I have an unspoken pact with my employer: You pay me money, I provide value. That is my goal. How I provide value is my business, and I make it my business to provide as much value as I can in a way that maximizes my personal goals of doing the best job I can 100% of the time. If my employer doesn’t like the way I am doing things, they can ask me to change, or let me go.
If I don’t like where I am, or I don’t want do do things the way they ask, I am free to leave.
And that is it.
I love my work as much as anyone can love work, the people I work with respect me and the feeling is mutual. Work is what I make of it, not what someone else forces me to make of it. And I am lucky to be able to work with my mind. But my work ethic wasn’t luck. It was a choice, and a hard one. I worked my tail off to better myself, because growing up, I wasn’t particularly bright. I had to fight hard to achieve, and that meant taking ownership of things and doing jobs right.
People think your employer owes you. They owe you a paycheck for work you perform. I think people who expect pampering, praise, goodies, or anything else are always going to be dissatisfied and unhappy. And for people to whom money is the only goal, it will never, ever be enough for them. Ever. They will always want more. I pity them.
Are you writing about the DNC?
The Clinton Crime Family?
The Biden family?
Great post..
Excellent post!
Sending your post to my daughter that just got a new job. She knew that it would be boring but needs the money. She didn’t realize it would be SO boring. She has a good work ethic, so I hope that the managers in the other departments will put her to good use. She thinks it is nuts how the other people in her department spend most of the day hanging out and laughing about how easy it is and they get paid for it. “And dad - it IS easy - but there isn’t much to do - it is SO boring! The day takes FOREVER!!”
While much you say is generally true, the workplace has changed so drastically that your ideals are a bit outdated. I don’t think the people who are running a lot of businesses have much respect for other people, especially the employees. The world has gone crazy and that is reflected in the work environment. No professionalism, no manners or respect, not a lot of integrity.
I was a professional salesman and always and only worked for the money.
I don't want nor need your pity.
I loved the fact that my worth could be measured by performance against an agreed upon goal, my annual quota.
The more I sold, the more I made.
I worked for 17 different corporations, was fired twice and mostly left for what I saw as better opportunities.
Most times I picked winners, not always, but I never regretted my decision and NEVER looked back.
I was very fortunate to sell in the computer industry during it's early growth period, from the late 60s through the early 2000s when there were very little boundaries on commission sales folks and in general, when most high end selling was face to face and not "ZOOM" and remote presentations.
There were years I earned 7 digits, it was enough. No pity for me.
I couldn't do it today, I'd be fired or quit in New York City minute, with all of the political correctness that goes on today.
From the time I started delivering newspapers at age 14, I've put my best effort into everything I did. Over 45 years later, I have yet to be laid off or asked to leave. However, I did leave some places on my own accord to seek better opportunities. Each time, the employer was sad to see me go.
I don't need to be pampered, coddled, repeatedly told "good job". I can deal with angry clients (and turn them around by helping to solve their problems), bad bosses (I always outlast them), and incompetent co-workers (I'm happy to pick up the slack for them and help train them if they are willing).
My employer owes me nothing but the paycheck and comp plan we agreed on. Either of us can decide to part company for any reason.
If I don’t like where I am, or I don’t want do do things the way they ask, I am free to leave.
I’m with you on all that. What happened to me was that I ended up in large corporations that were poorly managed and kept cancelling projects. Also, during those last years I was a business analyst in IT. Now, that used to be great, but when I joined a company that did almost all it’s work through vendors, I found myself almost comically redundant. I was close to retirement anyway so I just stayed the course as it got progressively worse.
Then the virus hit and we went WFH. My job was almost all meetings. And those meetings were almost completely worthless. 15 people trying to talk over each other with bad connections, bad english, etc. I tried to create a virtual white board on most of them even though I was just a low level “attendee” in most of them. That helped a lot, but still. They were mostly an exercise in futility.
I did that for a year and retired. My contacts in the company say it is MUCH worse than it used to be and people are almost waiting for the whole thing to get shut down, and checking on a daily basis - for the last year. Most of the truly good people have left.
This is a large and ongoing concern. It’s not going anywhere. But I think it very much speaks to the concept that most people don’t do anything at work. There are all sorts of articles and youtube videos about it. And it destroys people and their motivation.
Now that I’m retired, I get to choose what I do and my choices involve actually getting stuff DONE. And stuff I, personally, want done. It’s empowering.
For most people, the job just keeps you alive with the means to feed yourself and put a roof over your head. That is why I think those that own and run their own businesses are the “happiest” people in many ways. They spend their time working toward their own goals. And yes, as an employee you can make doing your job well your own goals, but the measure of success is imaginary.