Hard worker? Nah, I’m a smart worker. I work on mainframes and AS/400 systems. There really isn’t any such thing as hard work, just a bunch of typing commands and stuff. I don’t think I could say I work hard.
Usually, going to Wal-Mart would deter us from having a baby…but now that my wife is spendng countless hours watching A Baby’s Story on discovery and registering all over the place for baby news letters and even preregistering at a local mom’s club. I think the inevitable creation of a young beautiful human baby it on it’s way.
I am a network admin/PC tech/webmaster. I think a lot depends on how you define a, “hard worker”.
If you define it as putting a lot of time into completing your job duties, then no, I am not a hard worker.
If you define it as performing your job duties at or above acceptable levels of proficiency, then yes, I am a very hard worker.
Most things here run themselves and all I really do is maintain the systems, add content, and provide tech support. Those tasks don’t often take up the majority of my work day and when I do them, I do them very well.
Perhaps the definition of, “hard worker” is dependant on the job.
I watched a ton of Baby Story! I was stuck on bedrest for months and itching to be a real mommy!
When pregnant the second time all I wanted was sleep! Come to think of it - that’s all I want now. The biggest problem is that the kids take shifts to ensure I get the minimum amount of sleep required to function.
The summer I got pregnant was interesting. I lost a ton of weight and felt pretty for the first time in my life. In retrospect we probably had the most sex we’ve ever had that summer and lots of things came together. I had the summer off from school so I was home a lot and could take care of the house and errands and things without rushing or stressing. Parallax wasn’t driving in to work anymore - taking the train took a ton of stress off him and got him home much earlier in the afternoon so we had more time together. We had given up trying for a baby a year or so before and that took a lot of stress off both of us. Sex is not sexy when you have to do it at a specific time in a specific way on specific days.
Depends on the job. Lately, no, not at all. But on the other hand, I finished a 90,000-word book in 3 1/2 months just last week, so it’s obvious I can do it when I’m motivated.
I work very well under a few conditions: when someone else is depending on me, and when I’m under a deadline. Lately, neither of those conditions are met in my “real” job since all I’m doing is converting Assembler programs to COBOL, which is neither necessary work nor time critical. When it comes to my writing, I’m motivated and hard-working, and I try to do the best job I can.
This is very true…and we certainly do not subscribe to the specific time, temp, location stuff…spontinaity it our mantra 
I feel much the same way with writing. My wife has awoken me several times at 4 a.m. when I get on a writing push…especially when I’m under dealine for an article or other such publishing endeavor…
Well I was doing what the doctor ordered! I took Clomid for a few months but not only did I not get pregnant - the hormones turned me into an even bigger wench than I usually am!
The first 6-9 months at my job, I worked my ass off. I found myself doing 2x the work of most of my coworkers at twice the quality. This only earned me more work, while the slackers were allowed to slack even more.
Then I realized that nobody gave a shit - not my boss, not his boss, and no one knows who I am above there. The pay is shit, a good 10K+ under what it should be for my experience, education, and area, and there’s absolutely no room to advance even in the tiniest.
So I do the least possible work to not get fired.
Podkayne, I can level with you completely. Be lucky you’re farther along than I am- right now I’m merely an undergraduate senior (who feels lower than shit on the academic ladder 
).
This semester I had a lot of anxiety about passing Theory and Criticism. My professor told me I would need a ‘B’ or better on the exam to pass. I got a ‘C’ on the exam and yet still got a passing grade in the class (guess he lied to get me to work harder). Instead of being exuberant, I was massively disappointed. I had been working my ass off studying to get a B or better. Yes, I passed, but I hate it when I “dodged a bullet” in the sense of barely passing classes- I either do okay or I barely pass, but I never do phenominal.
Oddly, the unhappier I get with school, the happier I get with work. There has been a shift in my life- with more enthusiasm going towards my part-time jobs and less and less going to school. Part of it is the fact that the workload of school is variable, and it is largely on my own free time. But I don’t want to study or do homework on my free time, I want to get drunk and watch movies and hang out with friends. Even when I force myself to sit down and do it my brain is really not receptive to much of it.
I would consider myself a hard worker in my primary part-time job (tutoring coach). I put in more hours than any of my coworkers, I’m always willing to cover for people if I can, prepare the month’s schedule so I don’t have to take days off and have people cover for me. I don’t like to think of myself as the best tutoring coach there, because no matter how capable I am and skilled at the job, it would give me a false sense of security to think I was the best person there. Additionally, there wouldn’t be any incentive to improve. Right now there is a coworker of mine who is a total workaholic, also puts in lots of hours and really takes the extra mile. I ‘compete’ with him, but in a totally friendly way- I try to use him as a guage for how hard I can work.
I consider the job psuedo-volunteer work. That is, I can accept that certain situations will mean I am working but not technically getting paid for it. That doesn’t bother me- making 2.50 less on a paycheck is fine if it was because I decided to hang around and keep a kid company while his deadbeat parents pick him up 90 minutes late, or because some kid threw up in the bathroom and it took me 45 minutes of mopping to get all traces and odor of vomit out of there. Similarly, if I happen to come in to work early and its busy, I’ll just start early. If I’m not sure whether I should put in hours beyond what I was scheduled, I’ll round down just to be safe. If I am off at 5:30 and someone is supposed to come in at 5:30, I’ll keep working until they get there, that way if they are massively late the rest of the staff isn’t shorthanded. I try to be friendly and amiable with all the coaches there, as well as the directors (managers). If I’m tired, I don’t complain about it. On Sundays I go in early to eat breakfast with the director and help them get the center ready to open (I do this for free, just to help out). I speak highly of other coworkers who I admire in terms of patience, temperment, intelligence, and kid-friendliness. I reserve judgement on issues with coworkers until I know other coworkers/directors are concerned. One of my proudest moments there was during a staff meeting which the center director brought up all the strong points of each employee. When she got to me, she said the best thing about me was that I was the most receptive to feedback- if she wanted me to do something differently/stop/change/whatever, I’d do it immediately. I never had to be asked twice about things.
I must admit, working at this job (it will be 2 years in August) has changed me a lot. I used to be very selfish, paranoid of getting ripped off by employers, and living with a dog-eat-dog social mentality regarding coworkers. I’ve become more interested in working there for the sake of getting things done, not just doing the bare minimum required. It does kind of bug me sometimes that coworkers don’t share this mentality- nearly all my coworkers are high school students who work there as a ‘temporary’ job (meanwhile I am grooming myself for a position as Director when I graduate! 
).
I can be a hard worker, but at my current job, I have absolutely no motivation to do so. In fact, I can feel my work ethic gradually draining away. My boss is a micro-managing workaholic; the board of trustees is incompetent; the pay sucks; and the organization is foundering. The only thing I’m working hard at is finding another job.
I used to be.
I was raised to believe you worked as hard and well at your job as you could. You lived up to your obligations whether you like them or not, it was the honorable thing to do, the right thing. I watched my Mother work sixty hours a week then come home and raise five kids by herself and never complain. So I figured I shouldn’t complain either.
However, after many years at my current job I’m not the worker I once was. I guess that I’m only working at about 75% of my former level of effort. Oh, I do what I’m supposed to and I still do it well but I just don’t care so much anymore about giving my all, doing the myriad extra tasks that I used to perform. This is in part because my supervisor spends more time avoiding his responsibility than in actually doing his job, but since he’s a nice guy no one will call him on it. My complaints fall on deaf ears. And then there’s my coworkers, who have actually gotten mad at me for making them feel or look bad that they’re not doing more work. I have just enough conscience left to feel like crap for not caring anymore but not enough will to do anything about it but complain.
I’d like to be a hard worker again.
When I work, I’m a hard worker in my field (I’m also in nursing). I may look not-so-busy sometimes, but it’s just because I am extremely organized and generally calm appearing, and have been in the same position for over 6 years. I reevaluate where I am in my day every hour on the hour and more frequently if necessary. I try to anticipate what will be needed during my shift and get prepared for it well in advance. It’s a rare day that I get caught off guard althought it does happen on occasion. I get a great deal of personal satisfaction from a job well done. It helps that I love my paying job, too.
My other job is “Mom” and I’m pretty good at that, too.
I work entirely too hard for someone who hates work as much as I do. Basically I work at a management consulting firm that partners with another management consulting firm where I have the distinct pleasure of being a “data bitch”. Basically, I take shit data from a bunch of people who can barely create a powerpoint slide, and then spend hours arguing with them over why it does not produce numbers with the precision of a moon launch. I end up working ridiculous hours but it doesn’t matter because I never work with anyone from my company who could see how hard I work. The only reason I even work this hard is because I don’t want to get fired.
People who work hard are suckers unless they are working to make themselves rich.
This is totally not why I went to business school.
Of course I bust ass. I’m salaried, and I don’t leave until all the patients have everything they need and the clinic is reasonably clean and ICU is stocked for the next day. If all that happens early, I can round with the overnight techs as soon as they come in and leave 2 hours early. If all that doesn’t happen until 2 or 3 hours after my shift is scheduled to end, well, I stay 2 or 3 hours late. So I bust ass for two reasons: 1) to make sure our patients are getting the treatments and diagnostics and procedures they need in a timely manner, and 2) so I don’t have to stay late every night. To this end, I’ve gone through many a 10-hour (or longer) shift with one (or sometimes no) bathroom break, nothing to eat, and one small drink gulped at intervals through the night.
It depends entirely on my motivations and what you mean by “hard work”.
Currently, I consistently deliver 150% of expectations, on time, on budget, while working at half-speed. (Although I do not post much here, I do spend most of every day reading the Dope.)
But when I’m motivated – when I really care about the quality of the work – when I have something to gain by putting my all into it – I can work miracles.
God, is that you?!
When I was a senior, I had 19 credits, 6 hours of a cappella rehearsal, plus my ROTC course-load (which was technically 5 credits, but please… it took two to three hours of outside work at the most). My girlfriend would bring food to the senior design lab and make sure I ate it before she left. I would routinely run myself ragged for six days straight and spend Sunday recovering by playing Half-life or tossing a frisbee with friends.
When I got commissioned and went to my first assignment, I was put alongside civilians who were major-equivalents (GS-13 and GS-14) and told to “keep up.” I would work 40 hours exactly, but I did such cool work that my boss would frequently come by my desk to make sure I wasn’t burning out. It was fun, it was stimulating, and I loved every second of it. I hopped out of bed with a smile on my face, got in by 0800 usually, played chess with my co-workers over lunch, and came home with an even bigger smile at 1730. I got an Air Force Commendation Medal out of that – they said I’d done work that was well above anything anyone expected from a “mere lieutenant”. I also did some side work for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, and saved some U.S. lives. Very rewarding stuff.
My latest job is the deputy test manager for a weather satellite. It’s not going to be ready to be tested until 2006 (at which point my assignment here will be over). So there aren’t really 40 hours worth of work to do yet, and when I do decide to take the initiative and do something that’s not my job, I get people hollering at me for doing someone else’s work. I set up a meeting recently, and had someone e-mail me that (a) the meeting was on the wrong topic, (b) it was being run by the wrong people, and © the wrong people were attending. I e-mailed him back that he should set up his own damned meeting and leave mine alone, thanks. He opined that I could run my meeting, but it wasn’t going to accomplish any of his goals :smack:. So now I wake up reluctantly, shuffle in by 0900, and try to stretch my workload until 1600, when I beat a swift retreat, each day ground down a little more.
So yeah, I’m a hard worker – when I’ve got work to do. I think I’m like those sled dogs: I’m only happy when I’m pulling my weight.
Yes … yes it is, my child.
P.S. Don’t tell anyone else, they’ll all want one!
Yup. I’m a “knowledge worker,” and a supervisor. That means that I don’t DO the work, I make sure the work gets done, make sure it’s done right, and help my guys know what they are doing and how to fix what breaks. It’s not a hard job, but it’s one that no one could easily do without my knowledge and experience. I don’t work overtime often, and since I’m salaried, I can occasionally take off early if circumstances allow. Of course the work I DO have to do, I get done so quickly and easily no one realizes I goof off during parts of the day.