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

[SnugShaker]

There’s always that one person who comes in early, stays late, volunteers for every extra task and seems to have no life outside of work. They act like the office is their whole world and they almost seem proud of it. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to do our jobs and go home.

I get that some people are ambitious or genuinely enjoy their work but does anyone else find it a bit… weird? Like, is it dedication or just a lack of anything else going on?

Why are there daily threads encouraging division and hate?

Edit: Hourly.

I don't think this is so much division and hate, it's a hoary old trope which comes up periodically that says people who like their jobs are stupid corporate automatons who can't think of anything better to do with their lives.

All incredibly predictable and very thinly driven by jealousy.

That’s ridiculous. They care about their research and about furthering the field, and expertise they’ve spent decades building up. That’s not ‘loser’ behaviour.

Its the not having boundaries with work that can be a detriment to that person and others in the workplace. If one person is willing to live and breath work that can change the expectations on others. That's not healthy for anyone and can lead to burnout.

They've been doing that work all their life and after retirement because they absolutely love it and it's part of them.

Whereas some people are stuck in a job they hate for their entire life and can't wait to get out of it. A third of their life wasted.

Who's the loser now ?

Yes totally agree. Frankly I have had enough of the expectation of going above and beyond in my workplace. You can set boundaries but face people talking about you behind your back. I used to work mornings only as a TA a couple of years ago. A lady joined as a TA, having being made redundant from another job. She was really keen to prove herself so hung around in the afternoon, doing extra jobs for her teacher. MY class teacher then started slagging me off in the staff room for not doing the same. I only found this out when she left.

There's only one person in my workplace who is a bit like that. They generally do a great job but sometimes overstep the mark, as if they don't have enough actual work to do, which I think is possibly the case but also probably relates to spending a lot of their own time on work. I value their efficiency though and enjoy their company - good sense of humour. I know they do have a social life, but they don't have much of what you'd call a personal life.

In teaching most people are like this before they have kids.

The ones who continue like this after they have kids tend to be the men, who in my (vast, I'm old) experience carry on after fatherhood in exactly the same way as they did before, usually getting promoted to leadership while a woman elsewhere picks up the domestic pieces for them.

The female teaching parents tend to be the ones desperately trying to balance being the professionals they were before, with the fact that breakfast club doesn't start until 7.30 and ASC closes at 6. And no, they can't volunteer for all the additional things that they could before they were parents.

I agree. It can also be a problem when the eager beaver leaves. I once saw someone really struggle as she’d been recruited to replace someone who worked way over their hours virtually every day, going ‘above and beyond’ all the time.

As her predecessor had coped with the job it was assumed to be a manageable workload, and it was only after months of stress and unhappiness she realised what had happened. So yes - it’s everyone’s right to be eager, work ridiculous hours etc - but I do think these people need to acknowledge the impact on others.

I think a person like this is just not good at their job. They are struggling with task and time management. Particularly, time management. They need extra time to do the same job as others, like hours! And cannot assess how long something will take properly, so they miss breaks.....
I would not expect a worker like this to influence her workplace colleagues to work extra time or go any extra mile...

I think OP must be talking about fairly routine jobs, perhaps jobs where people clock in, clock out and there is a concept of paid overtime? Not my world.

My first thought, perhaps like yours, was that she is talking about sticklers for rules rather than people for whom long hours in demanding professional jobs are routine.

I think every place that I've ever worked has had one of these people!

Academics do even work while they sleep LOL
But they love it. And tgey are right. There is much to love in the job.

My boss has noticed my keeness and likes it...i very much have a life outside work though and want to retire , travel and potter around.

Efficiency and the desire to do a good job do not always equate to ‘grassing’ people up to the manager though. You might think the small wig me if you worked with me as I am efficient and very thorough yet have never once felt the need to be underhand.

You also never have a full idea of what goes on in peoples outside lives despite how well you think you may know them.

There are also people who may have reasons for the way they work that you are completely unaware of.

You do yours.

Maybe they don't have much else going on outside of work. Or maybe what they have going on outside of work isn't particularly pleasant, and work is a welcome escape. Or maybe they just take immense pride in their work, or they want to impress to progress, or whatever.

I think the "they're making the rest of us look bad" POV is a guilty conscience thing.

I think the "they're making the rest of us look bad" POV is a guilty conscience thing.

It's pathetic. It's trying to knock down anyone who shows the slightest bit of conscientiousness or ambition.

Yup. It’s ’I hate that you make me look lazy.’ It’s essentially the class clown calling an industrious child ‘teacher’s pet’.

Mmmm... you're massively back-pedalling there. Your OP just wants people to agree it's 'weird'. You've been called out for being a bit nasty, so just own it.

Most people have boundaries, but doing a few extra hours here and there is much less stressful than clock-watching frankly.

In many jobs, it's also give and take. You do a lot of over-time, but you get a bonus to match and no-one says anything if you take a few hours off from time to time, without booking them as annual leave.

I used to be the person you’re describing. In fact I still am. When I started out it was because I wanted to progress. And I did…. Now I earn a decent amount and so am not a junior person on the team. So when there are other staff off on annual leave or family emergencies we need to cover that work. And I am more than happy to do that as I wouldn’t expect someone with prior commitments, or who’s in a more junior role, to cover that work.

I do take on board what a pp said about organising time, but, I’m in a role where we log what we are doing in six minute units and it gets spot checked. It means you can easily see whether someone has been taking the piss and logging fictitious time.

Those people are the ones that you want working for you.
People who do the minimum and nothing more are irritating.
I'm in the middle.
I like to do as much as I can within reason.

Also on the flip side - there is someone I work with who pretty much refuses to do anything more than their set hours (fair enough). They then work an extra half hour maybe once or twice a week and then think that entitles them to have a three hour lunch here and there, or having a lie in and starting two hours late. And they say they’re keen for a promotion.

There’s working to rule and then there’s being bone idle and not actually even managing to scrape together your actual minimum contracted hours.

This ⬆️ has a much more toxic effect on a team.

I must be one of those stupid folk - after many many years in my job I got back the enthusiasm that I had 30 years ago (which I though had gone for good) when I started a new jib five years ago.

I feel lucky to have a job I love, and it helps me feel energetic every morning when I wake up. It’s never a chore.

Well I don’t think it’s true to say that “every” workplace has one of those people, although I’ve definitely worked with a fair few in my time. In my current team there is definitely no-one who fits that description. The two youngest, most junior people on the team are overly enthusiastic about volunteering for everything going and making it sound like they’re doing lots of work … but then the work is always done to such a low standard that it doesn’t really give a good impression if they are doing it because they’re ambitious. And no-one would accuse either of working more than their contracted hours.