I know plenty of people, myself included, who do the bare minimum at work to keep from being fired. Because their employer will not pay a decent wage, they feel no loyalty to the company.
I blame government for not protecting workers’ wages. But let’s not forget all the corrupt employers I encountered in the past who encouraged my “fuck you” attitude. Let me cut this shit sandwich in half.
At my current job, I do not have enough to do — and my boss know this. I put in less than two full hours of labor along with the rest of my team. I would rather be doing something much more interesting.
I know that they have forgotten to assign me extra duties that my coworkers have, but I don’t say anything — mostly because I am likely to get punished for pointing out someone’s error.
Even though my employer is much better than other places I have worked, the system has trained me to trust no one — not HR, not management, not government agencies. They have forced me to do as little as possible, because I have learned that going above and beyond only gets you more work.
There are many projects I could do to help the organization, but I know volunteering to do more will not result in any sort of bonus, raise, or promotion. I have experience setting up programs my employer desperately needs, but I will not make any recommendations. I made one which would have helped immensely and cut two months off of training new hires, which was ignored. That’s all I needed to know.
Even though I hate it, I spend most of my work day on my phone. I have spoken with others that have adopted this same approach because doing more at work often makes you a target — and if the extra stuff you do goes bad, you get blamed. So all of us go against our desire to collaborate and build something better and be the lazy piece of shit they think we are.
I don’t want to sit on my phone, but I do. This is a terrible way to run a company, but this is what the labor market has encouraged.
So congratulations, employers. You have fought so hard to make sure our work is not valued that we no longer value working.