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.

No one can or should be giving 100% to anything all of the time. Whether it be a job, relationship, parenting, or anything else. It’s a sure fire way of burning out very quickly.

Generally, most people give somewhere between 50-70% the majority of the time. Sometimes that may drop to 20%, and other times we will up to 100% when needed. Not even people in very complex jobs are capable of giving 100% day in, day out. A surgeon will (hopefully!) give 100% when operating on someone, but are they giving 100% during their office and admin hours? Of course not!

anyone who says that they give anything 100%, all of the time, is either a) lying or b) a martyr who will burn themselves out completely very soon, and won’t be thanked for it.

I have just let go my company's version of this. Everyone knew. But he was actually causing low morale because it looked like we (the bosses) didn't and he kept claiming the work/ideas of genuinely hard working talented people.

@foreverhidden at 20 years into a career you are (hopefully) being paid for your knowledge and experience as much as your output, which from the outside might look like coasting as you’ll be able to achieve the same as those with less experience in half the time. I’m in a role now that is well within my comfort zone so I don’t have to do the extra to perform well. 10 years ago this role would have been a massive challenge and I’d have had to work all the hours to keep up.

I've had a theory for a while, the more senior you are, the easier it becomes. Nothing will ever be as hard as being junior and grinding, having to follow minutia processes and being pulled around pillar to post. The operations alone were enough to fill your entire day. As a manger, you don't get your hands dirty like that. Yes you set a few strategies and manage people and recruit, and deal with execs but you do it all in your own time. Can knock it all out under pressure in one day.

@Shannith did he have people complain about him?

It was general knowledge - the kind of thing people mutter about and I noticed. And did something about it. Much to his surprise. And everyone else's. Get real feeling now is thank fuck.

And me leading a review to unearth anyone else like that. It's not a larger company and I'm aware of at least 2 others. There won't be anywhere to hide. It literally unfair on people that are effective. I don't mean work over and above - I mean do their jobs well.

@foreverhidden I agree up to a point - I’d say there is less immediate pressure at senior levels but at that level you are responsible/accountable for everything and ultimately if the shit hits the fan, you have to sort it out. You also become responsible in part for things outside of your area and remit and are expected to take a whole business view, driving company wide initiatives that night have very little to do with your expertise. All with a smile on your face! It’s a different pressure

Yes, although they did figure out I was semi bored

I work 4 days a week. Effectively though I work hard for 3. I can get my hair done, nip to the gym and fit in the weekly shop during my 4 days.

i am paid to do a specific job and I do that to an excellent standard and am classed as going above and beyond with excellent performance reviews. Yes I could produce ‘more’ but I’m not paid to so it could be argued I’m coasting but at the same time I am more than meeting expectations (which aren’t low by the way)

I coasted in my last job before I quit to become a SAHM. I cut corners to make my life easier and it never got noticed because it was dumb stuff anyway. Got away with it for 4 years🤣some things they may have noticed once I left but I obviously didn't care then.

@foreverhidden its so demoralising. To be so undervalued. Some of my responsibility is huge (some of it law based, some of it government based) - yet here I am on my humiliating salary!

Sadly not many other roles around where I live. but being so terribly paid means I can get a job in a supermarket and not feel the responsibility nor the pressure.

I would love to not have a weekend / annual leave ruined by worrying about massive £9million projects!

This is also me. Except I would say I’m paid very well. I think it’s more common than most people will admit.

Well the. If you're absolutely maxed out all the time... The job is too big for one person.

But surely reading the meeting notes/brief was a priority over whatever it was you were working on in the day or so if lead up to meeting?

So task 5 of 7 could be postponed until that afternoon because you needed to read the meeting agenda happening at 11.45?

Who scheduled you into these meetings all day?

Can I apply for your old job please? 😂

@llamajohn fully staffed, there's 25 of us
They can't have us sitting between calls for 10 mins so it's a balance of too busy and busy enough I guess

this thread is generating some very confused and ambiguous responses.

on the one hand you've been "quietly quitting" for two years but "still work over my contracted hours".

quietly quitting is doing less or borderline "only just about" what you're contracted to do, not working more than your contract says.

You sound completely toxic.

I always give my all, but that's my choice. But being treated awfully after 7,13,4 years, I now don't give a hoot.

@llamajohn it was during the pandemic. Did you not have wall to wall meetings? I work for a US company, so if they came online at 2pm my time and sent over a doc for a 5-6pm meeting then no, I didn't have time.

Thanks for the lesson 🙄🙄🙄

What's the alternative to 'gotten' in my thread title?

I can do my job standing on my head. I find it very easy and I am certainly not super busy all the time. I do extra stuff that I am not paid to do. I would say I am coasting but not in the way you are talking about.

This thread is classic.
Re a pp, the £200k v £50k worker.

Have you been watching the post office enquiry scandal about Paula Vennell? The woman earned 5 million for literally doing nothing and always says I don't know, I didn't know that, I wasn't privy to that. and you wonder what on earth she was doing for this money. This thread is similar. it's frightening .

@Oblomov24 there are so many senior people in huge pay cheques doing the square route of sweet FA. In my company people get so catty, the second you're above a certain level it starts. I've never seen it not start. 'What do they do', 'they take too much credit', 'they're all over the place', 'they are so last minute'... it's a mixture of senior people becoming lazy but also middle managers becoming jealous. Post office clearly didn't have that culture.