I’m sure you’ve heard the story that if a bucket full of live crabs notices one denizen climbing its way up to the top and appears poised to escape, several the other crabs will pull the would be escapee down and makes sure it shares the same sorry fate as the rest of them.
Is it just me, or is this a very apt workplace analogy?
Any time I try some new initiative and actually seem to be making some progress, and notice from management, my peers start giving me the cold shoulder. But back when I seemed content to be a peon bitching about the managers and the customers and taking two hour lunch breaks hanging out in the parking garage, I was one of the guys, you know?
Even now, at supposedly a more professional level, I get echoes of this – even when it seems to me that my added effort would be beneficial to the people around me, there’s still this unspoken negativity where people won’t look me in the eye.
I know full well where it all comes from, and I’m not surprised by anything except the apparent universality of this rule. Yes, yes, by trying harder I might be showing them up or at least raising the bar so they have to work harder too – but geez, being in this industry, and in consideration of the money and contacts you could be making, don’t you want to work a little harder? (In short: our research department’s writing sucks–superficial, naive and short. I’m not an analyst, but find that I can write just as well as one, and that’s just what I’ve been doing lately – often beating the newswires in coming out with a short but relevant blurb on the market. But even after offering to share info and collaborate, without any concern for credit for myself – still, you should see the baleful looks I’ve been getting from them. Eh, I don’t care at this point, except for the purposes of this rant.)
A guy in my workgroup has some excellent, excellent ideas, and has the skill and talent to implement them. Problem is, he always makes it about him, and not about the group. When he details what HE’S done, it’s always about how HE’S saved the company so much money, yet no-one seems to recognize HIS contributions and HE’S not getting paid enough, and HE doesn’t know why HE’S even bothering to keep working on these projects that nobody’s ever asked him to work on anyway. And he’ll say this to whoever will listen, until finally we wish he wasn’t quite so clever and talented and able in the first place. He earns more than his peers, he’s been given numerous citations and awards, but he’s just never happy. And yes, he does feel like everyone’s holding him back.
The portion I bolded … I dunno, it just doesn’t sit right with me. “Beating the newswires”?!? You’re essentially going over their heads, right? Showing them up in a serious way? It’s pretty universal human nature to get pissed off when someone does that.
Let me essplain. No, we have no time: let me sum up. Everyone can read the same local Chinese newspaper articles, including reporters at Bloomberg and Reuters and analysts in my own office. When a given stock shoots up five percent during the session, anybody could look up the news and write up a summary email in English. I often find that (AFAIK) I’m the first to do so.
I don’t see that you’re really raising the bar so much as doing their job for them. I obviously don’t work at the same company as you do; however, if someone were doing what you’re doing (spending time trolling the market, then pounding out a blurb) when I’m supposed to be doing it, I’d think that they either a) didn’t understand what I do and what they do, b) were trying to show me up or c) were trying to push me out to get my job.
From what you’ve said, it sounds like the “collaboration” here would be you doing their work for them, then the analysts sending it out instead of you. That doesn’t sound like a whole heck of a lot of collaboration.
Even if “anyone” can do it, it’s the analysts’ *job *to do it, not yours, right? Did I misunderstand you?
P.S. This is going to sound snarky but… If I were the manager, I’d wonder why you were doing someone else’s job instead of your own. If you finish things so quickly that you have time to do others’ jobs, I’d hope that you would take the time to design larger projects that incorporated your job into them or come to me to ask how you could help me further the company’s or at least the department’s objectives.
Yeah, there’s nothing that cheeses me off faster than someone doing my job without asking. I like all my coworkers, but when one of them handles something that I’m supposed to handle, they absolutely get a stinkeye if I can’t bring it up without sounding petty.
I have to go against most of the posts and side more with the OP here based on my experience. If I had waited to do jobs until it WAS my job I would still be a grunt to this day.
I have stepped on some toes and have gotten some stinkeyes but not as much as you would think. Generally, I have been quick to latch onto and do jobs that needed to be done but were not getting done or had very quick time limits…so long as they had some…‘glory’…to them. (Client needs this analysis done in the next hour for big meeting - SURE. Client needs 10,000 copies of this done by tomorrow…ummmm…that’s Jane’s job)
Admittedly, I have worked in a field/with companies where my role is more fuzzy than most so that I can stretch my role to justify what I did…kinda. Also, twice in my life I just basically moved into my bosses role when (1) the company was being taken over and under huge turmoil and (2) My boss and 2 co-workers quit leaving just me left. In both cases I just, well, started doing my bosses job…even flying out to help sales people meet with clients. If I had waited for ‘permission’ to do these things and/or be paid appropriately for doing these things then I would not have been able to do them.
Did it work out ? Yes and no. Are you appreciated for it? No. Coworkers and higher ups are at best neutral to it. When everyone left and I did my bosses job for 6 months my boss was replaced with no real thought of allowing me to keep it even though many said I was doing a great job. In both cases I managed to get myself many more responsibilities with no increase in pay,
But was it worth it? HELL YES! Because I was getting experience doing these things…and when you go on interviews and talk with people they can tell you have done these things…and the pay and promotions will come - just not at your current company.
Heh. Yeah, my current job probably isn’t the best example of the phenomenon I’m talking about, or at least not the easiest one to explain. The thing is that it is my job to be customer facing and bring relevant news to readers. I just got tired of waiting for the molasses drip-drip-drip of occasional words of wisdom from the analysts and start writing the bloody things myself. I recognize that it’s moving into the analysts’ territory & offer to share information and even put their names on it, but that isn’t The Point. The unspoken Point is, stop doing whatever you’re doing and allow us to continue with our tea break.
Although it does bear a common pattern with the other job I had in mind, when I was doing sales. Instead of waiting for the molasses drip-drip-drip of lousy leads from marketing, I went online and started researching leads myself. In both cases, I got tired of waiting for someone further up in the chain to do their job so that I could do my job, and decided to do both. And was pretty successful at it, though the marketing guy would have disliked it if had known and my immediate supervisor strongly discouraged us from doing that: “if everyone researches their own leads, it’ll be chaos, I tell you!”
It’s just a bit amusing to me that showing exactly the kind of initiative or whatever that the top management guys want to encourage has some pretty strong cultural or institutional disincentives. It’s almost like, “we are destined to suffer together, fellow peon, and must take what we can from whatever crumbs fall from the table, like clocking out early and thirty minute tea breaks. Do not question your place and spoil things for the rest of us!”
The workplace drives competition and often it’s not acurately compared.
For instance, I worked in a hotel with sales managers. I did the incentives for the whole hotel group, consisting of 8 hotels in Chicago. All sales manager were more or less about equal.
Till one guy Kevin showed up. He was young and eager and worked he worked HARD. He was literally putting in 90 hours a week. He came in at 7am and never left before 11pm. He lived two blocks from the hotel and worked his butt off.
He got accolades, bonues and he really upset the apple cart. The management never understood as I pointed out, Kevin wasn’t that great. He just was doing the work of TWO people. If you broke down his production (sales) on a per hour basis he was just the same as every other manager.
So you see management sees what it wants, which is the bottom line. And in most jobs you’re only as good as your current quota. Past performance counts for nothing. It’s not fair, but that is how it is.
Just curious, but what do you base that on? Kevin was getting bonuses and management recognition – it’s not hard work that burns someone out, but a feeling of frustration and being unappreciated.
I know what your getting at and if it makes you happy then keep doing it. Sometimes it’s that way in the crab bucket which you will never escape unless you win megabuck to rise to the top permanently. For me it never mattered much if I ever got the credit I deserved. That was always between me and God. My work is personal to me. I have the ethic that any job worth doing is worth doing right the first time. If I can do it better and not ruffle any feathers in the process, why not?
The thing is you may never get the appreciation you deserve but you can get it from within yourself. I always try and do my personal best. I remember one day at work something was bothering me. I decided that this day I was going to try and out do my personal best to keep my mind off my problem. I broke a record of sorts at work and I never said a word. A word was never said to me but I got many curious looks from my coworkers in disbelief. They never said a word. My boss also just scratched his head. I thought it was funny. When I climb a mountain I don’t expect a cheering section when I get to the top. It’s personal.
Many people will never get the credit they deserve like the plumber who solved the oil leak but he probably doesn’t care. He fixed the problem and that is all he set out to do.
I have an odd work ethic of always leaving everything a little better then I found it. Doing things that need to be done without asking for praise. If I find the last copy of something I make a dozen more and replace the original. If the trash needs to be emptied I just empty it. Nothing is below me and nothing is above me. I always got odd stares from coworkers and the wrath of a few but too bad. It benefited them so they never could said anything against me without sounding jealous.
On my best day at work I am probably only working at half of my potential anyway. I give them more then they deserve for my pay.
I see what you’re saying, but it sounds as though the jobs you took over were up for grabs. The way I see it, the OP is doing work that truly isn’t his job. I can understand his frustration with people not moving quickly enough, but again, why is he focusing on doing others’ jobs instead of his own? Does he have so much free time? Is he that good that he can do the job of two people? And is what he’s doing furthering the department’s and company’s agenda or his own? If it’s the former (furthering the department’s and company’s agenda), I can see that being a good thing. Managers tend to favor people who want to promote the departmental agenda. If you make the department look good, it makes the manager look good. And you need to make sure the manager knows you’re responsible for him/her looking good to get the promotions, the money and the kudos. But if you’re not furthering the agenda of the department, you run the risk of making your department look bad - employing busybodies who try to take over others’ jobs.
For what it’s worth, the crabs don’t think that way. They see one crab above them and think if they grab him they can pull themselves out. They’re not actively trying to pull the other crab down.
This phenomenon is referred to by many names and metaphors - pot of crabs, tall blade of grass, the one nail sticking up. Basically it’s just plain ole sour grapes.
It’s pretty simple really. Most people don’t believe in a meritocracy and they don’t really want to be pushed. They want to work their 9-5 and do the least amount of work they have to. To a certain extent they may self-identify themselves as part of a class of people that feeds into an “us vs them” mentality. The noble working class toiling under the thumb of incompetant middle management (or the hard working middle management suffering under the idiot entitled executives).
No, they usually end up pretty successful. It’s the pikers who just do the minimum who usually end up bitter and resentful because they want the same rewards as the Kevins but without all the hard work.
Unless you love what you do.
What the Little Crabs don’t get is that the King Crabs really like their work. At least they like it a lot more than wanting to fit in with the Little Crabs. For example, I actually enjoy going on busines trips. working until midnight doesn’t burn me out and I actually like public speaking. It’s physically painful for me to sit around work with nothing to do. So some bitter, lazy Little Crab who doesn’t want to work like that can’t compete with me, unless it’s in an environment that actively discourages extra effort. In that environment, I’ll eventually get frustrated and move on while the Little Crabs will be content to wallow at the bottom of their pot for another ten years.
Of course the irony is that if you have an entire pot of Big Crabs their hypercompetetive nature will pretty much produce the same “crabs in a pot” results.