I have a lot of experience and a lot of things that I’m very good at doing at work, but my employer rarely pays me enough to use all my skills, but they always seem to want to get a high level and wide breadth of work out of me. They just keep loading on task after task, and as I keep doing them well, they just load on more. It’s not just one job, either - this has happened to me at virtually every job I’ve had.
How do I put the brakes on subtly so my employer gets only their money’s worth, and so that I don’t feel taken advantage of? Am I morally obligated to do anything I can for an employer, regardless of what my duties are supposed to be or what the pay is?
(Oh, by the way, I work in administrative/accounting positions.)
I have that same problem and it has been a concerning me for some time. I build and troubleshoot parts of complex information networks. It could be anything from coding a complex report, to some financial analysis, to making computer systems at different large companies handle automated transactions without fail.
I have been at my current job for 4 months and I am already getting too good at it. I can analyze and fix complex problems within minutes or hours whereas it takes my peers days or more. Some of this stuff is really complicated and takes all kinds of different knowledge to solve.
Still, computers and systems won’t let you bullshit. Either it is right or wrong. They give me three or four complex problems a day and I just casually fix them. They give my coworkers (who are experienced themselves) the same types of problems and it takes them days. As a matter of fact, I usually end end doing theirs too on the side because I get bored and I don’t even mention it to anyone.
The problem is that my coworkers are sitting their with sweat pouring down their brow all day long and staying late while I am surfing the Dope half the day.
I got laid off for the same thing from one job because they assigned work by the week and I was ALWAYS done by noon on Tuesday.
I’ve had this problem too in various jobs. Seems the better you are at your job, the more work you get piled on you. My various bosses used to try to flatter me with the “lezlers, you’re really the best one we’ve got in here, and it would really help us out if you could take on such and such…” it didn’t take long before I was on to them.
At one point, I asked one of my bosses if I suddenly became “bad” at my job, if I could just do the same amount of work as everyone else. He seemed to get the hint and backed off of me for awhile.
The only solution I’ve found to the problem is to do just what I suggested to my boss. Become “bad,” or not bad, but less competent. Take your time on the tasks you are assigned. Still excel past your co-workers (you don’t want to blend into the crowd too much), but not in such a way that you become any sort of “star” and invite a boatload of extra work.
That, or just tell your boss that if you’re doing twice the amount of work as your co-workers, you feel it should be reflected in your pay. Depends on how you think your boss would react to that kinda thing though.
Slow down. If you have a deadline, you deliver one day before that deadline, even if you did finish the work three weeks beforehand. There’s always “testing” and “documentation” to do if you feel bored.
When faced with a crisis, cope with it, but make sure that your boss knows that it’s delayed your normal work. Put in lots of overtime for the crisis, especially if you get paid for it.
If you know there’s a better way to do something than the way you’ve been asked to, don’t say that immediately. Work on the inefficient path for a few days, then say - “I can implement it like this, but I think it would be a lot better if we did it properly.” (Actually, put it in writing). If your boss/client insists that you do it the inefficient way, do both. When the inefficient solution doesn’t work, wait a week or so then present them with the good one. You’ll be seen as competent, but unambitious.
NEVER VOLUNTEER. Wait to be asked to do something, even if you want to do it.
Help your less-competent colleagues with their work. It slows you down (see point 1), and improves the end product. You might also be able to teach them something.
Keep a low profile. Avoid as many meetings as you can. Don’t be rude to your boss, but don’t cultivate his or her friendship. Above all, don’t let yourself become indispensible.
Never take credit for anything if you can avoid it. If someone else has been working on your project, play up their contribution. If you’re working solo, shift the credit for your good work to the tools/procedures/materials, and thank your boss for providing you with them.
This was going to be my reply, but **Tevildo ** beat me to it!
I’m glad there are others out there who are in the same boat, and you decided to post to the Dope! I’ve never been able to bring up this topic for fear of coming across as arrogant, conceited, and smug. Thanks!
Wouldn’t you think that if a company has a really good worker, better than the others, rather than getting rid of the good worker, they’d get rid of one of the bad ones and let the good worker take over their work?
The problem is that it creates an illusion. I normally try to grab up as much work as possible and I usually can but in larger companies, work is pretty well-defined. You can’t just start screwing around with a multi-million dollar system on a whim on Friday afternoon. The type of work I do is pretty independent but it requires project managers and higher ups to feed you the work. When it is done, I move it into production systems within the business and I can’t touch it again without good reasons because it is doing very money sensitive things.
People don’t always judge you based on results. I get paid a consulting fee by the hour but I also have to bill 40 hours a week. If I get finished early, I have to just sit there and people see my consulting fee buidling while I clean e-mail or just talk to people. I try to help my coworkers with their work or take on another project but sometimes there isn’t any and I can get done days early. Other times, I have to work and bill 60+ hours a week so the work does come but in waves.
People like it when they get results early but I can paint myself in a corner where it looks like I am goofing off everyday when my productivity is way, way higher than the people that struggle much, much harder with the work. This has happened in 6 major companies now so I am pretty sure it is a trend that is here you stay.
I have tried intentional stalling tactics and those work a little but it seems painful and unnatural.
A related topic: leaving on time.
I used to feel very uneasy when I didn’t enthusiastically stay after to work on the latest crisis that really could be resolved calmly the next day. Having a boss who works 12-14 hours per day didn’t help either.
I eventually had to give up on worrying about it and do my very best to protect my own interests: I made it clear that I have obligations outside of work that cannot be easily sidestepped for a 5pm meeting at a remote site.
The key is politely reenforcing the boundaries while still producing good quality work. By being consistent in my refusal to stay late, while still carrying my end of the load during the day, in the past few years it has gotten to where my boss rarely asks me to stay late, and if he does, it is truly with good reason.
I think that respectful firmness is important here.
That one, at least, I found the foolproof solution to:
carpool.
Preferably, with people who don’t report to the same boss as you.
“Sorry, carpool’s leaving” is the perfect excuse. Even the “I have to pick up my kids” isn’t as good, because everybody else is then suspicious that you’re maybe just making that up. But they can see you leaving with your carpool mates, and if they work in different departments, it’s difficult for your boss to impose upon them.
Alas, that everyone I carpooled with has now left the company…
I think these are my big problem two. It is very difficult for me to stand by and let things be done slowly and inefficiently, but it may be a skill I need to cultivate.
LunaV, it never occurred to me that this would come across as arrogant, conceited, or smug. Like that old saying goes, it ain’t bragging if you can do it, and I am damned good at what I do.
The after work obligation doesn’t work, when the department boss spends two hours running your errands for you. I found that to keep from having more duties added month after month, you do the new duties terrible. You continue to be good at the job they hired you for, but screw up new jobs that are not your area.
If they only pay you for the time that you are there, what advantage do you see in wasting some of it?
I have spent plenty of time managing computer projects and I know that shit hot programmers can produce about 5 times as much useable code as the average slob. However no-one can pay them 5 times as much and I think if I hired one who chose to slow herself down to one fifth her natural speed, I would do everything I could to stop her working anywhere.
Unless I hired you on a fixed price contract to “do X by Y”, then I hired you because I figured you were a good deal.
True, this could just be the rantings of a jealous co-worker. OK by me!
Being around inefficient people just brings out my bad side, though. I truly don’t have the patience to walk them through every little step for the fourth time that week. I try very hard to rise above that but every now and then an :rolleyes: pops out. It is **definitely ** a skill that requires practice!
I feel resentment at times that I’m placed in a position where I can do a job 8 times as fast and accurately, yet I don’t get credit because it’s both mine and a co-worker’s job. I carry the brunt of the load, yet because I do it so well, if I stop, I’m looked at as lazy because said co-worker is still working.
Sorry, I have a Pit thread in me that’s just dying to come out…
I think with the advise in this thread, a lot of you are in for a long unhappy career of mediocre jobs and mismanaged companies. If you are so good at what you do, why not try to develop your coworkers? If your company doesn’t reward that kind of stuff, find a company that does.
I see a lot of people who are really good at their job because they have been at that job for ten years when most people move on to something bigger and better after two. Are you one of those people?
One thing I do at my company if I find myself becoming the workhorse that everyone dumps stuff on is to say I need a little help and pull in one or more junior employees. I also try to learn my bosses job so that if my company chooses not to reward me, I can get hired somewhere else at a higher level.
I’m a little different though. I like the business aspect of my job but other than the occassional analysis, I could care less about programming.
To take this even further, if you find yourself good at what you do, why not stop thinking about it as “a job” and start thinking of your professional life as “my career”? It’s purely a mental conception, all dependent upon how you look at it. If you want to float, than “job-think” is fine. If you want to focus on the professional portion of your life, than “career-think” is where it’s at.
Nothing bothers me more than “it’s not in my job description” type of complaints - if you don’t want to do more than the minimum requirements, I don’t even want you.
To those who struggle due to their competence, consider reading or taking some classes on entrepreneurship or leadership. The world does not need the smart people to slack off!! And here on the SDMB, we’re still fighting ignorance 24x7
But I don’t want to be an entepreneur, I don’t want to be a leader. I don’t want responsibility - neither do I want more money than I need to be reasonably happy.
Why not? Today’s society requires us to employ our talents for the benefit of others - our employers, in this case. What obliges us to do more than our employers require of us? We don’t get rewarded for it, unless you count being given extra work a “reward”.
I want to do the minimum I have to that enables me to be acceptably comfortable. No more. I’m sure I could do more - I choose not to.
Read The Peter Principle. It will demonstrate to you that creative incompetence is not as easy as it would seem, and it will put a lot of things in perspective for you. It’s a fantastic book, albeit tongue-in-cheek.
