To think every workplace has at least one eager beaver who lives for work and has nothing else going on?

Yes, and unfortunately for me, this person is my boss and expects us all to have the same standards 🙃

When I was younger I spent a lot of time working away from home. I was usually last out as staying at work was better than sitting in a hotel room.

It's just another part of working with other people. We all have different ways of being. I doubt the 'eager beaver' is actively trying to make you or anyone else in your workplace look bad, though they may be trying to make themselves look better. (Nothing wrong with trying to get ahead, and putting in extra effort is often required for that.)

Anyway, there's nothing you can do about it except alter your own behaviour or your inner monologue. Either put in more effort, if you feel you need to compete or be seen to be working as hard as Mr/Ms Eager, or try to stop focusing on it by reminding yourself that you're putting in a good day of work. If you're genuinely doing your job as stipulated, just keep at it. You'll just have to grit your teeth through any annoyance.

I think it depends on the ‘season’ of your life. It was true for me when I first qualified as a teacher and that’s pretty normal. It’s not true now 26 years later with elderly parents and DC. It may be true again near the end of my career; who knows?!

Perijane I can see why this is how you operate.
I don't like socialising for socialising sake so most of my interactions are with like minded people at work.

Yes I'm was one of them.
Firstly I was zero hours with kids mortgage car etc so every hour counted.
Next I went into overdrive due to coping with lots of family ill heath like heart attacks and cancer.
Then 12 or 13 hour days when df died and got addicted to the extra money.
Also my hobby is my career and so I'm really interested in it.
It's written through me like a stick of rock.
Diagnosed with hyperactive impulsive ADHD.
The long days were probably made for people like me.

Yes I recognise what the OP is referring to, we had or have one. Who now has had periods of ill-health.

I don't want there to be such people as I want everyone to be able to enjoy a period of retirement in good health. Not sure I can stop them though.

Exactly this.

Also how would some of the YANBU people on here feel about being called 'jobsworths'?

It takes all sorts to make a workplace work effectively and for all team participants

It sounds like school where clever and hardworking kids were mocked by the so-called 'cool kids' who never did their homework.

If people who are ambitious start off in a lower grade role but want to progress, it makes sense to 'go above and beyond'. If they are pleasant colleagues, it seems unfair to make assumptions about their empty and lonely lives.

I am one of those people. I’m also diagnosed autistic and am therefore in a minority since only 20% ish of autistic people are in full time employment. In no particular order…

I don’t really have friends, am single, no kids and live hours away from family, so get most of my social interaction from work.

I have special interests that develop whilst doing parts of my role that I then become a bit obsessed with - I.e. I spent all of this weekend just gone working on spreadsheets and learning advanced excel stuff - because I am enjoying learning about it.

I feel I have to work harder and showcase what I CAN do to compensate for the things I’m not good at, and show why I deserve to have this role, even though I am autistic.

I have to demonstrate I’m a ‘team player’ in other ways because I’m crap at the usual social expectations of what people see as a team player. So I do it by being efficient, being available and completing all pieces of work to a very high standard.

I go to the office early so I can set myself up for the day and work in quiet without having to use my noise cancelling headphones. Wearing them for too long causes pain. It also means I can leave earlier if I become sensory overloaded. Sometimes I end up staying late because I am in hyper focus mode.

I access emails/teams while off work so I know what’s going on and am not blindsided by changes on my return. Knowing things in advance is better for me.

I don’t care if others don’t do the same. I do care if they aren’t even doing the basics of their job though. I also don’t need you to feel sorry for me. I actually like living alone and being able to do what I want. If I want to create stuff on a weekend because it’s a subject I want to learn more about then yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.

I do have other hobbies that generally rotate through my special interest focus.

I agree, I've worked with many people who bend over backwards to do extra work, extra hours they're not paid for. It's like they think they owe their employer this unpaid labour and gratitude for giving them a job. It's very sad. I appreciate hard workers, but ultimately everyone is replaceable, and you shouldn't do more than what you're paid for ever.

I feel it's very important to be accepting of peoples work styles. So long as they don't really impact the workplace in a detrimental manner.

One thing that's also important is to recognise the difference between a job and a career and that one persons idea of just a job is another persons career.

For me work helps with my mental and emotional stability (I have anxiety and ADHD and I suspect autism). Long periods not working derail my mental health whereas work gives me structure.

Yep and what a shit-stirring bastard it was. Hadn’t spoken to her daughter for years but was fully up to speed with what everyone in the office was doing. Cunt.

Quite. Clock-watchers who do the bare minimum just create more work for people who do enjoy their jobs and usually massive resentment.

Why would anyone choose someone who blatantly can't be arsed over someone who puts a bit of thought and work into it? Such an entitled attitude.

If you hate your job try to work to find one which suits you better, rather than slagging off people who enjoy theirs.

There are also clock-watchers who do the bare minimum, have no interest in their job and wouldn't start a minute before their time. It does get tiring.

I find the eager ones much easier to deal with frankly.

They want to go ahead and put the effort, what else are they supposed to do? Bare mininum doesn't bring you anything.

I was that person because I wanted to do well

I’d far rather work with someone like that than people who do the very bare minimum and think that’s good enough.

True but if it works for them I just leave them to it, it doesn't affect me i just get on with my work it doesn't make me feel anything other than remembering that it happens

This was my old boss - super high achiever and once I got to know her I realised she was very Alpha and really did live to work. She loved her job and was very good at it. It felt a bit like she was always trying to prove something, maybe to herself. She was (or seemed) happy and wasn’t judgy about people who weren’t as driven as she was. I admired her work ethic and am the sort to do my best if I’m going to do something so we made a good team.
I get a bit more wound up by the people who don’t want to work that hard, tbh.

Yes. Had someone the other day bore on at me about how they always take laptop on hols with them so they don’t ’miss out’. What the ever loving fuck.

I think that the bigger issue is those who don't pull their weight. I do end up volunteering quite a bit because when our boss ask for volunteers, there are only 4 of us who can do most of the higher skilled tasks, 1 is extremely lazy and full of excuses, 1 is battling complex health issues and does extra when they can bit often can't, and 1 is really stubborn and refuses to do extra and threatens to quit if made to do so, and its a hard area to recruit in. Other 3 are all full time and I'm part time but my boss comes to me as I'm capable and generally say yes, as the alternative is that some really unwell children don't get their needs met.

So yes, I'm the person who volunteers, who works unpaid overtime, because I have 2 annoying and 1 unwell colleague, a spineless boss and very unwell children to look after.

I don't see how speculating about their private lives helps you with this? It does just sound like a nasty put down. If someone wants to make their work their whole life, that's their business. ( you might be very grateful if this was a dedicated doctor treating you for example)

You just focus on yourself, working your contracted hours, getting your work done and meeting the terms of your contract and you shouldn't have a problem....

I used to be like that, I think it was just to prove I wasn’t as crap as I was trying not to be! Just wanted to be helpful really. It’s fallen fallen fallen since kids, marriage, now even further since marriage drooping !!

I've had someone like this in most workplaces. I felt sorry for a couple of them.

Others were jobsworths you had to watch your back around as they loved to put you down in order to make themselves look good.