Have you ever coasted and gotten away with it?

[foreverhidden]

I'm curious to know if coasters are as obvious as we think, or if anyone out there has been a closet coaster and actually gotten away with it.

Ie have you coasted but still managed to gain good performance reviews and not been pulled up on it. If so, how long for.

If you've been caught, how long did you coast for? What was the process once you were caught.

I've seen so many people in my company who I knew coasted, get caught up with eventually. Wondering if there are some getting away with it all the same.

It's subjective and relevant to every company. Doing the bare minimum in my company would be replying to correspondence, attending calls and meeting task deadlines.

However, at manager level, if you are not running projects to improve your region, developing your team, understanding and reporting on metrics to a level where it has an impact and not contributing effectively in meetings, you are not performing.

In other companies this kind of coasting might be acceptable or go unnoticed.

Someone coasting will 'keep the lights on' but make no real impact. It's the same as someone under performing.

Again, different for each company.

I would bet many people are not putting in the hours but are getting away with it under cover and that was my question.

No. I aspire to coasting, working for a company and in a profession that wrings every last drop out of you for a basic wage.

This.... a perfect answer and example. This person probably gets good performance reviews but clearly is not getting fully away with it. This is what I'm interested in.

I had a manager like this and eventually her manager did and investigation and she was let go.

Sounds like your company uses a stack ranking appraisal system. Quite outdated now as results in a loss of a contrived "bottom 10%" of talent who may still, nevertheless, be good employees.

https://www.performyard.com/articles/stack-rankings-what-theyre-good-for-and-where-they-fail#:~:text=Companies%20such%20as%20GE%2C%20Microsoft,rankings%20in%20their%20performance%20appraisals.

Yeah in the 80’s l was a designer in Manchester.

We used to go to the Hacienda then the next day have a little nap on our drawing boards. No one noticed or cared. If anyone important was approaching we’d wake each other up.

Not like that now.

'at manager level, if you are not running projects to improve your region, developing your team, understanding and reporting on metrics to a level where it has an impact and not contributing effectively in meetings'

Then this should be the bare minimum. That is to say, qualified in the objectives/JD. Isn't it? I'd be surprised if 'project delivery' and 'answering correspondence' were the only requirements for a manager. It sounds likely some element of development, good quality reporting and regional improvement are expected. Therefore that isn't really doing the bare minimum. You're talking about underperforming or badly managed expectations. Which is it?

Well I'm currently not volunteering for additional responsibilities, because I wouldn't get paid more! Does that count?
I do work hard and am completely overloaded with work. Work for NHS pay crap and poor treatment.
I do not get paid enough to also volunteer to for example take on students, be the link person for XYZ.
But if suddenly by some miracle we got paid more I would be a much more enthusiastic employee. Pay be properly and I may even fit more patients in and do more notes in own time. I have made a stand recently not to this as was working late into the night unpaid doing notes and reports etc.
I am considered hard working BTW!

I work only my contracted hours, take a full lunch hour every day, never volunteer for extra work or responsibilities, don’t check emails, take calls do work stuff or attend work events in my own time and don’t socialise with colleagues. I always use all my annual leave entitlement plus the maximum number of additional days I’m allowed to purchase.
If this would be considered ‘coasting’, so be it.

You’re still conflating coasting and under-performing.

I’ve never under-performed; I’ve been commended on my over-and-above contributions to, and impact on, organisational and colleague development, my work rate and quality, exceeding my targets etc etc in every job I’ve had. And in some of those jobs, I was absolutely coasting, working at 75-80% of my capacity/ability, because at those points in my life, that sort of not particularly taxing job worked for my circumstances.

I used to “coast” in the sense that I didn’t really give my all and would sit and do half my work in front of the tv. But either I am incredibly efficient or my coworkers were coasting worse as both my volume and quality of work was generally one of the best in the team. It was really mind numbing monkey work for the most part in my defense

I have really really coasted before, that was because the rest of my team was rubbish, so if I had an hour’s work that only I could do (the rest of the team too stupid / lazy) then I’d say that was a fair day.

it was a lovely few years as was also well paid. In IT.

now still well paid but much more demanding role. It is a shame. Tho I still never work weekends or evenings. And make sure I have lunch / exercise time everyday.

In my last role I could have flogged myself to death to get promoted, then the company got bought and that would have all been for nothing - so hurrah for coasting!

I was a real coaster at my last job- I just left because I was so bored (I might learn to regret that).

I was suppose to be working from home for 37.5 hours per week but I was probably on average doing 2 hours a week max. It wasn’t exactly my fault, I’d ask my manager for more work (marketing) and she would say oh just focus on your projects. Would give me 6 weeks to do something that takes 2 hours max and it would always come across great.

I also had teams on my phone so I could appear “online” on the laptop even if I was out. I would do the food shopping, whole house cleaning and even days out with my DP. I’d watch box sets and go to the gym
I never ever get called up on it.2

but in the end, it actually made me a bit depressed. Sitting around all day and I don’t have DC so I’d just sit bored a lot doing nothing. Ended up not getting out my pyjamas most day and didn’t want to go out as I’d end up spending money.

So now I’m going to start a new job.

Yes, same experience here. I got great performance reviews because I was exceeding all the targets and not making any errors. Even though the workload was low and the work not difficult so I was certainly not working hard.

I probably do it a bit now
My job is based on one thing really but then there is also upselling a side thing
I'm crap at the upselling but the main part of the job I excel at and am top, year after year
The people upselling get raved about even if the main part of the job they are bottom at
Yet I am consistently excellent at the actual main job and nobody notices so I wonder why I bother as nobody ever mentions it

I guess that's why people start coasting. All it would take would be someone to notice that I'm actually ok at what I do but I'm invisible

@SecondhandTable I have a performance review the week after next and I'm curious to know if my feedback will be acceptable. I've done the bare minimum. I have done for a few years but have always been ranked ahead of the bell curve. I've been in my sector almost 20 years, so maybe my experience says a lot for my performance. I work on average 5 hours a day.

Funnily enough I saw a thread on here about someone's DH who was pulled up by IT for not working 2 hours each day and given a disciplinary hearing. The MNs were up in arms about it, how can he miss 2 hours everyday?! What was he expecting?!

Judging by my thread, it's not that uncommon...

Ah ok, your question makes a bit more sense now. I’d probably say I’m coasting in my current job, I don’t use my whole brain but my manager is happy I’m achieving what I need to. If you’ve been in the sector for 20 years, then yes some of that experience will be making your job easier and you will be more efficient at getting stuff done.

I’m interested to know if your company “cleanse” the bottom 5% each year, they are continually pushing performance up. So does your pay increase by at least 5% every year to accommodate this extra performance or do they just expect more for less?

Can anyone point me at this thread about the DH getting caught because I keep seeing it mentioned everywhere!

@Fudgetheparrot it was removed unfortunately. The jist was OP DH was facing a disciplinary hearing the following week for not working 2 hours each day, OP was furious as financiallly they couldn't afford him to lose his job. MNs were convinced there was more to the story than he said, aka going to bathroom, making lunch. They were outraged mainly that anyone would take that amount of time each day for themselves on the clock.

No, he was fired for underperforming. An investigation was carried out, noticing he took long breaks, which was implied to be the cause.
But it was the underperformance and not the time off that was the issue!

Thank you!

I've always had excellent appraisals and my output has been getting less and less over the years. No one seems to have noticed. I think experience tells you which bits you need toy make sure happen and what you can get away with (what is pointless?). I never ket anyone down, but there are plenty of tasks I no longer bother with.

One of my very early managers used to prioritise tasks, A must be done today, B must be done this week, C leave it until someone chases it up, and half the time they won't because it was never very important.

I’ve certainly found myself in roles which I could complete in half the contracted hours. I definitely coasted there in terms of not having to work particularly hard, but I did get all my work done and even picked up some for other people on the team!

Yes 15 years. Noone asked more of me at work, so I didn't do anything apart from the bare minimum, which they were pleased with.

I have a technical role that’s paid £11.80 per hour (which was fair pre Covid). They refused my pay rise despite a glowing review and my manager and my managers manager fought for me. Still, the £300k job hopping CEO denied it.

So I now coast with my managers permission. I’ve dropped some of the technical aspects from my job spec and I spend a few hours of my work day looking for a new job.

(Meanwhile CEO gets awarded Leader of the Year!!)

MN is full of people who apparently work their arse off from 8-6 every day, with hardly any breaks.
Madness.

I say either they're not that efficient, or they're not that good or the job is too big and should be shared.