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  • I get paid way more than my coworkers, and even my supervisor, because when I got hired I immediately made a bunch of random tools in google sheets that only I know how to maintain, and spread them around until everyone was using them. Before long, I was essential to my department, and praised for going "above and beyond" even though I was mostly just dicking around making the tools rather than doing my actual job.

    I have 0 coding experience, so the tools are absolutely horrendous behind the scenes, but that just means that they break pretty often, and people are reminded that only I know how to fix them. So, when I went looking around on LinkedIn for other offers after a few years, I eventually got one that was paying way more since it was in a major metro area, and I took it back to my manager to negotiate a 50% raise and a full-remote designation that virtually nobody else in my office is given.

    You don't get ahead by working hard, and you don't get ahead by working smart to benefit the company, you get ahead by working smart to benefit yourself. Think about it this way - if you're at the store to buy bananas, and you see that they're selling bananas for $0.05 ea, you'll likely think "Wow, that's a great deal!" and buy a bunch of those bananas at the $0.05 price. You're not going to pay them the price you think would be fair for a banana, you're going to take advantage of the price you're allowed to pay so that you can save money. Your employer sees you - working for less than you're worth - as a $0.05 banana. You're nothing more than a cheap commodity they were lucky to snag on sale.

  • "Okay but the guy who goes the extra mile will get a promotion and do better in the long run." ---a guy who has always gone the extra mile, never gotten a promotion and is doing exactly the same as everyone else

    • I got a new job last year. It was a massive pay cut. 1/3 of what i was making. Skip to the end for a TL/DR.

      I hit the ceiling hard at the old job and people i had never worked with or worked with only a handful of times had basically all said i was uncomfortable to work with because of my pace. I'm a walk and talk guy and if i was hired for a job (I'm a long term contact worker) I was usually hired because someone else had started a project and here i am. I was a fuckin one man wrecking crew. I work amazingly well with just about everyone because i find their strengths and weaknesses and immediately (and usually subtly) just start with the weakness, get the ball rolling and by the time there's momentum they are back in their comfort zone. Aim them and let em go. I work with management, i work with operators and I've worked with janitorial staff to solve really shitty problems quickly and mostly painlessly. Apparently that means I'm doing jobs other people should be doing (eg currently and actively employed) which rubs them the wrong way. I'm contact, dgaf. That's a wall of text removed.

      TL/DR i know it's easy to say money isn't everything but it can definitely be a trap that promotes some bad/unsustainable life choices. Recognize its unsustainable and have a plan.

  • It depends on the company and how they treat your job, but mostly as a worker you are there to fulfill a company's requirement. Unless there's a position or incentive to go that extra mile, don't, most companies will never see it. Even if you want to do the extra work for yourself, I'd recommend to find a way to do it as a hobby if it's unrewarded, separate from work.

    What they will see is the absence in case they do need it, and then they will be required to fulfill it, although they may not want to focus on better and more empowered workers with higher expectations and may instead just focus on quantity over quality by hiring more people to fill it. Even worse, don't be the guy who makes his (and other's) jobs obsolete to scummy bosses.

    Open your eyes, you aren't in school, you aren't getting rewarded for better grades at work unless they make it part of the business and your bosses stick to it and not just plugging in friends, buddies, and associates.

  • Or in my case, get singled out by a manager from another department for no reason, who then gaslights the other managers into thinking I don't do shit when I'm the only person in my section that even does anything at all. Go through the whole "try to make them quit" playbook but never do anything wrong so they can't fire me. I would have outlasted all those fuckers if circumstance hadn't forced me to move out of state.

    Pretty sure they just wanted to eliminate my full-time position to save money.

  • Hard work is rewarded with additional responsibilities and tasks for no additional benefit. What is the point?

  • Go the extra mile, not working but bootlicking your boss and you'll ascend faster.

  • Later on: the employee who does extra work will make the employee who does the bare minimum getting fired, but he doesn't get a wage increase. He will however complain about "lazy" people like immigrants, the disabled, etc. instead.

  • One of my 1st employers had "extra mile" coupons. Originally worth 7.50 in store credit, then 5, then they disappeared. This was a company that was charging 6 dollars for asparagus water.

113 comments