Asklemmy

Being emotionally detached from really stupid leadership decisions is harder than it seems

The company doesn't care about you. The company doesn't care about you. The company doesn't care about you.

The most important traits for doing well at work (in this order):

• clear, effective, and efficient communication
• taking ownership of problems
• having your boss and team members like you on a personal level
• competence at your tasks

Your employer does not care about you. You are not important or irreplaceable

Take your time and energy and put it into your life, not their business

I have had coworkers die (not work related) and by the time you hear about it (like the next day) they have already worked out who will get the work done so the machine doesn't have to stop

There is no ideal place to work where they "do it right", whatever kind of "right" you care about right now. When you change jobs, you merely exchange one set of problems for another.

Sometimes it's better if your employer doesn't know everything you can do. If you're not careful you'll end up Inventory Controller/shipper/IT services/reception/Safety officer, and you'll only ever be paid for whatever your initial position was.

The longer you work anywhere -- and I mean ANYWHERE -- the more you see the bullshit and corruption and crappy rules or policies and inequality all over.
For me it has been about the 3 year mark anywhere I've worked: once you get past that, you fade away from "damn I'm glad to have a job and be making money!" and towards "this is absolute bulls#!t that [boss] did [thing] and hurt the workers in the process!" or similar

You don't have to run the rat race to get promoted. You don't have to be at your desk at 7am and leave at 7pm to put on a show. Just be competent. Most people are not. You'll eventually get promoted once you are old and white enough.

HR protect the company first, the employees second.

Your employer is ALWAYS looking for a way to either get more work out of you for the same compensation, or replace you with some one or some process that produces the equivalent output for less cost. The entire idea that employees should be loyal to their employers is one of the most successful propaganda campaigns ever spawned by capitalism.

People in your workplace don't know shit. There are a few who know stuff but the majority is dumb, careless or the combination of the two. Surprisingly the higher you go the more dumb and careless there are. We are designing monster billion dollar construction projects and some of my colleagues have problems with understanding written english. Others cannot learn a software that has literally 3 buttons in them they have to press. I don't even know sometimes why I am trying.

Hold on dearly to any leverage you might have over your employer

No matter how much you invest you're time and effort for your job: You are expendable, and the only people who will know you were absent from home because of work 20 years later, will be your kids.

There's no such thing as quiet quitting. I prefer acting your wage.

My biggest lesson was that decades of work means nothing if you become disabled (in the US).

You can end up with literally nothing and lose literally everything if you become disabled. Even if you still have skills, even though you worked hard to contribute to society for decades, it can all go away overnight and you can suddenly not afford food anymore. There’s no safety net, and you won’t learn that until you need it.

Because fuck you.

Boundaries. Establish them and defend them with every ounce of your being. If you don't, most employers will grind you in to the dirt and send you out to pasture when you eventually crack under the pressure. Better to establish healthy boundaries up front. Not only will you find yourself more frequently surrounded by people you like and share mutual respect with, you will be happier and land fewer "shit" jobs because employers looking for people to send to the meat grinder will see that they can't grind you down and you'll be filtered from the hiring pool before you ever have to suffer at their hands.

It has taught me that imposter syndrome fucking sucks.

On a more serious note, it’s taught me to be a solid ally for colleagues but always be skeptical of the business owners and decision makers themselves. I woke up to a layoff along with 5 other people and was laid off for 3 months before I found a new gig. Don’t allow emotions to cloud your job search. It’s all a negotiation and you should push for whatever you can get in terms of salary, PTO, etc. Never sell yourself short because the company sold you some story about how they need help.

Minimum wage, minimum effort

A lot of truth in this thread, albeit too cynical for my taste. Yes, the company as soulless, emotionless entity doesn't care for you. However, your coworkers might, even your boss.

Also, my main take away:

• make sure you know your worth
• make sure the right people know your worth
• make sure the right people know that you know your worth

If you make your work processes more efficient, you don’t need to tell anyone right away, if at all.

If you're doing more than you're supposed to do, or doing things outside of normal work time, no matter what DOCUMENT IT. If they're a good employer, they'll compensate and reward you, if they're a bad employer you can leave and it'll be easier to update your resume by referencing your own documentation

It's suffocating to be in a middle management position because you get squeezed by the higher-ups and your own team. If the higher-ups make a decision that your team dislikes or vice versa, you're going to be in the shitter with whichever party suffered every time even if you had the best intentions.

Efficient workers get more work if you're in the office. I work from home, and that allows me to work efficiently until my work is done, set up scheduled emails to go out at the time I would've otherwise been done, then do what I want until then.