to ask if anyone else is half-arsing their job?

[Spacemannn]

I work full time with two pre-schoolers (due to my part-time working request being declined). I get paid well (although not mumsnet well) for a mid-senior job, with no line management, but the bulk of my salary goes on childcare.

Since having my second child, I just cba anymore. I used to be such a perfectionist and always go above and beyond, but I just don't care as much anymore. I work hybrid, and on my WFH days I'm trying to squeeze in as many chores/life admin as poss in between tasks.

Is anyone else like this? Does it matter? I switch between feeling guilty, and then feeling like as long as I'm getting the work done and doing an ok job, that's fine? I still get paid the same whether I put in 70% effort or 100% effort. There are no promotion opportunities on the horizon, and I don't think I'd want the extra responsibility at the moment anyway.

Any tips for working smarter not harder? I'm organised, responsive and quick, so I don't think it's a case of me not adding value to the company...

Sorry, wasn't accusing you of whining or complaining! I meant that when I was a manager I had whiners, and the "don't care" girl was a relief!

I'm not especially keeping my head down either. They've got a million and one problems, I just show up, point them out and work on solutions without caring.

(tbf, I think that got me the job - I drew on experience in my interview about dealing with toxic/overwrought atmospheres, and I think they were happy that I had good boundaries and practical experience in getting on with it in such situations)

Yeah, I did this when I was in charge.

I literally shared the full bottom line of the organisation financial plan, made it really clear who was responsible for what, but also that all the teams should feed in together when needed.

I did targets that we're linked to the same plan. Want to switch projects or train up? Sure. Think we should try something new on x budget line? Yes, try it out, let's see? It didn't work? Never mind.

I wanted the best of everyone, not the most hours. As long as everyone was pulling their best for the organisation they worked brilliantly.

And I saved myself a lot of time in management by letting them set their work targets themselves.

@thecatsthecats I think this it's more likely with smaller owner led businesses. In larger more corporate businesses it is less so because employees don't buy the 'we value our people' HR mantra when how they are treated shows them they are not valued or respected.

I was always that person who gave my job 100%. I worked harder and longer than 99% of my colleagues. You know what? I earned the same money as them, had the same holiday entitlement as them and got made redundant with them. If I had my time over again I would be like the rest of them, just do enough.

Indeed this is true. I'm not sure that it might also be a female thing to want to be good, compliant and follow the rules whereas male colleagues seem to fair better doing the bare minimum but perhaps impressing management with their chat.

Quite, I have gone corporate now, and although I'm enjoying coasting along there and not being on the hook for everything, I do miss having the autonomy to run a business well, and without BS!

Absolutely. Same here.

I would love to know what jobs/ industries those that can get away with half arsed work and WFH days spent doing as you please. How is this not noticeable, do others have to compensate for your lack of productivity

These people have their own workloads rather than workloads shared between teams.

Agree. The counter to this of course is that no one does your work when you are on leave ! It’s also often in a role where you generate your own work.

Its very hard to measure productivity in services. And a lot of I gave 100 percent is an oversimplification. Which is the best worker? Which is healthiest? And I've met all these people though of course this is my estimate of how hard they worked.

One gives 100 percent, works overtime, exceeds objeectives but is rude to others, takes praise for their work and lowers morale, takes 2 weeks off due to burnout

One gives 80 percent, is polite, boosts morale, shares knowledge, does quite well as past experience makes them a natural fit for the job.

One gives 60 percent, keeps self to self , exceeds objectives, highly reliable (meets deadlines), takes long breaks, doing twice the average as they're incredibly intelligent.

I think we should be careful before assuming long hours and no breaks means more, better work.

I work in the public sector and am part of a small team, however my role is the only one of its kind in my organisation and I therefore entirely manage my own workload. No-one picks up my slack. No-one covers my job while I'm on holiday, it all piles up for when I get back. When I was on sick-leave for 6 months, having cancer treatments, I had to do a huge amount of work in advance to cover my job while I was away. During busy periods, I work ridiculously long days... but I balance it out by having lazy days doing the bare minimum during the rest of the year.

I think the cancer treatments were a wake-up call for me. The two weeks before I went on sick leave, I was busting a gut to get all my work done when I should've been resting and prepping for my treatments. I was working up until 11pm the night before my first chemoradiotherapy session. Nobody ever asked me how I was doing. Nobody sent a card. Nobody asks after me now, even a few years later... and it's all still the same people. Basically, nobody gives a crap, so why should I bother putting in any extra effort? I've scaled back. I'm just doing what I need to. No more, no less.

@NCNC4

That's awful. I hope you're well now.

I remember when we got new computer systems and my manager saying we should upload our daily work to the cloud so if we "got run over by a bus" someone could still access the work we'd completed that day. I know it was a light hearted comment but at the same time it goes to show the general attitude. We're a really small team too and I would hope that if I died tomorrow the first comment wouldn't be "how can we access the work she did last week" (although I suspect it might be!).

@EmpressSoleil

All good now, thank you. It just reinforced in my mind that there's no benefit to helping colleagues out, if I don't need to, or going the extra mile with anything at work.

Funny you should say about the "run over by a bus" comment, because that's almost word-for-word what my line manager said to me about making sure I store all my work on the shared drive at all times.

I’m really sorry your colleagues didn’t even ask after you, that is horrible. But I think this is a cautionary tale of sorts and demonstrates a difference in attitudes of those who bought into the going-the-extra-mile schtick in the belief it would bring rewards, and those who just want to do their duties, get paid and enjoy life outside of work.

If I got a serious illness it wouldn’t occur to me for a minute to do all the work and prep you did. I’d probably get signed off sick asap and think fuck work, I’m ill, they’ll have to manage without me. I approach work with a very self-serving attitude - what benefits can it give me (money, flexibility etc) without me having to put in more effort than I want? Luckily as a freelancer in a creative industry I do have a lot of freedom and I know I wouldn’t do well in a very hierarchical place with lots of checks.

Anyway, im sorry to hear of your experience and I hope you’re in good health now.

@NCNC4 I am so sorry you have been treated like this by your colleagues but it is indeed a cautionary tale that we should all take note of. I would probably have done exactly the same by working myself silly before any time off. I think it comes from some sort of compulsion not to let others down whereas the same others wouldn't think twice about taking time off and leaving mountains of work for me to pick up. I hope you are doing ok now and I will certainly keep your story in mind in future.

When you pay attention to the way other people work, it’s very striking how incredibly inefficient and slow a very large proportion of them are. They work very hard, and get fuck all done. If you are actually efficient, it’s entirely possible to achieve more on 70% effort than these people do on 100%. It must be very annoying for them.

Indeed.

My own experience of this was caused by work-related stress.

I had already been through a period of extreme stress at the organization - big problem right at board level. I was promoted up and immediately expected to deal with it, because I was the only trusted neutral - which didn't mean that all the relevant players didn't try hard to manipulate and use me. I sorted that, and got the company on track over three years.

Then a significant issue reared its head, and again, I did all the legwork to solve it. But it was too much this time and I burned out, and badly. Signed off with a roaring heart rate and a body trying to shut down with stress. The CEO knew how badly it was affecting me, knew that the appropriate way to contact me was via my husband - still messaged me out of the blue asking me to get involved with the very situation I was stressed by. Again, I was the only one not causing problems, but very much the one expected to solve them.

And I chose not to. The CEO ended up fired himself - I was offered the position, but refused it. I was sick of being used.

(Funnily enough, the staff were all lovely and very concerned for my welfare - they couldn't 'use' me though.)

I regret having worked hard my whole life. I have realised it doesn’t pay to be conscientious or a grafter. Now in a new job and probably put in about 75% (on a good day)with no intention of upping it.
Having worked more recently with some people with very low standards, I’ve taken the opinion of- If you can’t beat them, join them!

It’s something you need to balance up. I used to work in private sector and working hard would have been a direct line to promotion. I currently work in public sector and there’s so many people willing to coast until they retire and do the absolute bare minimum in their working day, if that. I’m talking people who spend their day gossiping and not being present with their actual work, that constantly have tech issues, that struggle with writing in plain English to the extent people find it difficult to speak to them. With people like this around me, what’s the point of going above and beyond? If I do 10% of what I’m capable of, I will be just as effective…