Once your in that situation, you have to go to another company to get past it.
Thats kind of what I figured…
This is a problem that I noticed once I started working outside the family business. I grew up with a work ethic that you hustle all the time and you get things done as fast and as well as you can. I loathe doing things twice or working inefficiently, so I generally find the easiest and most accurate way of doing something. In other words, I’m naturally lazy, but I’ll work my ass off if there’s something that needs to be done.
I kept running out of work at most of my jobs. At the last administrative position I had it only took me about half the time the woman I replaced required to do the same work. After the first few times, I stopped asking my boss for more work because I kept coming back to her too often and it was getting annoying for both of us. There was no way I would get a raise or promotion in that job, since it was a part-time position. I ended up learning how to use Access and rebuilding their databases for them to stave off boredom. I can just imagine how frustrating it would be to be working in a regular job and have this problem.
Many employers don’t seem to recognize that if they have a good employee they need to challenge and reward him or her. There are a lot of people who slog away at their jobs, but only a few who shine. I’ve heard over and over that good employees don’t get recognition, don’t get promotions, and don’t get to make the changes they see would be good for the company.
Your situation is evidently all too common. The only real solution seems to be finding a new job that will pay you and challenge you like you deserve. Scaling back your work won’t do anything except make you look like a slacker or drone, and staying there will eventually make you miserable.
About the being too irreplaceable to be promoted. When you generally want to do is be irreplaceable to someone about you who is rising in the ranks at the company. Ideally, you will rise along with them. If you are irreplaceable to some lethargic putz who’s stagnated in his career, you pretty much want to get out of the job anyway.
Trying to extort your way to the top might work. But even when people get a counteroffer, they usually leave within a year anyway. Most companies know they are better off telling you “good luck” when you play the counteroffer game.
The problem is that a lot of people are in j-o-b jobs. I’m guessing most of you don’t work in big name law, consulting, accounting or financial services firms or are in high-track management trainee programs where you are expected to be promoted every 2 years or you get “counselled out”. Those types of companies are large and have high turnover so there are more opportunities but they are also very competitive and stressful. If you are a low-level functionary in a small stable company where do you expect to advance to? Companies aren’t in the business of promoting everyone. They need a certain ratio of worker bees to people in charge to work properly.
- Tell them you want a raise (and explain why you deserve it), and/or 2) Look for another job, and when you interview, explain everything you are actually doing at your current job (not just what they hired you to do). And negotiate an appropriate salary when you get an offer.
When I was younger, I was occasionally in a similar situation as you – they’d take advantage of me because I could do three times as much work as anyone else. I finally found a career where my work is appreciated and I am compensated appropriately for it.
The problem there is that some employers (like mine) only give raises once a year as part of your annual performance review. The company will raise your salary by 2 or 3 percent, then increase your workload by 10 percent over the next year – the extra money was based on management’s expectation that you’d take on the extra work. It’s impossible to get ahead.
And to answer ** featherlou ** question:
No you are not. Your boss is morally obligated to pay you what you are worth. We aren’t communist after all. 
Now go slack off without feeling guilty about it. Regardless of what the protestant work ethic has ingrained in our minds and culture, I say hard work is pointless if it gets you nowhere.
Though if you enjoy your work, then hard work will bring you happiness, which will get you somewhere.
Since I can’t find the actual Dilbert strip, I’ll just write it out.
Which one are we indeed . . .
If your employer is not in a position to take full advantage of your skills and drive, then you should take advantage of them yourself, in the slack you can create for yourself. There’s a lot of very good and interesting stuff that’s been done that was paid for by some witless corporation, which they never got the benefit of. Slacking, in short, may be a source of personal growth and social good.
Bullshit. If you really had “skills and drive” you would find a more challenging job with better opportunities instead of coasting under the radar in your current job. Please don’t insult our intelligence by pretending you are doing the world a favor by slacking off.
I have trouble reconciling statements about having skills and ambition with statements about figuring out ways to slack off at work. IRL, people I meet like this are generally of average ability and think they are doing something special simply by completing their assigned tasks. Or they may in fact be highly skilled but unmotivated. Either way, if you are so good, why are you not in charge?
Essentially you’ve touched on the biggest problem with motivating employees. When you are part of the business ownership or work for a company where your initiative is rewarded, you are motivated to bust your ass. When you work for a company where hard work is rewarded by more work, there’s no incentive to do more than just enough to not get fired.
Seems to me that what Evil Captor is advocating is not in fact, pure slacking off but coasting by at your paid job and using the slack time to do things that can ultimately be to your benefit. My wife has two friends who work in the government. Both of them don’t have enough to do. One is also a licensed travel agent so she does that as well in the office. The other one has set up her own business making wedding invitations. Guess what she does at the office in her down time?
If they’re good employers and see that you feel underpaid and really value your work and are afraid that you may quit, they can give you a raise and/or promotion any time they want. And if you’re underpaid you should look for another job.
But I know what you’re saying. Most employers will try to tell you that it’s not possible to give more than the once-a-year tiny “raise.” You have to decide whether they’re just being cheap, or whether your employer actually believes you ARE being paid fairly. And then you have the responsibility to decide what to do about it. You’re not their slave forever.
Although – when the economy is really bad they can take advantage of you however they want. Then it’s time to think about moving or switching careers, or just waiting until the economy improves, depending on your personal situation.
How often do people think they should be given raises or promotions? It takes a year just to learn your job. If it doesn’t, it’s an easy job that shouldn’t be high paying anyway. I don’t believe in giving raises and promotions just because someone hits a home run on a particular project or task. They need to demonstrate consistent performance.
You want to be indespensible to the company, not indespensible in a current role. (Well, as much as any one person can be “indespensible.” I think most of our companies would do just fine if we were to drop dead or quit tomorrow.) You do this by learning about the company overall, acquiring skills outside your current area, and learning about best practices in the industry–all this shows that you’re ready for a step up the ladder. Yes, often it involves taking on a larger workload than the person who’s content to stay where they are for 10 years.
If your company is reluctant to move you because they need you where you are, that’s the time to make a case for why you’d add more value one step up on the ladder and they should bring in a subordinate or replacement for you to train. If you’re truly valued to the company, they don’t want to lose your knowlege by having you go elsewhere. It’s in their best interest to keep you around to transfer that knowlege to someone else. You do need to lay out the benefits of moving you up as well as address the problem of losing you in your current role.
However, it’s been my experience that it’s up to you to make this case. Some industries (consulting, public accounting, some banking) have a clear career progression and schedule. In others with a less clear career track, you really need to be the driver. If you don’t make a case for a change, the company will be perfectly happy to keep you where you are for 10 years. You also need to be persistent. Sometimes management agrees with your case, but there’s nowhere for you to go or no money in the budget for your change right now. However, there may be next year.
It’s also been my experience that no one gets more than a cost of living plus a few percentage points raise (bonuses are another story). The only way to really get a big raise is to move to another position that’s a step up. Those usually come with a nice salary adjustment. But, again, it’s up to the person to make the case for why they should move up.
That would be on the assumption that the job is out there for the taking, hmm? Until the opportunity comes along, I don’t see a problem with doing the minimum (i.e., giving the employer what they paid for, but no more).
Perhaps because the “in charge” position is already occupied, and most businesses won’t fire or transfer an incumbent in order to replace them with someone even better? Most businesses that I’ve worked for make internal promotions contingent on many factors besides (and often to the exclusion of) actual competency. For instance, I was recently told I couldn’t apply for another job at my company not because I lacked the skills but because it wasn’t “politically” feasible.
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Essentially you’ve touched on the biggest problem with motivating employees. When you are part of the business ownership or work for a company where your initiative is rewarded, you are motivated to bust your ass. When you work for a company where hard work is rewarded by more work, there’s no incentive to do more than just enough to not get fired.
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Can’t argue with this. It’s hard to feel that the quality of your work matters when you know the only reward is a pat on the head and more (but not more challenging or rewarding) work. That’s about where I am now - did a good job, so they felt they could do away with one of my colleagues and dumped his work on me. Now I have twice as much work to do, with no one to share the load during heavy periods and no one to cover when I’m out of the office.
I think the important thing is to look at the “big picture” of your career. What is the furthest you can advance in your field? What are the characteristics of someone at that level? Where is someone with 5, 10, 15 years experience in your industry? Someone who is reactive in their career falls into a job. Each evaluation period they anxiously await whether they get a raise or promotion (usually not). They jump ship every few years for a few thousand more. Someone who is proactive has a rough plan of where they want to be at different stages.
And here’s the problem. If you decide to just pass time doing the bare minimum, eventually you will wake up one day as everyone has passed you by but you’re still at your crappy job.