When you enter a workplace, you get to know the dynamics of the specific company, office and staff, but some of the lessons you are taught are universal. Unfortunately, many of them lead to disappointment and just highlight how unfair people are.
Reddit users shared the lessons employment taught them when FoxChess shared a screenshot of a thread on the same topic started by The Skinfluencer. Actually, Bored Panda made a list from the answers there so you can read through more work-related lessons by clicking here.
More info: Reddit
#1
I always tell my students that when you find yourself with a job or in the workforce, always have your boss/supervisor convinced your 75-85% is your 100%, mainly to avoid burnout, and only go full effort in short bursts when you’re certain you’ll get something out of it
Image credits: Seer77887
#2
Overworked workers don't get raises, they get pizza parties
Image credits: Egan__
#3
The reward for hard work is more work!
Image credits: UnitedLab6476
#4
Loyalty doesn’t mean s**t. Your workplace will kick you to the curb in a second to save a buck as mine did after being there for 10 years.
Image credits: EnleeJones
#5
When your work tells you that they are a family remind them that you hate your f*****g family.
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#6
I call it the 'Curse of Competency' and I warn every new employee not to be too good at anything unless they want to do way more of it than they have to for no extra money.
Image credits: JackJustice1919
#7
I was very good at my job as a carpenter Foreman at concrete companies putting in foundations. That meant I was always working, even when jobs were slow and there was hardly any work. After 35 years, I got to retire at age 55 because my body was worn out. I have had 17 surgeries, 5 artificial body parts, and a device implanted on my spinal cord to block the constant pain. Along with taking morphine 3X a day. That’s what hard work got me.
Image credits: ComprehensiveSock397
#8
People who say s**t like “find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” are the dimmest life form in existence.Really, anyone who speaks in technobabble, gladwellian nonsense have absolutely zero behind the eyes.
Image credits: Amxietybb
#9
How hard you APPEAR to be working is way more important than how hard you’re actually working. If you’re not loud and boastful people will just assume you’re not doing anything
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#10
One of my favorite expressions is: "The reward for the fastest coal shoveller is a bigger shovel"
Image credits: BeholdOurMachines
#11
That no matter how much you enjoy doing something, as soon as you do it for work it loses its magic. It still makes work easier, no doubt. But if you cherish spending time on something that brings you joy, don't monetize it.
Image credits: Sable_Monarch
#12
Being really good at your job doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get promoted. If you do your job too well you’ll actually become too valuable to promote.Those who get promoted are able to do their jobs, but more importantly are vocal and able to get their work recognized.
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#13
Incompetency + Nepotism = Management Material
Image credits: SocraticIgnoramus
#14
Never bring a good idea to 'management'. Your efforts will get resented or stolen, probably both.
Image credits: glenelgisapalindrome
#15
In any job - it all pays the same. You’ll get the same 2% increase if you do just what you’re supposed to do at an acceptable level that you’ll get if you go above and beyond and throw everything into a job. Also - staying with a company for decades screws you financially. Was just reminded of this when someone from my department came to a happy hour as I was leaving. 30 years with the company and he was making less than I was when I started.
Image credits: NoInternal21418
#16
I am a highly trained specialized ICU nurse with multiple certifications. My employers have taught me that I am replaceable. The pandemic has taught me that they are wrong. As many highly trained nurses leave the bedside, myself included, I would love to say that we all proved them wrong, but somehow middle management all the way up to hospital administrators and c suite execs still think they're right. They can throw themselves pizza parties for the rest of eternity for all I care.I can't change greedy healthcare companies from the inside. We, as a society must demand free and equal access to healthcare. Healthcare is really just another victim of capitalism and putting profits above people.
#17
The trick is to convince your coworkers and management that your just competent enough to do your job, but not enough to be trusted to do any extra or complicated work.
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#18
You have to look out for yourself above anybody else, because if you don't look out for yourself nobody will.
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#19
I'm in the middle of taking yearly compliance courses and the "employee ethics" course makes my blood boil.Basically telling employees: here's a set of rules. Be ethical and honest. But management? They break the rules and get a golden parachute IF they get caught.
Ethics are basically well-intentioned rules easily manipulated by bad actors, which apparently is celebrated in the media nowadays. I'm five minutes over in clocking out and I get an occurrence. The CEO slashed 5-10% of the workforce and he gets a bonus for cost-savings.
Image credits: Poolofcheddar
#20
That's why I finish a week-long project in two days and wait a week and a half to report it.#21
That office politics will always trump hard work.
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#22
Being the best at your job doesn't mean you can't still get threatened with termination of the boss is stupid enough to do it.
Image credits: Fearless-Outside9665
#23
Years ago, I had a sales job with a construction supply company. I answered the phone and took orders, making sure people got what they needed for their project.There was one project people wanted to do, and the qualifying questions to make sure they bought the right kit took about 30-45 minutes to get through. By the time we figured out what they needed, they were kind of done with everything and just wanted to get off the phone. About 25% of the time, they would call back or order off our website. The other 75% of the time, they gave up on the project. I was losing about 2 hours a day on these calls that made nobody any money.
So, one week I turned on excel and started making a spreadsheet. I spent every single free minute I had working on that spread sheet for these kits. After dumping about 20 hours into it, I had a spreadsheet that every salesman could glance at, ask 3 or 4 questions, and match with the right kits. Qualifying took less than 5 minutes and we closed 50% of all calls, with another 20% buying off the website later.
I now had about 2 hours a day do relax.
I was given more work to do to make sure I was "earning my keep". I couldn't believe that I had increased my own sales per day by about 500$, and increased the profit per day of the sales team by about 1500$ with one spreadsheet and they said I wasn't earning my keep because I had too much down time.
#24
I was noticed to be superior to my coworkers, who deliberately and maliciously sabotaged me. Twice. Do *not* go all out to impress your leaders, it makes everyone else look bad and they will get you fired for it.
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#25
“No good deed goes unpunished”
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#26
The need to unionize and socialize#27
Some people take work way too seriously. Cell #s on OOO, everything's a fire drill, gotta set your career goals!Like bro, I'm trying to get through 8 hours and live my life. I don't have goals other than that.
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#28
my current company will literally fire me if I do my official job properlyas in, school pays them x money for contract, they tell school (truthfully) we have phd tutors etc, kid comes to you with a s**t paper, wants help, you try to help by working on writing fundamentals, thesis constructions, you name it, kid gets pissed cause you didn't point out a grammar error, kid gives you negative review, you get fired; on the other hand, kid wants help, you tell them everything is perfect, you get positive review and more hours
the client who hired the company knows none of this is happening
edit: guess who pays the school? your taxes
there's literally 0 oversight and it's a multi-billion dollar industry
Image credits: StupidOnlineTutor
#29
Working as a pharmacist for almost 30 years: NO employer in the industry truly has both morals and ethics. Most are run by business professionals NOT pharmacists. Pharmacists, as part of our nature and training usually have both. I have been taken advantage of for decades. Owners and corporations will never have your back regarding sexual harassment, poor work conditions, pay inequality, honest employment practices, etc. Only minor strides have been made on any of these issues. The industry lags behind… no, not just lags… is miles behind. It’s unacceptable considering we are Professionals.
Image credits: Traditional_Ad7474
#30
The douchebag former dean at the school I work at thought he was cute when he said "what do you get for winning the pie eating contest? More oie!"How about f**k you. I was quiet quitting before they had a name for it and I get the same annual raise as the suckers that go above and beyond.
Image credits: AttisofAssyria
#31
Being an a*s kisser is the only way you move up in a job
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#32
You’ll most likely live at work and visit your house/apartment. And that you’ll be promised things such as sick time and pto time but when it comes time for the company to pony up and give it to you they’ll lie and say you weren’t promised sick time or pto time. They’ll also push you to do illegal stuff that goes against OSHA or the FMCSA
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#33
The system is really made to benefit the employer. If you do a good job and finish fast, they believe they shouldn’t pay you full price, if what they ask is too big and too small a deadline, they’ll pay you less.You only get rewarded for doing the bare minimum, which doesn’t improve anyone
#34
I haven't been unemployed but ironically I do the bare minimum at my job and fly under the radar....they offered me a promotion.
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#35
A long time ago someone told me to do chest compressions to the tune of "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees, and since then I've tried to time my actions to certain musical compositions according to how time-sensitive they might be.Work gets "Don't worry, Be Happy." Takes a force of will to walk and move that slow, but it's worth it.
Image credits: CMDR_ETNC
#36
So - I want to preface this with the fact that I actually like my job and my bosses and most of my clients. I've written about it on here and other subs that they act like most employers **should** behave when it comes to their employees.Over the past few months we've had an unfortunate combination of "work picking up" and several people moving on to other firms. It was just an unlucky convergence - nobody left specifically because of conditions or because they were unhappy - they just had better opportunities given to them.
My projects never slowed down during the pandemic and I picked up a few more in the past few months. I had a couple really good PMs that helped me balance the load. Unfortunately we lost 3 PMs and because of that, we haven't gotten back to the efficiency level we were at before. It's slowly getting better, but I took the lion's share of the hit it feels like because one left in the middle of a massive project and I've been having to juggle being the lead engineer on the project (not to mention all the other projects for that client) with PM duties as the new PMs get onboarded to the projects.
It's not absurd and we're actively hiring and training new PMs, so we aren't I intentionally working a skeleton crew, we just lost 3 high profile PMs over the course of 6 months, two of which left within a week of one another.
Last week's weekly PM and operations call, the director of our division opened the call with "Okay, top priority this week's call - we're killing Trevor and it absolutely has to stop. Someone has to take over his workload because he's literally doing the job of 4 people right now and it's not sustainable and not fair"
We went over the last several months of my billable work and I've been scheduled for 60+ billable hours per week (and completing everything on time or ahead of schedule) and for the next 3 weeks I had 80+ hours of scheduled work per week.
I didn't even realize it, and while I felt a little stressed, when I say I love my job, it's not an understatement. My problems were difficult and the solutions were fun to find, so it tickled my ADHD hyperfocus in just the right way that I was able to keep smashing that dopamine button.
Though, it was nice that my bosses realized what was going on (maybe later than they should have) and dedicated a fairly massive amount of resources to fix the problem.
#37
Efficient workers also get everyone else punished with more work/ ratcheting performance standards
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#38
Despite the words to the contrary, managers and owners are always disappointed in how much work you get done; even if it was 100% all your effort.#39
That I will never be happy in my lifetime. I got to make do and take vacations when I can to attempt to enjoy my life.
Image credits: MutaitoSensei
#40
how to hackhow to party
how to deal with s**t from 9 - 5
how to drive home and not die
how to earn money and watch others earn far more for doing way less
the experience of being yelled at by an inferior man (or woman...)
knowing that people judge me entirely for my appearance and money one way then do it differently, hours later, when I change clothes.
this kind s**t I learned.
I learned nothing of how to be a human being nor interact with greater society.