There seems to be a widely accepted attitude among workers these days that the company you work for is evil and any second you spend doing something not in your job description or outside of your normal working hours is bad. This seems detrimental to me for those individuals.
No one has ever gotten a promotion without first showing they can do the job. That usually means going above and beyond.
Not all companies are evil. Not all companies can afford to hire you and pay you high wages. The attitude of, “well then you can’t afford to be in business” is short sighted because that means that you wouldn’t have a job at all.
If you have this attitude you are only hurting yourself.
The attitude that has found me some success in my career and life is that you should do it for you, not the company. If you can work hard and learn skills while at work, even if they aren’t in your job title you should for your own growth. If the company doesn’t recognize the growth and development then you take you new found skills elsewhere. But you should never do just what is required/expected of you unless you want to stay in the same roll and the same pay forever. If the company has resources and mentors to learn from you’d be silly not to take advantage of that…even if you aren’t specifically getting paid for it. Acquiring skills, responsibilities and becoming truly valuable is how you advance. If you expect to advance just by keeping a seat warm and doing only what is expected of you then you will never advance. If you are comfortable where you are that’s fine but this attitude is killing careers. No one in life is going to give you something you don’t earn. The company you work for doesn’t owe you advancement, you need to become more valuable to them.
Based on everything I’ve read in any job based sub seems to share the attitude of fuck the greedy employers and never, under any circumstances, do anything you aren’t getting paid to do.
Edit: I’m an older millennial and not a manager but an individual contributor :-).
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You can show your skill as an employee and get promoted without doing free labor.
Nice try, manager.
For real though, the days of being excellent and getting promotions are over. More likely, you’ll be told that you’re too valuable in your current position to promote. Most people get raises by changing companies, not by being a great employee of one place for 40 years. Loyalty is punished, not rewarded.
Working your ass off for a company and being the best at your job is a great way to never advance. Being a job hopper who bullshits well is a great way to make tons of money.
I am a big fan of only working when I’m getting paid. This is not a charity, and I am not free labour. Nice try, manager, but your workers aren’t working for free
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You must be a shitty boss.
I mean it’s easy to do thing in your own way to stand out and not do thing beyond your scope. Also your job should be teaching you new skills and responsibilities. If it’s on you to become this model employee despite your employer you have a bad boss and culture
Works well for me because I don’t get asked to do extra bs.
This is why companies should give all employees some stock on top of their regular compensation. Oh and pay more too. Bills and stuff.
Then employees would care.
Or just work at a place with an EBA and get a pay rise every year that you’ve negotiated for. If you want to go the extra mile just pick up overtime shifts and fuck this nonsense of working without pay.
Also no clue what you are saying with no promotions coming if you don’t work unpaid. Every company I’ve ever worked for still gives people promotions without using wage theft
Nonsense, and I say this a person who is a manager. Nobody should be working when they aren’t getting paid to do work. That has nothing to do with employers being evil or not, it has to do with the fact that employers and employees have a relationship, and that relationship is one where employees get paid money to do a job during certain times. If an employer wants workers to do extra work, they should pay the employee.
I didn’t get where I am by being a doormat for the place I work. I work and I work hard while I’m on the clock. When I’m not on the clock, I’m not getting paid, so I’m not working. That’s the deal.
Good thing I’m there to get a check and go home and not “make the business succeed”!
I do what I’m told/paid for. I’m not the CEO. That burden isn’t on my shoulders.
Depends on your field.
If you are salary and have a big project deadline at say a tech company, you need to finish it. You can’t just “it’s 5pm, oh well.” You will get fired.
If you are hourly, you absolutely do not work beyond your work hours without receiving OT.
Not if everyone does it. Where it falls apart is where some bottom dwelling boot licker is willing to sell their dignity for a title and 50c more an hour.
I’m an hourly employee if I work without being paid then my employer is in violation of both federal and state labor laws. Also if I work without being paid then I’m an idiot.
It’s really individual to each job/company/culture.
straight from corporate
I’m willing to go extra on occasion, because my employer cuts me a break on occasion when I need it. The crucial point is it’s mutual respect and flexibility, not one-way bullying and manipulation.
While you do speak some truth, there’s a large number of crappy employers who heavily take advantage of the whole “put in the work, get rewarded” thing.
Back when I worked in a steel production plant, we had a young guy, maybe 19-20 y/o. He was dead set on getting into management, met every production goal, took over team meetings to show leadership skills, learned everything he could about production from the machines, to the employees, etc. All things he was told he needed to “prove” he was capable of doing prior to being considered.
When the time finally came, and a shift supervisor position opened (which was basically entry to management at this plant) they instantly denied him and the reason “you’re too valuable to our production team”. Guy quit shortly after, can’t say I blame em’.
So yes, while you do need to show you are capable of doing the job prior to getting the job, there’s a fine line in wanting to see an employee’s capabilities, and using + leading people on with false hopes.
Edit: Grammar
I think this advice is specific to the employer. My employer provides lots of opportunity for advancement and is generally good at identifying and rewarding those who perform well. I would encourage people considering working here to apply themselves as good things can happen. On the other hand, a lot of employers are very much not like this! They demand the world of their employees while exploiting the precariousness of employment to pay them the minimum. I would not do an iota more work at a place like this unless my salary reflected it.
This is a truly unpopular opinion. As a millenial do you remember when our parents convinced us to pay for college and then convinced us the only way to get employed after that was to take an unpaid internship?
It’s not what you think it to be. It’s not that the company is evil if they ask you to do something outside of your job description every so often. It’s when your company expects that with no incentive to do so. If I’m expected to work weekends on top of my 40 hours with no pay and no understanding as to whether or not that work will look good on me, then absolutely I’m not working that time. But if there’s a big project that requires some weekend work and this project will provide recognition and look good on my end of the year report, leading to a raise/promotion, then I’ll absolutely do that.
My previous job hired me, and then 2 seconds later they told me “this isn’t a normal 9-5”, they expected me in an hour earlier and I’ve had many work nights that lasted until 10. No recognition, no raise in my 5 years working there, and no promotion. As soon as you start seeing that, get out of that company
Ok, keep bootlicking if it keeps you happy. Employers are not entitled to free labor regardless of context.
I used to do some on call banquet work in DC. Money was good in Union and non-Union hotels. It’s likely that the Unions raised wages for everyone,but the utter lack of giving a shit in the Union houses was unpleasant. Under no circumstances do you do anything that’s not in your job description.
That’s depriving a job from a fellow union member. I get the concept, but I can’t work that way.
Opinion for sure. Because my experience has been most companies, particularly corporate ones wants to know how well you follow the rules and sop. Doing exactly your job to the letter of the company is what most places want. Extra work is just that extra and almost no management is going to see or do anything about extra. Promotions come from your social skills not work skills.
They hired you to do a specific job and the higher you go up the corporate ladder the more “not my job” your job becomes. You think the district manager of a retail box store is going and cleaning bathrooms? That would be the above and beyond thing to do since they’re in so many stores every single day. Nope not their job there’s someone hired for that and the same is true in other aspects of the job as well. Not just cleaning.
I’ve been working for 45 years.
Do your job. Do it well. Do not give away your time.
I’ll show how valuable I am by doing a really good job with the work I’m given, the work I’m being paid for. Not working when you’re not getting paid doesn’t mean you’re just doing the bare minimum.
Screw the companies. If you died, they’d replace you tomorrow without a second thought
Running joke In the oilfield is that good workers just get punished with more work.
It isnt worth it.
I don’t do shitty work for no pay.. but I’ve absolutely worked and didn’t charge for it… It has yielded preferable results… But my region isn’t dominated by corporate giants
Alot of people are bashing you, but that’s cuz they live in areas with shitty employers
“older millennial” 42, got a job though nepotism (maybe doesn’t even know it) and thinks their point of view is valid because they got picked.
This is an extremely popular management position. Take your silliness elsewhere.
I second this. This type of attitude served me well.
But this is reddit, so the same people that complain about being broke will downvote you.
Your reward for hard work is more unrewarded hard work
Act your wage.
Pick me ass post
There will always be others who work outside paid hours, this is why it doesn’t work when a small percentage decide not to. If everyone decided to stop providing free labour things would quickly change.
This message brought to you by the S&P 500
I wish I could give 10 upvote for how wrong this is. Jobs already expect you to pay for an education to get ahead; I’m not also working for free on top of that. A job is a means, not the joy of my life.
You want some ketchup with that tasty boot, big guy? 😋 🥾? Now sit like a good boy while the boss gets richer.
So, during the time you are getting paid you can learn new skills and move forward, don’t work for free.
I agree but it’s understandablly hard to convince people otherwise. The underlying thing is people need to understand what will help them advance in any situation and they need to actively use that understanding.
I’ve definitely gotten promotions without doing any work outside of my job description.
Big nope from me
There’s a reason people say these things. almost every place i’ve worked at does the same thing. You bust your ass doing extra work that isn’t in your job description. For example, covering for a management position for whatever reason or doing things that’s usually in their job description. You’re doing that while getting paid normal employee wages. Why would they pay you more to do the same job when you’re already doing it for less? And a lot of times you can’t put those experiences on a resume because you didn’t hold that position. I’ll only take on extra work if I get paid for that position during my time in it and/or it involves a skill I can take to another company and get a better position like operating equipment.
Brown nose. No one asked you. It’s your time, friendo; work for free if you want to. I have better things to do.
Most of the time, companies that expect you to work more than you initially agreed to/work outside hours are not worth working for to begin with, because…why are you not able to manage your people properly? If your company is designed in such a way where you have to ask more of your employees…, what’s going on? Are you short-staffed? Do you have issues in maintaining trust and loyalty? Are there no clear boundaries between the company and the employees?
It’s a push of boundaries and an overconfidence in competence. If a someone is willing to work more than they initially agreed because they are that invested, devoted and passionate about their work, that’s one thing (which, should be compensated for), but if it’s about taking advantage of people to compensate for your short-comings… Yeah no.
It’s just as likely that your extra work isn’t rewarded at all, if it’s even noticed by anyone with promotional power in the first place. Employment is a contract; my employer is buying my time and I’m not selling a minute more than I have to.
I don’t agree that you should go out of your way for your employer but I do agree that when you’re being paid to work, you should work. Too many assholes slack off at work and makes more work for other people.
No.
Going over just means the expectations bar is raised
Nope. You have to keep your boundaries around what free labor a vampiric company will “encourage” you to give them. Free labor definitely hurts the person, whether or not it hurts the company to not do it is irrelevant.
I like my job. Best employer by far I’ve ever worked for. That said, I’m not there to make the company succeed. I’m there to do my assigned duties and get paid the agreed wage for said duties. If an employer wants me to care about the success of the business then they can give me stock options in addition to my wage.
You sound like a cop, are you a cop?
I find it interesting that you have some understanding of the nuance behind this
>not all companies…
Yet your opinion totally misses this same nuance lol.
>”Don’t work a minute you aren’t getting paid for” and “don’t do anything outside of your job description”
Are always used in the case of dead end jobs where promotions arent viable paths forward.
Just gotta say;
No. Absolutely never does above and beyond include outside hours being paid. You do not wish for free, ever, period.
You work for a good place and want to go above and beyond AT work, go for it! That’s the spirit! NEVER outside work, ever, for a million reasons the least of which are insurance issues. You get hurt off the clock, it’s YOUR problem, not theirs.
How does that boot taste? Working for free only allows the company to take advantage of you. I promise you, work a day in retail and you will learn that its not merit based promotions and its whoever the manager likes best. I have also seen people who didn’t know anything about the job get to move up in corporate level just because they were friends with HR. Never give a company your free time.
I got promoted twice in my first year at my current job. Never clocked in a minute before 9 or clocked out a minute after 5. If you choose to offer your labor for free that’s fine, but company or boss is entitled to that.
No. I am a teacher, and there are already a whole bunch of extra things that I do that I don’t get paid extra for. I am more than my job. Teachers already struggle a lot with imposter syndrome because of how often we fling ourselves into our work. What’s more frustrating is stupid posts like this that say we should be doing it all the time.
Lead by example. If you want employees to go above and beyond, pay them above and beyond. Money is a very powerful motivator.
This isn’t some help to pat on each others back, nor is it greedy to be wanting pay for extra work beyond your description. That’s like paying a cleaning service for the price of one room but calling them greedy for not wanting to do the rest of the house for the price of one room. It is work, regardless of how people treat the idea of it being physical or mental, we all just want to go home and enjoy or pay up duties with our paycheck.
There is a level of what is common decency like helping a coworker out if they are injured or lifting a box, idk. But I am doing beyond my level of work that is expected spontaneously by someone else, no. Doing your job meets expectations, providing reliable customer service and team-ship is exceeding it. Doing extra work is exceeding nothing but my time I could be spending somewhere else. Because 9/10 you get a “thank you for your hard work” and a pat on the back.
Companies literally will lay off the employees that are “making too much money” with their salaries just to hire cheaper labor…. Be fr.
And this is coming from a surrounding of people whom are business owners, currently also studying the background of it. Quality of life will improve for everyone if we actually do what we are supposed to do and not dangle the economic feather by a string. You’re right, not all businesses are like that. But many are.
🥾👅
I’ve never agreed with ‘don’t do anything outside your job description’ because A) That’s how you show your capabilities and skills outside your job description that makes you suitable for advancement into bigger roles, and B) cause work is boring and sometimes branching out is interesting.
However, I won’t work late or extra for free under almost any circumstance. Have a function after work hours? Great, I’ll take tomorrow morning off. Have a weekend thing? No worries, which day should I not come in next week? Need me to stay late? Fuck off.
For the 8 hours a day I’m yours, you get the best of me, not so much as I’m killing myself for you, but I’m happy to perform and be part of the team. For the other 16 hours, i don’t owe you shit.
I have moved comfortably up the pay stream without sucking the bosses dick, not undervaluing my personal time in a society that expects you to work yourself to death.
Ok, Boomer.
Not working off the clock is not only moral, its required by law (here)
I think you are confusing the context and meaning behind those phrases.
You are talking about bettering yourself in a company that VALUES you and doesn’t take advantage of you. That’s not the reality for most folks.
Those phrases are typically reserved for companies that take advantage of their employees and expect them to choose work over their kid’s little league game just so they can “maybe” get into the running for that promotion.
If you have a company that DOES allow you to grow and be rewarded then by all means, you can learn skills and better yourself during your break time or whatever.
Is every company evil? No. But, MOST of them don’t care about you at all (which is why there is minimum wage AKA “We’d pay you less, but the government wont let us”). There may be a few that aren’t being controlled by psychopaths yet that try to embrace the “family” mentality but that’s few and far between in America.
The world you live in doesn’t exist any more man
>No one has ever gotten a promotion without first showing that they can do the job. That usually means they go above and beyond.
I willing to go above and beyond… on the clock.
While everyone is slowly advancing, here I am trying to get behind as fast as I can
“No one has ever gotten a promotion without first showing they can do the job. That usually means going above and beyond.”
These don’t go together, at all. Doing a job and going above and beyond are not only not synonymous, they’re antithetical. Imagine a student taking an exam and getting 100% but not answering the “bonus questions”. They still aced the exam!
“Not all companies are evil. Not all companies can afford to hire you and pay you high wages. The attitude of, “well then you can’t afford to be in business” is short sighted because that means that you wouldn’t have a job at all.”
As bootli… people who share your opinion like to say, “if you don’t like it, get another job!”. Why does this not apply to businesses? If you can’t afford to pay good wages, start a different business or become a wage slave like the rest of us. There’s apparently always job’s to fill.
Nothing in your post body required working unpaid hours. Going above and beyond is one thing. Working for free is another. You should not have conflated them in your post title.
Go tell that to r/antiwork
I think it depends on your compensation package your responsibility and your situation. Some jobs have scope more than 40.
I generally work 40, but I support hundreds of people. If someone calls me on the weekend I take the call and occasionally I work more. No one calls me for fun, they are also working.
If I made 13/hr flipping burgers or cleaning bathrooms I get it. Most people I work with put in more than 40 and they are all salaried.
At the end of the day, if I as not happy I would find another job. I know people don’t like to hear it, but it’s what I would do. Or I would learn to accept the situation for what it is. If it wasn’t worth it I would quit.
Well…..
It is difficult sometimes, like I am having a big project in my hand, but I also have clinical duty that I need to taken care of. It means that the only way that I can complete task is to do it after office hour.
However, I also have family to taken care of. But at the same time, I also have a hell lot of training that I need to complete……
I do NOT want to do above and beyond, I also don’t think extra hours after work make me special or something.
I just don’t have a choice, and I need this job to support my family.
If I win a lottery, resignation would be the first thing in my mind.
I’m one of those who was available 24/7, I’d be walking home from drinking with friends, get a call that my opposite night manager was off sick, I’d explain that I’d had a couple of drinks and then I’d go in to cover the night shift. I’d get scheduled to do a 3am start every week whilst doing the rest of my shifts starting at 6pm, with every other manager there just doing the same start time for every shift they had. I’d get phone calls at 5am to say something had gone wrong with a piece of equipment and I’d phone troubleshoot it for them and talk them through how to raise a callout if I couldn’t fix it over the phone. I’d come in two hours early, to grab a bite to eat and catch up before starting and usually never get around to eating anything, instead I’d be covering my staff’s breaks or putting away 2400KGs of beer delivery because the pub manager hadn’t hired a storeman after he made them all redundant through Covid.
What did all this achieve? I got told that my problem is my poor attitude when I eventually had my mental health crisis whilst trying to run 10% labour for the afternoon when our budget was 35%. It’s took about 18 months to get to a place where I’m considering trying to improve my life by working a little harder and showing some initiative, but not where I currently work as it doesn’t pay enough.
Yeah, this doesn’t exist anymore. I do the work of two people at my current position as a contractor, my direct manager has told me if he could he would hire me on in a second. However some VP in our sector of the company has decided that they aren’t even going to extend contracts anymore without a 6 month break in between anymore.
I work for a billion dollar pharmaceutical company in IT, I’m the only person in the company doing what I do. I’ve been going above and beyond for the past four years, and in four months, I’m out the door and there’s nothing anyone can do about it because someone 5 levels above me I’ve never met who makes more in a year than I have the last 5.
Loyalty and work ethic don’t mean anything in this country anymore.
Work hard with pride but absolutely get paid. The business is not running a charity. Neither are you.
My mom is a giver and has this attitude. I’ve seen her ‘earn’ nothing but more boots to step on her. Sorry m8 all evidence says otherwise. Maybe you’re in a great country or you work for an outstanding mom and pop company. Congrats, happy for you. But the shoe doesn’t fit everyone.
No No and No
Gone are the days of boomer work philosophy.
Its no longer a badge of honor to work 50hrs for 40 paid
We dont need any heros here bro
If you suck so much at your job that you need to “put in the work” and do extra hours to fulfill your duties, skill issue dude.
But, like “don’t buy Starbucks and travel” to save for a house, “don’t overcommit to your business” if your whole model is based on expecting more than you’re paying.
P.S: Capitalism is built in exploitation and you’re basically agree to being exploited, what a deal!
My grandmother, a staunch Republican and God-Fearing woman sat me down at 14.5 years old when I started working. (The youngest legal age in WI at the time.)
You punch in.
You do what they ask you to do. Take pride in it. Work hard. Do your best.
You clock out.
After that, you don’t owe them a fucking thing.
My grandad worked for a plastic factory for 45 years. They’d always been a union shop, but it was always laid back. The company made sure they never had much to complain about. Then they got bought out, and the union dissolved.
They immediately laid off all the old heads, and my grandad had to join a class-action to get his pension he’d worked for for half a century.
Fuck the company. Fuck HR. Fuck your CEO. Fuck your VP. Fuck the shareholders. They all need to be reminded what they’d have if it weren’t for the people actually making shit happen.
Definitely an unpopular opinion. With good reason. I’ve worked my ass off for multiple companies and other organizations. Some are good and you will be rewarded for going above and beyond. However, most organizations/companies will not reward you for going the extra mile. They will take advantage of you.
I’m 51 and will never go the extra mile, ever again, for anybody other than myself. I’ve been burned too many times.
Okay, boomer, you have fun working for free off the clock. How do those boots taste by the way?
I went from making $16.50 to making 104k a year at 40 hours a week by doing more than my peers. I am not going to say I didn’t ever slack off because I did, but others set the bar so low that I was a superstar at every level. It only took me 4 years to go from 16.50, to 22.50 (training lead), to 65k (supervisor), to 104k (lowest junior manager role).
100% this was written by an employer
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read on reddit.
I work in a field where I’m more qualified to do my bosses jobs than they are because to be hired in their role they need to have learned a completely different skillset whereas my role is a lot more transferable. I applied to the one management adjacent position that didn’t have the same requirements and it was given to my managers friend with no knowledge of how our department works all the while being told I’m an excellent interview but I’m overqualified. We’re also unionized which means no promotions, bonuses or raises. I’m not working adjacent close enough with anyone in any kind of position I’d be eligible without going back to university. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great job. Ok pay, benefits, nice hours. And honestly I’m good at it. But I’m bored to death and it is the definition of a dead end. So no, I don’t work a minute I’m not paid for, and I don’t do anything outside of my job description because it serves no benefit.
Hope you got paid for this post, it would be embarrassing to be a bootlicker off the clock.
I went above and beyond at the first job out of college and did a ton of stuff that wasn’t specifically in my job description.
I’ve been with them for almost 15 years, my pay has more than quadrupled, I’ve been promoted more than 6 times, and due to my good reputation and tenure I’ve got a good amount of PTO that I can use at a moments notice because everyone knows I’m not a slacker.
I’m not saying that my employer is perfect and I’m not saying that there aren’t shitty employers out there. Hard work however can pay off.
Lmao. You think I should be grateful for an underpaying job? Fuck no. If they can’t pay a livable wage, then they have no right hiring. Work the long hours on your own. Get your family to help. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, stop the avocado toast. What an idiotic take.
As a people manager in a corporation (salaried, not hourly) I expect people on my team to be smart. This means that health, family, life come first. It also means that the norm has to be that they work normal hours in a low stress environment. It’s my job to provide that.
Being smart also means that if we have an important deliverable due that day which we are all working towards and one person is unavailable starting 5:01 pm I won’t see this person as particularly smart, contextually aware, or someone I will feel favorable towards then they are the ones needing an exception or asking for my support for a promotion.
You can say whatever you want on Reddit about faceless corporations and whatever. But I and the rest of the team are still real humans helping each other get a project done and someone is not a part of it.
As a rule of life, I believe in coherence more than anything. The person working exactly to the letter of their contract every day of their life will most likely get jobs that have that expectation.
Said differently, don’t expect to train 45 minutes a day three times a week and make it to the NBA.
Oligarchic Corporate Interest opinions are generally unpopular
I believe the reason that sooooo many people refuse to give an extra second to their employers is because there are millions of us that did go above and beyond all the time…. And it didn’t make a bit difference in their story … Their employer didn’t care and how to expect it and just abused it and then other people got promotions and we learned that just because one guy made it to the top doesn’t mean we all will…. And in fact, we can’t, there’s not that many top spots…. So we’d rather invest in things that matter to us.
I love my job, I love the company I work for, they don’t ask us to do anything above and beyond … They tell us not to and give us overtime when we need it. Because they respect us…. The job I like funds the life that I love…. And that’s valid too
How do your company’s boots taste?
Ah…finally a redditor who has lived in the real world.
Found the GM
Spoken like an employer who wants free labor. You’re not fooling anyone
Way to impress your overlords by licking them corporate boots. Disgusting
This sounds like an entitle gen xer is mad at something their gen z employee has done.
If you’re an older millennial, then you’ve been around the block a bit.
Trust me mate. Working above and beyond only works if you have mates in high places, giving you a leg up into the next level. You’ve definitely benefited from this, and if you deny it, then you’re either oblivious or a liar.
I’m 40 this year, been working since i was 15. My last job I always went above and beyond, and the only times I ever proceeded past my current role was when I made friends higher up, or quit that place to move to another, higher role somewhere different. One rewards nepotism which is basically slow rot from within, the other means your workplace loses a skilled operator and another company benefits from your upskilling. Neither is good work practise, yet this is how employment has evolved over time.
Nobody gives a shit about your capabilities until you either threaten to quit, and they realise you can’t be replaced, or you demand a raise and they realise they can’t replace you in your current role. Best bet is to do the minimum required, take your pay check, and keep learning so when you do feel the need to progress in your career, you can jump ship to a better ship, or play the game and become mates with your boss, which not everyone is good at.
Bootlicker
How many of us only do the one job we were hired for? A whole lot of us are out here doing the work of three people crossing department lines.
Some of us have chosen to match energy. We do unto our employers as they do unto us.
How many of us have seen people fired two months before their retirement? Had to fight for three unpaid bereavement days when we had to travel and handle estate issues. How many of us had to drag ourselves in with a fever? How many of us took “the promotion” that came with more responsibility but no extra pay? How many of us have heard “I know we hired you in below market but there are no raises or bonuses this year. By the way the big boss is taking his family to Hawaii for two weeks so you’ll have to handle yada yada”.
Do you know how many retail workers die at their place of work and aren’t found until a family member calls concerned because they didn’t come home? Look it up- the answer will shock you.
I have heard thirty handfuls of uppers state some version of “employees are a liability”.
They can make the first move thank you.
100% incorrect. Companies do everything in their power to eliminate costs. Humans are their biggest expense and your job will be eliminated if possible.
In an era where you could work 40 years at a place and retire with a pension and a gold watch sure. Nowadays no. Loyalty and going above and beyond do not provide any merit to the worker.
Except more often than not the reward for work is more work. When I learned how to operate a new machine I was still denied a raise as it was considered a “lateral improvement”. I left that company not long after and they still cant keep that role filled
Electric Boat has entered the chat.
Truly unpopular opinion.
🥾 👅
Boomer gripe.
Giving a B grade at work has given me raises, bonus and promotions. Giving an A at work gave me ptsd. I’ll stick with a B.
I permanently damaged nerves in my leg and back where I used to work and they let me go without a second thought.
This isn’t unpopular, just horrible advice.
If I click out and a manager stops me and tells me I’m supposed to ask what to do before I clock out I will ignore them because my shift ends at 5pm without an asterisk and 5pm means 5pm.
Man has OP ever had a real job?
You should always act your wage
People who go above and beyond don’t get promotions, they get more work. There are other much more significant ways to get a promotion that don’t require you to sacrifice your spare time.
Some of that logic is flawed. For example you can’t argue that paying you less than what you’re worth is OK, because without it you’d have no job at all. If you take it all the way down to its logical conclusion, everyone would be working for pennies. Because otherwise they wouldn’t have a job at all. But of course that’s not how it works. If you can’t afford the caliber of employee, you don’t deserve that caliber of employee.
Similarly, if the company isn’t evil, it should have no problem in paying overtime when employees go above and beyond. Vast majority do not. So this whole “not evil” thing feels very one-sided. Where not-evil company still won’t pay you, but you are still expected to work off the clock on your own time. That doesn’t work, because that means there would be companies that pay you when you’re not working, just because. How often does that happen? Practically never.
Third, with the amount of nepotism and racism going on, you absolutely cannot depend on the company being a meritocracy, where you get ahead as much as you put in. Most of the time, if you work more, they will just give you more work. There’s an old saying also – never be indispensable, because you’ll never get promoted.
Loyalty to companies also usually doesn’t pay. Most people, when they get fired, find out the day of, and get frogmarched out by security. Whereas when people quit on their own, companies demand 2+ week notice. Do you see how one-sided that is? You can be fired with zero warning, for zero reason, but you shouldn’t quit with zero warning and zero reason, unless you don’t care about getting blacklisted and not getting good references. You can put in 10-20 years of your life working for a company, at the end of which they just tell you to piss off and replace you with someone younger and/or cheaper. There’s no loyalty there, they’re not your friends.
If none of this applies to your experience, just recognize that you’ve been incredibly, stupidly lucky at life. And that for vast majority of the population, that’s just not how things work.
I’ll give you a real life example from my 20s. I went to work for a company. The pay was low, but I was young. I always went the extra mile, but the company stole my money. When I punched in at 08:01, the card would say I punched in at 08:15. When I went to punch out, it rounded the other way, if I punched out at 16:59, it said I punched out at 16:45. So they stole hours worth of my wages every months. Then they fired another guy, and gave me his work to do. I was still responsible for all of my work, but now I was also doing all of his work. Obviously I wasn’t getting any of his pay. But again, I was young and stupid, so I went along and worked like a dog, for several months, hoping that either A) I get a massive pay bump, or B) they hire someone else to replace the guy I was covering. Neither happened. After about 4 months of being exploited this way I broke down and quit. And the only bad feelings I had about it is that I didn’t do it 4 months sooner. My boss cussed me out on my way out.
I hope this is unpopular
I’ll do shit outside of my job description.
In most professions, that’s understood. You’ll have to help out or cover certain responsibilities.
I will never work a minute I’m not paid for. In fact, when I was managing a restaurant, if an hourly employee forgot to do something before they clocked out, I’d just do it for them and tell them that the first one is free and I’m not mad, but to try to start paying more attention to your work. If we are slammed and an employee happened to be drinking or dining on their day off offered to help expo or something, the answer was no, depending on the circumstances. It’s your day off, I have labor costs to worry about so I can’t let you clock in, and if they offered to help free it’s illegal to for me let them do that, even if they want to.
Not only would it have been super fucked up if I let my employees work without paying them, if they got injured on the job while off the clock, corporate/regional manager would have fired me on the spot. Because that’s a huge problem.
If you’re hourly, go above and beyond so long as you’re being compensated for it. But… being paid for your labor and not being paid for your labor is the difference between employment and slavery. Don’t do work off the clock.
This changes and gets a lot more complicated when you’re salaried
Sorry but the times I went “beyond” the hours I was being paid for, I ended up digging myself into a hole because they started assuming I can just do that all the time with no consequence to them. I was working 10-12 hours but only being paid for 8. Also never received a pay raise or a promotion. That’s how I burned out less than 2 years into my job.
I don’t think I’ve ever worked a job that didn’t require tasks go fallow while I do other tasks. Like every single job I’ve had requires 3 people, and they hire 1.
“Above and beyond” can go fuck itself.
Congrats, you managed to really get me with this one.
I once worked for a shitty company where I was placed on a PIP for doing my job and highlighting why the company was dying. There is absolutely no way I’m gonna go out of my way for a corporation unless they’ve earned it
Hey great advice. Maybe I’ll just work for free, eventually maybe I’ll impress someone enough that they’ll pay me!
>No one in life is going to give you something you don’t earn.
Why does this only apply to the employee and not the employer? The employer/employee relationship is already by its nature exploitative and imbalanced as it is, without the employee having to put in free work in order to be considered for advancement. The employee should be considered for advancement if they are exceptional at the job they were hired for, not because they were willing to be further exploited.
When considering my job and what I am willing to do, I always consider this in the opposite way – what has my employer done to earn my extra effort and time? If they’re not doing anything to earn it, it’s likely not a company you want to advance in anyway, and it’s time to go looking for a new one that does earn your time and effort.
The problem is not employees not “going above and beyond” – it’s a system that treats human beings like assets, pays them the absolute minimum possible, and already requires unpaid labor and cost to the employee (commute time, gas or bus pass, “professional wardrobe,” etc.) just to do the job they were hired for.
It’s more difficult to advocate for changing the system than blame the exploited for not allowing themselves to be further exploited, sure, but things will never get better until the system changes. I’m glad that the younger generations are holding their employers responsible for earning their loyalty, effort, and time.
(I’m also an elder millenial, and have been both a manager and employee.)
I’m still relatively young, but in my own experience I’ve gained more recognition by comparison with the ineptitude of my coworkers than by me doing something extra at work.
There’s an incredible amount of idiots who work. Don’t be one of them and you are already halfway to a promotion.
“No one has ever gotten a promotion without first showing they can do the job. That usually means going above and beyond.”
This is just factually wrong.
This certainly is an unpopular/moronic opinion.
Agreed 100%. Doing it to shitty employers may seem like this is good, but when you use that same mindset with an employer who is willing to work with you and overall gives a good environment, it starts to show that the mentality just isn’t great.
I agree with doing things that allow you to learn new skills. But do not work outside your working hours. You are paid for the hours you work. They want more hours? They pay more money. Same as any other service.
Super disagree but this is the right sub for this opinion
>I’m an older millennial and not a manager
So despite having never been promoted you feel qualified to tell people what will and won’t get them promoted.