AIBU to stop overperforming at work?

“No, that’s not my job, ask X”
”I’ll get to that next week when I’m back at work”

Oooh my new motto
”Act your wage”!

This is exactly what it’s like where I work (I’m part-time too).
Some people just faff about writing endless reports with lots of pretty graphs about work plans that are never actioned.

And me! I’ve read through this thread with huge interest.

I don't think you should have to work more hours than you are paid for, but do your fellow citizens not deserve your best efforts?

I don't think you should have to work more hours than you are paid for, but do your fellow citizens not deserve your best efforts?

I’d keep doing more (but cut down) as you could be chosen for a temp promotion or of course use these skills for interviews of next grade. You can’t just give out jobs at the civil service without advertising.

If you want to stay there you need to make it rewarding and sustainable, make it work for you as you intended. But if you would like a promotion, go for it elsewhere. There's a middle ground - healthy assertiveness and co operation. Value yourself and they might too (no one ever does until you stop, weirdly).

I found out the hard way that the only reward for hard work is more work! I learnt to stop saying yes to everything and I’m no longer the go-to super-reliable highly-praised one at work butttt I’m also not stressed up to my eyeballs anymore. The turning point was a project with a 24 hour deadline that would’ve taken 20 hours to complete. I started working a bit slower, taking longer to respond to things and just saying I couldn’t do things more often. I’m still reliable in that I always meet deadlines, but I only take on what I can manage and push back when I have enough to be getting on with

Yes act your wage. You aren't letting anyone down. They're taking advantage and you're letting them.

The art of saying No is very liberating in my 50s…I didn’t dare do it in my 30-40s and burnt out.
My go to is “I can pick that up but will be unable to deliver the xyz outcomes you have asked me for within the capacity I have? Which would you like me to focus on? “
I’m very organised and work P/T and get very peed off when a couple of my F/T colleagues can’t deliver their work load and I get asked to “support” them ffs we are the same level they just don’t focus half the time on the outcomes just fuss around the process… Hope you can get back control of the focused to do list as it is the way to handle this.

@ParotidPal I struggled with this coming from a private sector that expects blood & then asks for more. Afraid to say it but I went for a promotion which helped. I also had a tough personal year which as a pp said made me a bit lazier!

Wow! I didn’t get that at all!

You dont always have to say tin words. Just shift it to the bottom of the pile and let the work mount up. When asked "Oh I havnt got around to that yet"

Unless you work in the NHS or a similar environment no one is going to die iif you cant do the work in the hours you are paid for. Thats a management problem and not an employee problem.

There is an old saying that "The more you do the more you can do" and employers will take advantage of this the whole time"

I'm assuming you are working all this overtime and they aren't paying you for it. Every employer under the sun will take advantage of someone who goes above and beyond, and puts in extra hours for no extra pay, and they will be so happy about it, they will not consider you for promotion. Why should they? They are already getting that higher-level of work out of you.

Please don't be daft about this. Just stop doing it.

@Fragmentedbrain

She thinks she took a scummy beneath her gig and is outraged no one else agrees how special she is (query why she had to take such a wretched lowly public sector, ugh, post in the first place).
When it seems like everyone else is the problem it usually means you're the problem

If that chip on your shoulder was any bigger you would walk with a limp.

There is literally nothing in the OP's post that suggests any of this is true.

I can read what she wrote

She thinks she took a scummy beneath her gig and is outraged no one else agrees how special she is (query why she had to take such a wretched lowly public sector, ugh, post in the first place).

When it seems like everyone else is the problem it usually means you're the problem

@Fragmentedbrain

She isn't ambitious she thinks she's better than everyone else despite having zero sector experience and apparently being incapable of promotion from a very junior role.

Do you know the OP?

Because if not you’re just projecting your own prejudice onto a situation about which you know nothing…

She isn't ambitious she thinks she's better than everyone else despite having zero sector experience and apparently being incapable of promotion from a very junior role.

My experience of people like this is that they think they're the bee's knees but make shit calls, create work from nowhere for no reason and get outraged when their appraisals are mediocre.

"But I worked in private practice!!!!"

I know and if you were this useless there I pity your paying clients my friend.

So anyone who is ambitious, has pride in their job or seeks to help colleagues with their workload is “unbearable”… OK then.

And people wonder why theres a productivity crisis in this country.