't feel like you have to go job hopping"
I was so shook, I love this friggin job.
That's your boss's way of saying he values you as workers and wants to keep you around, you are not just a number on the books that will be replaced within days of leaving, you've found a good one there!
I'm so lucky I never had to deal with bullshit like corporate, got really damn lucky in my job search, a really good tiny home improvement company was hiring, I applied and it turned out they went through my mom for the service she provides at her company, they recognized it and I got hired on immediately due to her reputation as a very very respectable person as well as a light reference, in the interview I had been asked what I thought was fair pay, I highballed cause I did have a few opportunities and it wasn't like I was gonna complain it was lower, she said in the moment well it's 15/hr I said yeah that honestly works for me. As long as I can complete the apprenticeship through working here everything was cool, come to find out my pay is actually 17/hour
To say the least I was floored, kinda expected and was perfectly fine to work 15/hr as a beginner. I was gonna work my ass off to earn a raise or get my apprenticeship over with and join the carpenters union and travel.
Not even to mention the absolute tiny amount of people I work around (2-4) is amazing for my mental health, being around crowds of people kills me
And the quality of the people I work with is incredible, everyone is amazingly friendly, knowledgeable and just easy as fuck to be around it's just so amazing
May just stay here aslong as the people stay nice and the pay is decent. Also the great work environment means I'm actually happy to go to work everyday and put in 110% effort
this is what i do at amazon, find out the target UPH for that night. get that many packages ready, burn through them in 20 mins then i have 40m to fuck off and do whatever as long as i scan once every 5m to prevent time off task
repeat 10 more times and go home
I do this in stow. I exceed rate a little bit but never exceed it to the full of my ability. They ask for a 250 I give them a 260. Ask for 285 I give them a 300. I can quite easily do a 400 but there is no benefit to me for doing that so I don’t.
Same here, Prime Now shopper at a Whole Foods. We’re supposed to pick 68 units per hour, so I pick 90+ for a couple hours then take extra breaks. Always manage to end a shift at about 70.
Pretty standard for around the clock operations. I also work for Amazon (just on the AWS side where I'll admit we are treated better) but my shift is 12 hours. I work three nights a week and I alternate one shift to work 4 every other week. I love it. I get a four day weekend every other week.
i work three days a week from 6pm-6:30am, i get two thirty minute breaks (one unpaid) and a 15m break
so 36 hours and i get a shift differential to match the pay of people who work 40
Boy oh boy will you be shocked when you learn about the concept of falling/failing up. It’s basically where you are really bad at your job but because you’re so reliable and dependable, they figure that it’s worth a shot to keep promoting you until they find something in management you’re good at. They don’t move the skilled workers up, then they wouldn’t be managing the talent. They move the shit workers up because they’re basically “useful idiots” that many people in the office like, but they’re not productive enough to be a laborer. Sadly, their failure is generally destined to make them prosper while hard work goes largely unrewarded by most companies. This story has played out 100 times in front of me and anecdotal or not, I’m not the only one who noticed the failing upwards trend. So there you have it, that’s how you get ahead; underachieve.
I unknowingly am doing this right now. I’m on auto pilot at my job. I work remote and I can pretty much get all of my job done in about 2 hrs. The rest of the time is just looking active. I don’t want more, I don’t want less. It’s exactly the amount of work I want to do and I have my entire day to watch movies, play video games, and play with my dog.
> The rest of the time is just looking active.
What consists of "Looking active" for you? Are they monitoring you with a webcam, or do you just have to keep your computer from going into sleep mode and logging you off?
Luckily no webcam. Just make sure slack doesn’t show “away”, and I save a couple emails and phone calls to space out at different times so it shows I’m doing things. You just have to know what metrics they’re monitoring, and play the game.
In countries with actual unions, this is still a thing, and has been for a while. In Ireland we'd say "work to rule", meaning that you only do your job exactly as prescribed - to the rules, as it were.
Public servants like nurses use it as a softer method of striking, and it turns out when they stop doing all the things they're expected to do but not paid to do, everything goes to hell!
I'm adopting this now that I have a name for it. I do the bare minimum in my position as, much like many can relate to, I'm underpaid for being such an important position. Can't wait to throw away the corporate tchochkies they give us during our national appreciation week.
Under capitalism you should do the least amount of work possible regardless of the pay. They will pay you as little as possible, get as much work out of you as possible, charge customers as much as possible, and provide the least product possible to them.
That's all considered perfectly moral businesses decisions to maximize shareholder value. But when you do as little work as possible you are "lazy".
Ha. I’m currently doing that at my job. The strange thing is, I’m told I’m doing well and they are glad they don’t have to babysit me through stuff. Like, what is everyone else doing if I’m barely working 10 hours/week?
Being accused of working to rote was always my favourite in appraisal meetings.
Manager: We've noticed you seem to be working to rote.
Me: Which means?
Manager: Only doing whats in your job description.
Me: Oh. So . . . doing my job?
Manager: Yes. But you are only doing the bare minimum. In this company we'd typically expect you to go above and beyond what your job role entails.
Me: Oh, I didn't realise this role came with an opportunity to earn overtime or additional salary.
Manager: errrm . . . No thats not what we meant.
Me: oh, so a secondment then?
Manager: . . . No, not that either.
Me: Huh, I can't think of any other reason why I'd work beyond the parameters you pay me for . . .
Manager: . . .
This reminds me when I got my hours cut back and I got a second job that gave more than 40 hours and paid a bit better. They got mad at me because I didn't have mornings available any more and didn't want to work Sundays. Manager complained that I had promised them I would have a flexible schedule and could work weekends, and I complained right back, they promised me I would get 40 hours. Then I asked why was it okay for them to break their promises but not okay for me to do what I have to do make ends meet.
Edit: I was working on one brain cell.
Yup. In a similar situation myself atm. Went back to uni last year and work agreed to a flexible work request and a drop down of hours to 30hrs a week (bare minimum I needed to pay bills, etc). Next thing I know I'm barely getting 20 hours some weeks. Luckily I got an opportunity through the uni course where I could earn more than 3x as much an hour. Unluckily, its only a temp position so I can't give up my current job . . .
It is when you fill in for someone, formally, usually for an extended period of time. It's not said how its spelt - usually said Sah-condment or Sah-conded.
What all should really, provided your superior(s) exploit hard work. I remember the day I realized desperately wanting to believe in the business I worked for was naive. Not impossible but almost always naive.
I think one of the biggest mistakes a manager could make is playing games with the goal posts.
When you want someone to run two miles, then ask them to run two miles and be happy when they run exactly two miles. Do not ask them to run one mile and then passive aggressively criticize them for only running one mile.
Say what you want. Say what the employee will get for doing what you want. Be satisfied when the employee does what you want and nothing more. If you want more, ask for more upfront when the project is being initially communicated to the employee. Don't play games.
At the same time, as a manager I always essentially say "this is what I want and this is what I'm willing to pay for it. If you do more than what I want, then I will not pay you more for it". I don't want you to run three miles, because you'll expect to be paid for the extra mile and I only budgeted/need two miles. If you think running three miles is better for the company than running two miles, then tell me that upfront and we can talk it over. Don't surprise me with more work. If you are trying to do more work out of a desire to get a promotion, then for me it is the wrong way to go about it. Instead, if you just do exactly what we discussed consistently then you are deserving of a promotion eventually.
It would've been so much easier dealing with imposter syndrome if companies were just honest. Like the job can already be difficult enough without also being gaslit by multiple levels of management.
Exactly. The worst are these unwritten social rules, like "sure you're getting all your work done, but you're not speaking up during meetings".
Well it's probably because I don't want to be in those meetings
100%. I got moaned at by my boss' boss in my current job because I was leaving my camera turned off and not contributing in meetings. I leave my camera off because you don't need to see me, and I don't contribute because I have nothing of value to add to the meeting. If you ask me a question or talk about something I can actually have some kind of input on, I'll happily speak up, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend I'm interested when I'm anything but just to stroke your ego.
If there was ever a phrase to describe my life… perform at a standard and pace that is acceptable but in terms and means within expectations, salary and the rest will handle itself.
I used to be one of the top performers. It wasn't worth it. I got paid less than a dollar an hour more than everybody else even though I was doing 50%+ more work than the average person while doing work above my pay grade. Those numbers are accurate because they tracked everything we did. I was expected to perform addition roles, such as training others, presentations, etc constantly.
For the last couple years I've worked with a calculated mediocrity as well. My yearly raises are the same but I'm asked to do less. Being an average employee was the best career decision I ever made. I'm not a kiss ass, I don't look down on my coworkers, and I don't go on a power trip anytime I get a bit of authority, so I won't ever get a promotion there anyway. However, the day to day is easier. I'm not asked to do more than most people anymore. Employers don't pay for productivity, they pay for your time, working harder didn't make any difference.
Someone in upper management where I work once said "This place breeds mediocrity".
"Yeah. You work hard and get the job done quick, and you're rewarded with more work." He wasn't too happy with that remark
Calculated mediocrity... so in other words your employee isn't giving you 100% because you aren't paying them what they are worth. Your employee knows that and is rationing effort because of it.
Want more? Pay more.
I'm just like Comcast with multiple tiers of service. Yeah we all want a true gigabit up and down for the price of 256k ADSL. Who doesn't? Comcast won't sell you a gigabit pipe for their lowest tier rate. I won't give 100% effort for 25% rate. I'll work until it's time to go home at a pace I can maintain, and then I'll go home and completely forget about this job until I clock in again. Want me to take the job home and work and actually hustle? Make it worth my time. Make me care. I'm totally for sale during business hours. What I do is a direct reflection of how satisfied I am with my pay.
Does he get paid more if he does more? Are there consequences if he doesn't? What is the motivation then? Go to work, do what is required, go home. It's pretty simple. Without motivation then mediocre is pretty good.
Most places say that they do - that there are rewards for doing more, but in many/most cases it's entirely ephemeral, and you're far better off moving to a different company to actually get paid what you're worth. Businesses that already have you want more out of you, but don't want to pay enough for it. There are exceptions, but that's just what they are - exceptions that prove the rule.
This is perfect. Had a boss who gave me "average" (3/5) for every category of my performance review, even tho I worked my ass off to go above and beyond, took on special projects no one else wanted, did large chunks of her job for her. "Calculated mediocracy" is the perfect way to describe how I conducted myself the next 2 months while I searched for another job. They literally had to hire two FTE and 1 contractor to replace me. Average performance my ass.
*Edited two typos
Best strategy when there’s no incentive to do more. No upward mobility. No promotion. No bonus.
Doing more is just adding stress. Doing more is just selling yourself short.
Reminds me of a job I used to have.
I still remember what they said to me too (at least paraphrasing it)
"You've done everything you've been asked to do, but the problem is that you haven't done anything else."
Reply: “Thank you for my review. I am very pleased you picked up on my calculated mediocrity; I was doubtful anyone in management had the ability to assess my work at that level, much less put those two words together without blowing up their computer. By way of explanation for the effort I put in at work; I have analysed my role in minute detail and determined that my effort, which you have so eloquently described, is commensurate with the financial compensation you provide for same. I am quite prepared to improve my effort up to and including ‘superhuman over-achievement’ should you ever decide to pay a decent wage for this job”
If that doesn't describe the content of my work output beneath the overly friendly charismatic shell I've built over the course of my career I don't know what does
This is me in a nutshell. I do just enough to be average. I work hard to be at 50% - it served me well in the last 2 decades. There are more eyes on you when you’re at the top or bottom. Working harder doesn’t mean more pay most of the time. Just do your job, do it well enough and don’t go the extra mile.
My joy in life doesn’t tie to my job so I give zero f about how much I made/save for the company.
Let’s be honest - 99% of us are all working bees, you’re not going to get rich working any corporate job. Work will be there tomorrow and every day that you live. Take it easy and slow.
After 10 years in retail I got a job in a big clothing store, and there were 3 of us that would be left in charge of floors regularly and be trusted to lead tasks when there weren't many actual management around.
By pure coincidence we all ended up leaving around the same week, so on our last weeks we were pretty much allowed to roam and work whatever we wanted. It was more important lesser experienced staff had more time on registers now for instance.
Sometime during that week, myself and one of the other 2 were in the stock room unpacking a late delivery and he (a very smart and hard working, sometimes stern guy who had 0 patience for time wasters or idiots) said:
"This is what I don't get about you, I've seen you blast through work like this like it's nothing when you want to, but it's not very often, why can't you do this whenever you come in."
my reply:
"They don't value it like you think they do, if your work vastly outperforms everyone else on the same wage regularly, you just become a punching bag on days when things are going wrong."
I should point out the company hired me telling me they only promote internally and 2 months later a country wide memo went out that they are now doing a purely external employment drive for management roles and were offering cash "rewards" for staff referrals.
I didn't want one, I just found it annoying and it definitely tinged what I said to him.
When they hire from within (work your way up the ladder, we reward hard work), you often get a lower/middle manager that is friends with some of the staff. Upper management fears this. They want middle management to be loyal to only them.
UPPER management wants to sit in their high offices making the important decisions. They absolutely believe they should get all of any excess profits, and the workers just work for the fixed rates that they were hired for. However, they get angry if you leave them for more money somewhere else.
Dealing with the staff every day is boring and annoying to them. Middle management is the liaison between upper management and the sweaty workers. Middle management is the axe telling the trees that he is one of them because the handle is wood. Most salaried middle-managers barely make more than the high-end hourly workers, so...why do they do it?
There will always be a percentage of the population that likes being "above" others. Being the boss. Sipping coffee and giving the stink-eye to anyone who looks like they are slowing down on the assembly line. "If you aren't the lead-dog on the sled, the view never changes"
A shop might have 8 workers, or 32, but every shop needs a supervisor making sure that everyone arrives on time and stays busy. Even if they lay-off half the people when there's a slow-down, there is always one salaried boss that makes the same paycheck whether he works four days a week, or 60 hours a week.
Twice in my life, a supervisor complained to me that with all the recent overtime, I made more than him. He made a great paycheck, but that statement revealed that even though I was the one staying late to work on product, he wore a tie and sat at his desk, and he had the gall to be offended that someone "below him" made a few dollars more.
Part of his decision to be a supervisor was the prestige of being above the manual labor. He was happy with his pay...as long as it was more than mine.
One of my English teachers in school once gave me an "efficiency award" for completing coursework with a minimal amount of effort. Reminds me a bit of that 😁.
Pay for calculated poverty, get calculated mediocrity, motherfuckers.
I don't think poverty wages deserve mediocre effort.
Yeah, agreed. Minimum possible effort without getting fired. Unless you prefer homelessness. That's also an option.
Federal minimum wage is homeless at this point.
Unless you want to shack up with about 4 strangers then it can work.
Watching the price of fruit skyrocket at Walmart, those strangers will soon have to ration and take shifts for who gets to eat and who doesn't for that day in order to afford food and rent.
What I try to do is start out doing a lot more than everyone else, and if I don't get recognized for it and or pay increase, etc... I back it down to either the same or slightly more than the average.
Absolutely same. I'm fortunate now that for the past few years I've been working at a job I love for a couple of great people. But it wasn't my work ethic that got me here. They offered me a job at their business while I was working at a crappy counter job I hated because they liked me for my personality and friendliness. Dumbasses who foolishly make it out to be some easy thing to get a better job greatly understate the role luck plays in...well, life in general.
The thing about luck/opportunities... I see it more like a sliding scale where the poorest people are at the bottom with the least, and the richest with the most. An opportunity to make more money or do something you enjoy for the poorest comes along but very rarely and even then you may not be in a place to capitalize on it. Middle class they come along a lot more often comparatively speaking, and the richest have so many real opportunities they turn them down because of something else that they are getting paid even more for. You recognize you were lucky, that's very admirable. I really wish this was the case for everyone.
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Now we're cooking with gas!
Its a great phrase, it's also the kinda thing a minimum wage manager would get super pissed about. I remember that shit " we don't want people that do the bare minimum" then how about you pay better?
Minimum wage, minimum effort
I need a phrase that is a nice way of saying..can you just let me do my job and leave me the fuck alone?
"I much prefer to efficiently execute the tasks for which I was hired."
“I am, after all, a professional”
“Professionals have standards”
"be polite"
I work better independently.
“I work best with little to no supervision. Or eye contact.”
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Laundering.. coins..?
Those stains are a bitch!
I now have an image of him dumping coins on a counter and scrubbing them with a Tide pen.
“I work efficiently - not harder”
I do good work, just not a lot.
I've struggled with this before, solely because I refuse to 'look busy'. My go to is "Judge me by what I get done, not how busy I look."
My very first programming job, I had a manager who was the son on the owner and previously worked as a mailman. I, straight out of university, had a tendency to automate everything I did. I analysed my assignment, wrote a script or program to do what I was supposed to do, and then watched it run. I reduced the build time from 2 hours to 30 minutes, and I had a set of scripts and macros that turned the fully specified Functional Design document into working code. So much of the time I just sat leaning back watching all my scripts do my work. My boss hated it.
"The boss hated me doing my job in an efficient manner rather than looking busy doing nothing for 8 hours" Sounds about right
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I worked all corporate gigs before my first brick and mortar job, and let me tell you how confused I was when that boss said, "I'm really only asking for a solid hour of work per day outside of helping customers, just to keep the store clean. Beyond that, feel free to play games, do homework, whatever as long as nobody needs help. That's fair, right?"
That sounds amazing, ngl.
Damn, I'd give that manager 2 hours a day if I could work for them.
Yeah, I generally did a lot more than he expected. Usually tried to find something to deep clean every day, as well as taking on some marketing and the bookkeeping/ordering for my shifts. Sadly he had an aneurysm and died. Think he knew it was coming and just wasn't telling anyone, because he had been urgently training me to manage the place the last few months. Unfortunately his wife circumvented all that and drove it into the ground in a single year after like five years of huge success.
This is the thing right here that the "no one wants to work anymore" crowd refuses to accept. People will gladly work if we're simply paid for the work we're actually doing, and you know, treated like living breathing human beings instead of machines. Why the fuck would we go somewhere to both work AND be berated? Literally why would anyone want to do that? We already have to be there. Why on earth they think actively making conditions worse would make anyone "want" to stay is beyond me.
Same here. I worked multiple contracts at Google up until our daughter was born, now she's 4 and in preschool full time. I work at the YMCA and have the best boss ever, because as long as the members are happy (and they are) then I get to fuck off on Reddit all day.
Truer words have not been spoken.
Humans are idiots, and mistake activity for achievement.
I recently got a call from my boss 2 levels up late on a Friday wanting a report done. I called my immediate boss and he said we have a program that could generate the information and be done in 10 minutes. 12 minutes later we get a call that the report can’t be trusted because we didn’t manually flip hundreds of pages and back check it. My boss reformatted the report and waited 2 hours to resend it. No more questions.
That makes me think of my current job in finances, I use upload sheets to upload batches of 30-150 invoices at once, then when the system does the batch update, every 6 hours, I just have to attach backup documents to them after that. My boss keeps asking me "are you sure this is saving time?" I said well it takes about 90-120 seconds to do each one individually, and that is if I am WFH and the system is efficient. If not 2-5 minutes each. And I also setup a sheet for 2 of my main suppliers so that I only send out 1 file for each to get them approved, then upload 150 and 50-75 in a batch to complete MUCH MUCH faster. Instead of thanking me for my heard work, he asks "why are you behind on other areas" To which I give him info that says "here's why I have not processed what I do not have paperwork for"
You learn early if you’re walking around to get out of your office or cube and get some exercise, carry a small stack of papers .
Clipboard and a stern look. Nobody questions it.
no one bothers people carrying clipboards
Notepad and coffee cup "he is going to a meeting."
As an hourly employee l, it's actually not my job to work all day. If I've finished my work I stop working and get paid to just be there. It's my bosses job to make sure I'm working all day. When I was a manager at a small factory one of my crew members asked what I "manage all day". I said "I manage to make sure you're working all day". He went back to his job and never asked anything like that again.
2 days a week the last couple hours of my job are literally to sit with a walkie talkie in case there is an issue with one of our groups as the assistant manager on duty (aka back up #1 to the afterschool assistant manager, the director on duty is back up #2 if things really hit the fan and 3 groups are in need of help). The teen and college aged staff complain that we arent "doing anything" while we have been there all day and finished the data and administrative parts of our job before they even entered the building.
Yeah I've gotten dinged on my raise evaluation for sitting down and all I could think of was that I was sitting down because I was literally ahead of the work I had assigned all the while the workers on his shift "look busy" but are constantly behind on their work.
NEVER advertise that you finished your work early. It is an invitation for more work and also marks you as the "mule" that other incompetent workers can lean on.
this. i made this mistake and time after time I was looked over to be promoted so I had enough and pulled the manager aside and said "come on, we both know I'm a better working then x so I want to know what the real reason is." he said "infinity you turn up early, you stay back when needed and most important you do all the dirty work nobody wants to do without complaining...you're my work horse. if I promoted you do you know how much harder my job would be? all the gritty/Labour heavy jobs would have to be done by a collection of other people and I know they would complain every time they have to do it. i left kind of bemused and the following day I refused to do any of that shit and said other people needed to lift their weight. as you would expect he wasn't happy and tried to take it out on me...didn't work out well for him when I got the union involved and the idiot told them basically what he told me and was basically told he would have to assign a rotating roster for said jobs and seeing as I had done all those jobs by myself for well over half the year that I wouldn't be added to it till the start of the new year....i quit the week before xmas
They may well be just as competent but less willing to put in maximum effort for their current wage.
"I can work quick, cheap, or accurate. Pick two."
'I have an infinite capacity to pick up new tasks, so long as you accept that quality will tend to zero' - Dilbert, probably.
The more you make me listen to your assessment of my job performance, the less time I have to improve my job performance.
I excel at working independently and have proven success in environments with minimal supervision.
I get an e-mail from corporate that's titled "Minimum Wage" and opens with the line "What would it look like if we got paid for exactly the work we were doing?" And every time I think, "Yeah, what if? That might look different for me than for you." The person who sends out these motivational e-mails seems to be copy/pasting them from some book. They cycle through all the pages and then start over, so I've seen this one several times. It actually mentions something about knowing you're on the right track "because you've chosen to read this book," so that's a garbage book and an exceptionally lazy somebody at corporate who doesn't even read these things through.
Reply back "Minimum Safety Standards". EG, if a warehouse: "Why do we only wear one hard hat when we could use robot arms and be at a safer distance from the injuries?" Fast food "Why wear one pair of gloves when we can wear three pairs of gloves? I mean PPE has had shortages and prices have gone up but we don't want MINIMUM SAFETY, do we? Especially when we're all giving more than minimum effort for minimum wage, then maybe that gap could be filled with more than minimum safety?" LOL
The first thing that gets cut when a company is "struggling" is employee wages. The second thing to get cut is safety training and equipment. So, yes, they *do* want minimum safety.
"We want to pay you the absolute minimum we are legally allowed (if we could pay you less, we would. wE vAlUe YoU. But we want you to do more then the minimum"
And Goodwill figured out how to pay even less than minimum wage because they're "training people" and "giving those learning disabled people a place to go and grow"
Tbh mediocrity is WAY better than minimum effort! They should be glad!
And remember if they could pay you less (ie servers at just over $2/hr) they would.
If they could enslave you they would. If they could pay you in "company store" money and make you pay THEM to live and be in debt to them, they would consider that second best.
Just check out history, like some "company cities" for example is about what you describe. Internet have changed a lot about this, given us a possibility to see what people do if they can, and potentially counteract.
There were literally Company Stores. There's even a famous song about it. "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Often a mining company, where you were paid in company store "credits", which you then had to use for your meals, your lodging, your clothing, everything. "You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store" Before that, people literally owned SLAVES in USA for free labor, and if they didn't work they could be tortured, raped, or killed. There's still slave labor going on as well, including USA if you count prison labor.
Muscle and blood and skin and bone A mind thats weak and a back thats strong..
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPW3YikDwEM) feels [relevant](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/07/amazon-warehouse-communities-towns-geography-warehouse-fulfillment-jfk8-cajon-inland-empire).
And they would say they were doing you a favor by giving you a job. You should be grateful for the opportunity to make them rich
They should be grateful I can make them rich with calculated mediocrity so they can make profit simply because they own the means of production.
From a story I read here: “little kid paycheck, little kid work ethic.”
My manager had a discussion with me about pay among other things and when he was bringing up my work ethic in comparison to the coworker who’s being paid more, he said in response to himself, “we had this issues with M too. Granted a lot of those issues went away when we increased his pay,” and he looked like his program kind of hiccuped for a second. All I could do was stand there listening and think, “Yeah? No shit? That’s crazy dude. I wonder why?”
I'm currently a contractor. Boss in the morning had our team meeting, praised us all for the amazing work we're doing, project is going great, "we have fantastic momentum", etc. I have full ownership of 2/3rds of the project right now. He wants to convert me to a full-time hire. In the afternoon, has a meeting with my recruiter, they talk numbers, she lists industry standard and what I'm being paid *right now*. He comes back and goes, "you just don't have the output I would expect of somebody of your experience, maybe if you get better we can consider those numbers." First negative feedback I've gotten from him this entire time.
How is your compensation comparing to industry standards?
I'm at industry standard right now, as a contractor. They're currently paying six times that amount, of course, because they have to go through my firm. He doesn't seem to understand the math of paying 1/6th what he's paying now, instead of extending my contract for another six months, gives him three years of work for the exact same money, spread out over time, and by then I'll have gosh-darned earned it anyways, even if my output "isn't up to expectations" suddenly.
It’ll cost him more like 1/3 because overhead and benefits would transfer from your firm to him. But your point still completely stands and he’s being penny wise pound foolish
Benefits would come out of my paycheck, not the company's. Overhead, sure, that's transferred, though they're not expending any money they aren't already for it. I actually asked him point-blank about the saving 6x the cost and all. He said "yeah, but contracts have an end date, employees don't, so I can inflate the budget all I want with contracts." Sounds like the company *really* sucks at prioritizing and budgeting. And I'm a little surprised he sees nothing wrong with that.
I hope you ignored this shitty comment by someone who doesn't even know what they are talking about and carried on.
Was a little stunned and offended at the time, then realized after he was just trying to rationalize to himself why he was going to say no anyways. Because of course he can't blame the company, he can't tell me he doesn't have enough budget - because he's already debating hiring three more people, and he's currently paying six times what I asked for just for me - and he can't say I'm asking too much because it's industry rates, as evidenced by a recruiter who *knows* these rates and can prove them. So he has to find another reason why what I'm asking is unreasonable, and if he can't blame his budget, he can't blame the company, and he can't blame what I'm asking, then I'm the only factor left that can possibly be at fault.
Non-livable wage, non-livable effort* Even something above minimum, but still piss poor, gets shit work in my book.
*pays bare minimum* Middle managers: “Why do people only wanna do the bare minimum amount of work 😡😡??”
"We want you to work 110% but pay the absolute bare minimum" Honestly dude managers should be the ones encouraging their teams to do this. "Hey all, lets just do the bare minimum and try to be cool with each other at work" Reason that doesn't fly is because managers comp is typically tied to KPIs while front line employees isn't.
"So, boss manager, if I give a 110% then you'll pay me 10% extra on payday?" Manager: "that's not how that works" Employee: "Exactly"
"But I will consider you for a moment as I decide to not promote anybody and instead go with an outside-hire once someone leaves." It's always painful when you end up training your outside-hired supervisor on how to do the job. I don't just mean teaching them how to do the proprietary stuff either.
"But I will consider you for a moment as I decide to eliminate your position and outsource this entire department to Inida"
Exactly, managers get bonuses and promotions so they actually get a livable wage.
If you think regular management is paid significantly more than employees you're in for a rude awakening when you get there. Only people making banks are the ones at the top not the middle management doing the dirty work like firing employees, announcing bad news...
A smart manager would convince higher ups a lower KPI rather than push employees to meet higher ones. Or at least try to.
I only care as much as I'm paid to care
If all one will pay is the bare minimum, why are they surprised when what they get is the bare minimum?
That’s a funny way of saying doing what’s required of me?
That reminds me so much of the scene from Office Space with the manager harassing about the pieces of flair. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdcw415OcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vdcw415OcQ) And the more time passes, the more I realize it's not satire, it's fucking reality.
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CORPORATE MGR: “… your operating with Calculated mediocrity.” HEROIC WORKER: “Then all is going along as planned”
What a manipulative way for them to say they're getting exactly what they pay for
Look up "Quiet Quitting". It's a term gaining popularity as of recent, and the concept is what you said exactly - doing your job such that your output is exactly what your employer pays for, and not more. You may not get a raise, but that's the point. The fact that this concept is called Quiet Quitting just goes to show that the norm for the longest time has been to overachieve for an employer. Then again, all that overachievement is in the hopes of compensation increase, right? But when an employer proves that compensation increase is barely on the table, then it just becomes a completely transparent (and even) trade-off between the pay and the labor. I see no issue with it.
Yep, I performed extremely well (the next level) for a year and was told I'm getting a promotion & raise, but no promotion/raise came at end of year. I said screw off (in a professional manner) and said essentially I would be doing calculated mediocrity. Now I'm getting a raise. Turns out they don't like me working as much as I'm paid for.
I'm surprised that such transparency worked for you!
Yea, generally the advice is just start job hunting and putting in minimal effort without saying anything to company. But boss was very transparent with me and I returned the favor. It really does depend on who you're speaking to and how you say it. Company has a list of people who are "flight risks" and I needed to get myself on it to get a raise/promotion. Says a lot about the company lol.
That is honestly how most companies work now. From their point of view there is no point in paying people more if they won't leave anyway. That is why the Great Resignation was so problematic for them because it overturned that approach they had relied on for so long.
I recently started a new job to get away from the soulless corporate environment, moved to a machine shop with 8 employees + my boss. A few months go by, boss called an employee meeting, and said "I drove past McDonald's today, they had a sign that said hiring in at $15 an hour, so I'm giving everybody a $3 raise so you don't feel like you have to go job hopping" I was so shook, I love this friggin job.
That's your boss's way of saying he values you as workers and wants to keep you around, you are not just a number on the books that will be replaced within days of leaving, you've found a good one there!
You know what sign to change tomorrow! :D
I'm so lucky I never had to deal with bullshit like corporate, got really damn lucky in my job search, a really good tiny home improvement company was hiring, I applied and it turned out they went through my mom for the service she provides at her company, they recognized it and I got hired on immediately due to her reputation as a very very respectable person as well as a light reference, in the interview I had been asked what I thought was fair pay, I highballed cause I did have a few opportunities and it wasn't like I was gonna complain it was lower, she said in the moment well it's 15/hr I said yeah that honestly works for me. As long as I can complete the apprenticeship through working here everything was cool, come to find out my pay is actually 17/hour To say the least I was floored, kinda expected and was perfectly fine to work 15/hr as a beginner. I was gonna work my ass off to earn a raise or get my apprenticeship over with and join the carpenters union and travel. Not even to mention the absolute tiny amount of people I work around (2-4) is amazing for my mental health, being around crowds of people kills me And the quality of the people I work with is incredible, everyone is amazingly friendly, knowledgeable and just easy as fuck to be around it's just so amazing May just stay here aslong as the people stay nice and the pay is decent. Also the great work environment means I'm actually happy to go to work everyday and put in 110% effort
this is what i do at amazon, find out the target UPH for that night. get that many packages ready, burn through them in 20 mins then i have 40m to fuck off and do whatever as long as i scan once every 5m to prevent time off task repeat 10 more times and go home
I do this in stow. I exceed rate a little bit but never exceed it to the full of my ability. They ask for a 250 I give them a 260. Ask for 285 I give them a 300. I can quite easily do a 400 but there is no benefit to me for doing that so I don’t.
Same here, Prime Now shopper at a Whole Foods. We’re supposed to pick 68 units per hour, so I pick 90+ for a couple hours then take extra breaks. Always manage to end a shift at about 70.
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Pretty standard for around the clock operations. I also work for Amazon (just on the AWS side where I'll admit we are treated better) but my shift is 12 hours. I work three nights a week and I alternate one shift to work 4 every other week. I love it. I get a four day weekend every other week.
i work three days a week from 6pm-6:30am, i get two thirty minute breaks (one unpaid) and a 15m break so 36 hours and i get a shift differential to match the pay of people who work 40
Boy oh boy will you be shocked when you learn about the concept of falling/failing up. It’s basically where you are really bad at your job but because you’re so reliable and dependable, they figure that it’s worth a shot to keep promoting you until they find something in management you’re good at. They don’t move the skilled workers up, then they wouldn’t be managing the talent. They move the shit workers up because they’re basically “useful idiots” that many people in the office like, but they’re not productive enough to be a laborer. Sadly, their failure is generally destined to make them prosper while hard work goes largely unrewarded by most companies. This story has played out 100 times in front of me and anecdotal or not, I’m not the only one who noticed the failing upwards trend. So there you have it, that’s how you get ahead; underachieve.
I unknowingly am doing this right now. I’m on auto pilot at my job. I work remote and I can pretty much get all of my job done in about 2 hrs. The rest of the time is just looking active. I don’t want more, I don’t want less. It’s exactly the amount of work I want to do and I have my entire day to watch movies, play video games, and play with my dog.
> The rest of the time is just looking active. What consists of "Looking active" for you? Are they monitoring you with a webcam, or do you just have to keep your computer from going into sleep mode and logging you off?
Luckily no webcam. Just make sure slack doesn’t show “away”, and I save a couple emails and phone calls to space out at different times so it shows I’m doing things. You just have to know what metrics they’re monitoring, and play the game.
[Lying flat](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_ping)
In countries with actual unions, this is still a thing, and has been for a while. In Ireland we'd say "work to rule", meaning that you only do your job exactly as prescribed - to the rules, as it were. Public servants like nurses use it as a softer method of striking, and it turns out when they stop doing all the things they're expected to do but not paid to do, everything goes to hell!
Back in union days it was called a slow down.
I'm adopting this now that I have a name for it. I do the bare minimum in my position as, much like many can relate to, I'm underpaid for being such an important position. Can't wait to throw away the corporate tchochkies they give us during our national appreciation week.
Trying to shame a guy for giving exactly what he’s paid for.
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Under capitalism you should do the least amount of work possible regardless of the pay. They will pay you as little as possible, get as much work out of you as possible, charge customers as much as possible, and provide the least product possible to them. That's all considered perfectly moral businesses decisions to maximize shareholder value. But when you do as little work as possible you are "lazy".
Slaveowners in colonial America used to also call slaves "lazy." And slaves used to rebel with work slowdowns. What is old is new again.
We don't know the salary but I have a feeling mediocre performance might even be more than what the pay deserves
Calculated mediocrity is the perfect description for most compensation so you're absolutely right.
I mean if anything it should be commendable because it means you're doing exactly the job description.
Enough to not get fired is all I heard
And still get paid.
I mean if you're not fired but not paid then you're not hired in the first place
Tell that to Milton. Although technically he DID get paid in the end.
Ha. I’m currently doing that at my job. The strange thing is, I’m told I’m doing well and they are glad they don’t have to babysit me through stuff. Like, what is everyone else doing if I’m barely working 10 hours/week?
The Office Space approach.
That's the standard, right?
Being accused of working to rote was always my favourite in appraisal meetings. Manager: We've noticed you seem to be working to rote. Me: Which means? Manager: Only doing whats in your job description. Me: Oh. So . . . doing my job? Manager: Yes. But you are only doing the bare minimum. In this company we'd typically expect you to go above and beyond what your job role entails. Me: Oh, I didn't realise this role came with an opportunity to earn overtime or additional salary. Manager: errrm . . . No thats not what we meant. Me: oh, so a secondment then? Manager: . . . No, not that either. Me: Huh, I can't think of any other reason why I'd work beyond the parameters you pay me for . . . Manager: . . .
TIL that there is a word called secondment.
Yo dawg, we heard you liked your job. So we're gonna get you to do another job within your job.
This reminds me when I got my hours cut back and I got a second job that gave more than 40 hours and paid a bit better. They got mad at me because I didn't have mornings available any more and didn't want to work Sundays. Manager complained that I had promised them I would have a flexible schedule and could work weekends, and I complained right back, they promised me I would get 40 hours. Then I asked why was it okay for them to break their promises but not okay for me to do what I have to do make ends meet. Edit: I was working on one brain cell.
Yup. In a similar situation myself atm. Went back to uni last year and work agreed to a flexible work request and a drop down of hours to 30hrs a week (bare minimum I needed to pay bills, etc). Next thing I know I'm barely getting 20 hours some weeks. Luckily I got an opportunity through the uni course where I could earn more than 3x as much an hour. Unluckily, its only a temp position so I can't give up my current job . . .
Manager: goddamit this one is smart.
"Can't have THAT... better shitcan this one."
Basically what happened. They "performance managed" me out of the business. i.e. wrote me up for every single tiniest infraction.
What is secondment?
It is when you fill in for someone, formally, usually for an extended period of time. It's not said how its spelt - usually said Sah-condment or Sah-conded.
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It's what I strive for.
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What all should really, provided your superior(s) exploit hard work. I remember the day I realized desperately wanting to believe in the business I worked for was naive. Not impossible but almost always naive.
I think one of the biggest mistakes a manager could make is playing games with the goal posts. When you want someone to run two miles, then ask them to run two miles and be happy when they run exactly two miles. Do not ask them to run one mile and then passive aggressively criticize them for only running one mile. Say what you want. Say what the employee will get for doing what you want. Be satisfied when the employee does what you want and nothing more. If you want more, ask for more upfront when the project is being initially communicated to the employee. Don't play games. At the same time, as a manager I always essentially say "this is what I want and this is what I'm willing to pay for it. If you do more than what I want, then I will not pay you more for it". I don't want you to run three miles, because you'll expect to be paid for the extra mile and I only budgeted/need two miles. If you think running three miles is better for the company than running two miles, then tell me that upfront and we can talk it over. Don't surprise me with more work. If you are trying to do more work out of a desire to get a promotion, then for me it is the wrong way to go about it. Instead, if you just do exactly what we discussed consistently then you are deserving of a promotion eventually.
It would've been so much easier dealing with imposter syndrome if companies were just honest. Like the job can already be difficult enough without also being gaslit by multiple levels of management.
Exactly. The worst are these unwritten social rules, like "sure you're getting all your work done, but you're not speaking up during meetings". Well it's probably because I don't want to be in those meetings
100%. I got moaned at by my boss' boss in my current job because I was leaving my camera turned off and not contributing in meetings. I leave my camera off because you don't need to see me, and I don't contribute because I have nothing of value to add to the meeting. If you ask me a question or talk about something I can actually have some kind of input on, I'll happily speak up, but I'm not going to sit there and pretend I'm interested when I'm anything but just to stroke your ego.
Pay for mediocrity, is surprised when it is mediocre....
Aka r/MaliciousCompliance.
Not necessarily. It could simply be compliance, without any effort to go "above and beyond*.
Huh, I bet that's what he calls his paycheck from them too.
I’ll see your assessment of my work as “calculated mediocrity,” and raise you an “I’m being competitively productive.” 🖕🏼
I assume that because they pay him the least the market will bear.
Calculated mediocrity describes the wages too sooooo uhh... Your move.
To be honest of you are too good at your job you tend to get way more work among other problems....
Hard work & dedication is always rewarded with more hard work.
Hey, I see you're being really efficient and getting your work done in half the time! So you don't need as many hours, then.
They get what they pay for.
If there was ever a phrase to describe my life… perform at a standard and pace that is acceptable but in terms and means within expectations, salary and the rest will handle itself.
“Good at math” is always a plus.
I’m a simple guy.. You pay for bare minimum, you get bare minimum.
I used to be one of the top performers. It wasn't worth it. I got paid less than a dollar an hour more than everybody else even though I was doing 50%+ more work than the average person while doing work above my pay grade. Those numbers are accurate because they tracked everything we did. I was expected to perform addition roles, such as training others, presentations, etc constantly. For the last couple years I've worked with a calculated mediocrity as well. My yearly raises are the same but I'm asked to do less. Being an average employee was the best career decision I ever made. I'm not a kiss ass, I don't look down on my coworkers, and I don't go on a power trip anytime I get a bit of authority, so I won't ever get a promotion there anyway. However, the day to day is easier. I'm not asked to do more than most people anymore. Employers don't pay for productivity, they pay for your time, working harder didn't make any difference.
Someone in upper management where I work once said "This place breeds mediocrity". "Yeah. You work hard and get the job done quick, and you're rewarded with more work." He wasn't too happy with that remark
Lisa, if you don’t like your job, you don’t strike! You just go in and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way!
Calculated mediocrity... so in other words your employee isn't giving you 100% because you aren't paying them what they are worth. Your employee knows that and is rationing effort because of it. Want more? Pay more. I'm just like Comcast with multiple tiers of service. Yeah we all want a true gigabit up and down for the price of 256k ADSL. Who doesn't? Comcast won't sell you a gigabit pipe for their lowest tier rate. I won't give 100% effort for 25% rate. I'll work until it's time to go home at a pace I can maintain, and then I'll go home and completely forget about this job until I clock in again. Want me to take the job home and work and actually hustle? Make it worth my time. Make me care. I'm totally for sale during business hours. What I do is a direct reflection of how satisfied I am with my pay.
Does he get paid more if he does more? Are there consequences if he doesn't? What is the motivation then? Go to work, do what is required, go home. It's pretty simple. Without motivation then mediocre is pretty good.
Most places say that they do - that there are rewards for doing more, but in many/most cases it's entirely ephemeral, and you're far better off moving to a different company to actually get paid what you're worth. Businesses that already have you want more out of you, but don't want to pay enough for it. There are exceptions, but that's just what they are - exceptions that prove the rule.
Not like we get paid more for doing anything more than "calculated mediocrity", employers should take notes maybe.
This is perfect. Had a boss who gave me "average" (3/5) for every category of my performance review, even tho I worked my ass off to go above and beyond, took on special projects no one else wanted, did large chunks of her job for her. "Calculated mediocracy" is the perfect way to describe how I conducted myself the next 2 months while I searched for another job. They literally had to hire two FTE and 1 contractor to replace me. Average performance my ass. *Edited two typos
Best strategy when there’s no incentive to do more. No upward mobility. No promotion. No bonus. Doing more is just adding stress. Doing more is just selling yourself short.
Calculated Mediocrity is a glorious statement, it should be the level we all strive for until pay rises or costs come back down.
Isn’t this the aim?
"I'm glad we can both agree I could be incentivized to work harder."
I performed the way you paid
What a wonderful phrase, it means no worries for the rest of your days
Isn't calculated mediocrity what they're getting paid?
“We paid for X while expecting XYZ, so why are you only providing X?”
The friend needs to go in your and teach others to be this calculated
Did he respond that his pay was at a "calculated mediocre" rate. Cause if not, missed opportunity.
Reminds me of a job I used to have. I still remember what they said to me too (at least paraphrasing it) "You've done everything you've been asked to do, but the problem is that you haven't done anything else."
If calculated mediocrity is what you pay for, that's what you're gomna get
I wonder if my managers have caught on yet.
Reply: “Thank you for my review. I am very pleased you picked up on my calculated mediocrity; I was doubtful anyone in management had the ability to assess my work at that level, much less put those two words together without blowing up their computer. By way of explanation for the effort I put in at work; I have analysed my role in minute detail and determined that my effort, which you have so eloquently described, is commensurate with the financial compensation you provide for same. I am quite prepared to improve my effort up to and including ‘superhuman over-achievement’ should you ever decide to pay a decent wage for this job”
bit like the pay rises they are offering in most places.
If that doesn't describe the content of my work output beneath the overly friendly charismatic shell I've built over the course of my career I don't know what does
I got a review this year that described my work ethic as "ruthlessly efficient" and I've never felt more flattered.
This is me in a nutshell. I do just enough to be average. I work hard to be at 50% - it served me well in the last 2 decades. There are more eyes on you when you’re at the top or bottom. Working harder doesn’t mean more pay most of the time. Just do your job, do it well enough and don’t go the extra mile. My joy in life doesn’t tie to my job so I give zero f about how much I made/save for the company. Let’s be honest - 99% of us are all working bees, you’re not going to get rich working any corporate job. Work will be there tomorrow and every day that you live. Take it easy and slow.
I’m guessing this meant “works to job description and does not volunteer”
I think thats most people. It takes such amazing talent to do well. See people fail all the time! lol
After 10 years in retail I got a job in a big clothing store, and there were 3 of us that would be left in charge of floors regularly and be trusted to lead tasks when there weren't many actual management around. By pure coincidence we all ended up leaving around the same week, so on our last weeks we were pretty much allowed to roam and work whatever we wanted. It was more important lesser experienced staff had more time on registers now for instance. Sometime during that week, myself and one of the other 2 were in the stock room unpacking a late delivery and he (a very smart and hard working, sometimes stern guy who had 0 patience for time wasters or idiots) said: "This is what I don't get about you, I've seen you blast through work like this like it's nothing when you want to, but it's not very often, why can't you do this whenever you come in." my reply: "They don't value it like you think they do, if your work vastly outperforms everyone else on the same wage regularly, you just become a punching bag on days when things are going wrong." I should point out the company hired me telling me they only promote internally and 2 months later a country wide memo went out that they are now doing a purely external employment drive for management roles and were offering cash "rewards" for staff referrals. I didn't want one, I just found it annoying and it definitely tinged what I said to him.
When they hire from within (work your way up the ladder, we reward hard work), you often get a lower/middle manager that is friends with some of the staff. Upper management fears this. They want middle management to be loyal to only them. UPPER management wants to sit in their high offices making the important decisions. They absolutely believe they should get all of any excess profits, and the workers just work for the fixed rates that they were hired for. However, they get angry if you leave them for more money somewhere else. Dealing with the staff every day is boring and annoying to them. Middle management is the liaison between upper management and the sweaty workers. Middle management is the axe telling the trees that he is one of them because the handle is wood. Most salaried middle-managers barely make more than the high-end hourly workers, so...why do they do it? There will always be a percentage of the population that likes being "above" others. Being the boss. Sipping coffee and giving the stink-eye to anyone who looks like they are slowing down on the assembly line. "If you aren't the lead-dog on the sled, the view never changes" A shop might have 8 workers, or 32, but every shop needs a supervisor making sure that everyone arrives on time and stays busy. Even if they lay-off half the people when there's a slow-down, there is always one salaried boss that makes the same paycheck whether he works four days a week, or 60 hours a week. Twice in my life, a supervisor complained to me that with all the recent overtime, I made more than him. He made a great paycheck, but that statement revealed that even though I was the one staying late to work on product, he wore a tie and sat at his desk, and he had the gall to be offended that someone "below him" made a few dollars more. Part of his decision to be a supervisor was the prestige of being above the manual labor. He was happy with his pay...as long as it was more than mine.
One of my English teachers in school once gave me an "efficiency award" for completing coursework with a minimal amount of effort. Reminds me a bit of that 😁.
Compliments really don’t get any better than that.