This has been the bane of my existence in almost every job I’ve worked. “Look busy”, “don’t stand idle”, “delegate tasks for yourself”. My dude, if it’s not on the job description and it’s not a task I was onboarded in why would I do it?
But in life we’re just supposed to somehow already know. And assume that we should lie about how we’re spending our time. I’ve fought with multiple managers because I’ll just leave when I get far enough ahead of my work that the only thing left to do is pretend I’m still working. I’ve been reprimanded for helping other areas instead of just still pretending to do work in my own.
It happens in enough fields that I realize, the culture isn’t broken. This IS how average people get through their careers. I’m the one who can only survive in roles that don’t have a hard endpoint for tasks. Because I’m broken in someway that I can’t stop getting ahead of my work and I can’t make myself lie about it.
I’m terrified that this is how my entire career will be. I’m into my second professional job and I feel like I’m working in highschool projects where no one actually does any work. It’s infuriating.
Just doing enough to get by, but never anything more. I get all my work done and more while everyone else just seems to like, not even complete what was asked of them
This is something I realised a lot talking to my therapist over the years, that one of the reasons I was constantly burning out was because I was usually 100% task focused and people would be amazed at how much I got done all the time. But most people kind of just naturally tread water or like basically just do enough to make it seem like they are not doing nothing. On that baseline, I also came to the same realisation as you. The whole of the working world is based on just about passing as not incompetent and then people do what they like the rest of the time, but nobody explicitly tells anyone this because then the illusion would be broken I guess. Everything is performative, the stupid evaluations or target setting they have you do is just stuff you know you can do anyway normally but you slack enough to make it seem like it’s something you ‘worked hard for’.
The plus side is when you realise this, it means you can gradually start to give yourself a break. Obviously it varies based on the nature of your job, but I’m talking about stuff that isn’t super high stakes.
That’s why I think we can have the same productivity with less work time per day (or week), yet still there’s tendencies everywhere to increase work time unnecessarily for “the economy”.
you are 1000% correct. all of this bullshit is for the illusion of infinite growth. and maybe also for the psychological benefit of working people so hard that they’ll never consider trying to change the system we exist in
Kind of but technological progress also contributes to that somewhat
For most managers, “pretend to be working” is their entire job. They constantly lie about how they’re spending their time.
You’re making them look bad.
That would explain a lot. I don’t think a lot of the people I worked for would feel bad about anything but the ones who were most upset about me leaving when my work was done were ones who sat around or walked laps around the work area observing nothing a lot.
This is why I like working from home towards the end of the week. Don’t have to pretend too hard, and usually have my work to do at the beginning of the week.
Unless you’re in management, you don’t decide what you do. Management does. If your assigned tasks are done, report that to your supervisor. It’s their job to provide you with tasks; make them do it. They get paid more than you. Stop doing their jobs for them.
That sounds like a great way to get more work for the same pay.
thanks, I agree. I’ve just been punished for doing so. I didn’t stay in those jobs but I’m observing that it’s a reoccurring pattern
If you’re getting punished for not doing your boss’ job, that’s not a place you want to stay anyway.
If everyone was working at 100% capacity 100% of the time then every step of the production line would have to be perfectly optimized and balanced. Achieving that is impossible so what happens is everyone has a bit of downtime sometimes.
No, the culture is definitely broken.
This one will second FartMaster69, this culture is in fact incredibly sick and is likely to take some time to improve, if it does. Take your joy and platonically fuck the man.
This is why certain jobs are very nice to have. Right now I’m transporting students. Best job I’ve had. There’s no down time. You are either on route or picking up or dropping off. Well you can be early and need to sit for a min, but I think 20min is the longest that’s ever been and that’s a one in a year occurrence of 5+ students canceling, which is not typical. Most days, we’re 5-10 early at the end of a full route simply because no unexpected delays happened. And that just means you sing the ABCs a few times waiting for the school site workers to come out and receive students.
Nice. I’ve been thinking about cabbing in the near future after a big change because it sounds like the lifestyle would fit me. I would miss heavy equipment but it’s probably worth it
I work in a company that has 3 shifts, morning shift i’ll pretend to be working, afternoon shift i’ll pretend to be working for at least the first 2-3 hours if i’m feeling charitable and in the night shift it’s mostly be happy if i do anything at all mindset.
May I ask what you do for work? If you have a desk job, is there any way you can incorporate personal e-books into your work?
People are lazy and want to be allowed to be lazy. If you look like you’re “working too hard” then you’ll make the rest of them look bad, and the bosses will cut back their positions, and make more work for them. So, why not make that somehow work to your advantage, if you like to read?
Sure. My most recent role I had this problem at was an oil recycling facility. But I’ve noticed the pattern in factories, at a landfill, in lumber, in warehouses. I only read that it happens in desk work so I appreciate hearing your take.
Yeah actually I got ebooks, essays, documentaries, and lectures so incorporated into my life that I don’t take jobs anymore where I can’t use headphones. Haven’t had one where I’d be permitted to read on the clock though.
It happens in desk work too. But I’ve been lucky to work in places where people turn a blind eye, the other nice thing for me is as a dev in the industry I’m in, there’s always something new to learn on the internet.
Why should you feel guilty about doing some discreet reading/listening on the clock when all the rest of those lazy assholes can get away with it? Pardon my language, but seriously.
The only job worth putting 100% work into? Owning your own business. I did it before, and got sick of working all the time. Now, I’m finishing up a job where I could sit on my ass and read for half the shift because they were hurting so badly for people, and going into another role where when I work overnight shifts, I can basically read all the time.
I never feel guilty about listening discreetly, since the jobs that prohibited headphones have never respected my time or autonomy. Reading wouldn’t bother me if I was in a role where I wouldn’t be punished for it.
Lot of people have told me to do that. I’m not the best self advocate or high functioning enough to wear that many hats at once. Is it okay if I ask what job they let you read during?
I want to keep my new job private for my own personal reasons, but the previous job is a city janitor for various hockey arenas. I’ve learned not to burn myself out working for someone else, and I love the novelty of being able to work in a unionized environment, hence the sitting on my bum whenever I get the chance.
Don’t get me wrong, there are days where I don’t have any time to sit at all, but there’s a lot more downtime with this job than any others I’ve had.
Unionized makes a huge difference. I almost got made full-time at a unionized factory but I had to prove myself by hustling first and I caused an equipment failure
Then God or the Fates (or whatever you want to call the Universe) had better things in store for you than that job.
oof, if I attribute any intentional design to the things that have happened in my life we get to an “Evil Demon” situation pretty fast. But I appreciate the sentiment. I’m also praying to one day arrive at a place where it won’t feel so toxic to just exist
