9mo ago

if you like doing your job and going home, how do you bear with coworkers who are lazier but more popular than you and get away with doing less?

cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/1144192

you might be an introvert, passionate about your job, or simply old enough to disregard friendships at work because you already have enough friends and a family.
The coworkers I like the most are the ones that come to work, don't like drama, do their job and go home. That's what I try to do.
However, there are always some established cliques who know how to play the unit / supervisor and get away doing much less, even feeling entitled to order you around, even though they are not your supervisor.
To people who experience this. How do you tolerate it? Even after changing jobs, this can happen at your new workplace, maybe it happens in every workplace?

45 comments

I used to be more sensitive to feeling like other people were getting more recognition for less work.
Over time though I’ve grown to realize that usually they are just doing something that I don’t fully understand yet, and I’ve gotten far greater rewards from trying to learn from them.
- That's a very well adjusted point of view.
  Don't be like me, that bottles up resentment that comes out in unexpected ways, which then leads to you being the first one laid off because you're the least enjoyable to work with.

In as much as it pertains to me, I don't tolerate it. Otherwise, if people want to bullshit their way through their career, I don't really care. This happens in every company that has more than one employee (almost).
If someone else starts ordering me around when they don't have the authority to do so, assuming it would change my course of action, I'll tell them politely that I might be able to get to that when I have time. If they escalate it, I tell them to talk to my boss about rearranging my priorities. And if they do that and succeed, that's fine. Once you establish that you don't report to them, I've found they typically leave me alone. If not, I talk to my boss about it in private.

I like to encourage a culture of laziness at my work.
- If the whole world agreed to do 20% less work I think we’d all be fine and slightly more relaxed. Progress is overrated.
  
  Especially in business, it's like, who are we competing against - hostile aliens?? Nah, it's just us humans, trying to get by. We could be tossing eachother softballs, everyone winning, but instead there's this self-fulfilling fear of an existential threat from "rivals."
  
  So true. "Progress" seems to be defined as an arbitrary jagged line that can never ever seem to be high enough. What's the point then? 🤔

My work stands on it's own two legs. Their work doesn't affect my paycheck. If their laziness impacts me, I will not stay silent about it at all. Other than that, I'm punching my clock and focusing on what I need to.

It depends on what you define as lazy and popular.
I've had staff that were visibly not working harder than other staff, but their work was of significantly higher quality than others. Since the "lazy" worker produced more and could be counted on to do the work with less supervision, I gave them more flexibility in the office. I was playing favorites, but the favorite was more valuable as an employee.
And I've had other staff that would be considered more popular, but that was in part because they would help others at work doing coordination and mentoring tasks. I would also offload some of my managerial tasks to them if I was overwhelmed even though they didn't have the title. If I offload the management of a task to someone else, I expect people to treat them with the same respect they treat me. I've seen that expectation not get followed and I've had to step in to remind staff that they need to coordinate with others, not just me.
I find that a lot of people who "do their job and go home" don't end up doing any of the coordination or communication required for their job, even though their job is technical design. They end up being worse than they think at their job because it is so hard to work with them and won't chime in on cases where there is shared responsibility.

However, there are always some established cliques who know how to play the unit / supervisor and get away doing much less, even feeling entitled to order you around, even though they are not your supervisor.
This frustrated me, until I discovered that many of those folks, who looked lazy to me, understood our business better than I did, and were focusing their efforts on what really mattered.

It's not a competition, you don't need to compare yourself to your coworkers or police their work ethic.
Now if they're ordering you around that's another issue.

The title sounds like this person is jealous that someone else found out they could do less work for the same money.

If they're not making more work for you, its not something that needs to be worried about.
Any chance that you're just doing to much work? Not a dig, I'm not a chatty person and prefer to do the work until its done or I'm at a stopping point and its time to go home. So my habit is to do do way more work than anybody expected me to. (Downside of being a person who tends to work moderately well with minimal supervision.)
- Seriously. Unless they’re making your life at work more difficult, it doesn’t matter. Anyone doing the bare minimum is just working according to whatever agreement they signed with the company when they got hired. Anyone going above and beyond is just doing extra work for free.

Suffer it.
Ideally, get to where you accept it.
Sorry to shortcut the process, but if you can't fix it and especially if you'd risk your own employment trying, it's better to keep your own job and the reduce the amount that this person lives rent-free in your feelings.
- Moreover, if you see other people around you doing less, then you're under no obligation to do more than they do. Even if you prefer doing your job well, on those days where you're not up for it, don't feel bad about doing less. As long as that doesn't affect how your immediate manager/supervisor/boss evaluates you, do what you need to.
  And let them do what they do. And if they get away with it, that's not up to you to remedy. Employment can be as simple as an agreement to do the minimun needed for them to keep paying you as little as they can get away with. And we're not likely to fix that problem today. 😉
  Best wishes and peace.

Just play the long game, which is focusing on getting good at your job to develop your own competency. In the long term, competency will help you get ahead.
Being popular at work is one of the competencies though, so you need to figure that one out too. Branch out and improve your social skills.
People are capable of rallying around someone who's reliable. Reliability in work becomes a big part of likability, actually. And if that's not the case, you can nudge the culture it in that direction by thanking people for delivering what they promised to you when they promised to do it.
Basically, when personal status and competency at the job are out of sync, that's an unhealthy state for the workplace. You can (to a degree) fix your own problem and the workplace's problem at the same time, by just using your own voice to acknowledge and appreciate when people do their jobs well.
It's a good feeling to go after a team as a goal, and doing the job well is a co-op aspect of the workplace. It's like bros at the gym: each person might be working on their own thing, but they share an interest in getting better. Even if the company doesn't have any other inspiring direction, the direction you can share with your coworkers can be "doing this in an excellent way".
So all of this boils down to a couple simple things, and the game works at many levels. It works immediately and long term, and for yourself and everyone else:
Decide that your reason for doing the job well is primarily that it feels better than doing it poorly. Train yourself to do the job well for the pleasure of a job well done.
Speak up and recognize others when they do their jobs well.

Do less too, if anyone dares to complain, document and point out the double standard then remind your employer that discrimination is illegal. If they punish you, sue and get rich I guess.
Or
Find a new job
Or
Just ignore it if you aren't stressed out with the amount of work you have
Or
Play the game too, humans are social creatures at the end of the day
We don't really know your life or situation so at best, all the advice here is educated guessing or worse.

If you like doing your job and going home
You enjoy your employment and you even enjoy your commute. Then what's the problem? Are your coworkers having an even better time at work than you are? I don't understand.

As a fellow introvert I had to learn the skill of drawing my boss' attention to my work without feeling like I was being arrogant or begging for attention.
I kept a list of things I thought I had done well or were above and beyond, and discussed it with them in performance reviews.

I don't begrudge a coworker befriending a supervisor. Maybe they are genuinely friends.
As much as you like people who come in a do their job and go home. Many others like it when they come in and a friend is there and they can chat, have a good time, and still get their responsibilities done.
If they can't get their work done, then it's a supervisors issue. You don't have to do their workload.

If someone tells you to do their job, tell them 'no.'
If the supervisor tells you to do it, tell the supervisor that you can't handle more responsibilities because you're at your limit.
You have to stand up for yourself.
- I'm perfectly happy to make your life easier but not at the expense of making mine more difficult

I have a base load where I simply couldn't do less if I tried or I'd die of boredom and simply envy anyone who can.
also any shitkicker who fancys themselves in charge will quickly get told to act their fucking wage.

Do you want to focus on your job or a social club ?
- Dude. There is workplace politics.
  
  If that matters, then it's part of the job, not a social club
- Well if there's a choice - social club. What's even the point of having a job if you work all day just to survive and then try to squeeze socializing in the little time that remains until you need to sleep
  
  Post said "if you like doing your job"
  So discussion on changing work life balance isn't relevant.

I'm in a similar situation and I'm taking it poorly because I feel that it is affecting the possibilities of the company, and with that mines as well. So currently I'm in the process of searching for a place that can have more future. Which being also an introvert is being quite a hell.
- I'm in the process of searching for a place that can have more future.
  Take note folks, this how it is done!
  They don't pay or treat u right, get u a new corpo komissar who will pretend to do it for a bit

It somewhat depends. Is it unionized work? Is it hourly or salary? What type of work, and what are the metrics for quality/quantity of output?

I don't let what other people do ruin my happiness. If I'm happy with the work I'm doing and the amount I'm getting paid then I really don't care what other people do.

What the guy over there said.

45 comments