Should co-workers have the same work ethic as you?
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Don't know why, but when I see that someone in the department not being as industrious as others, it bothers me. But should I let it? Some would argue, mind your own business, do your work, and sooner or later that other person will get what's coming to them. Problem is, as I've seen over and over at various companies, that hardly ever happens. Or, as long as they get their work done, leave 'em alone. Fair enough, but they aren't - or they are not assigned enough. I've seen management tolerate it by: 1) not holding people accountable 2) not mentioning it to that person at all or 3) not following up on assigments. And in some cases it's almost like, since some of them have been here a long time - they really have to do something bad for anything to be brought up. The odd thing is, the ones that seem to be the biggest slackers are NOT Millenials or Gen-X'ers, it's mostly Boomers! (I'm a Boomer - that's another topic altogether!) Some come in late - the company is a bit conservative - 8 am is the starting time, take long lunches - 45 min allowed, and leave before 5....every day. And when here, they're either surfing or frequently visiting each other in cubes to chat. In between, they take many smoke breaks. And some have no interest in learning new technology - even if it applies to their work - especially if they're former mainframers, as I am. I like having fun as much as anyone, but the company is paying us to do something. Plus, I wonder what our users think when they see the IT staff slacking? Am I just letting this get to me too much? Have you noticed slacking in your company? What's your take on it?
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Don't know why, but when I see that someone in the department not being as industrious as others, it bothers me. But should I let it? Some would argue, mind your own business, do your work, and sooner or later that other person will get what's coming to them. Problem is, as I've seen over and over at various companies, that hardly ever happens. Or, as long as they get their work done, leave 'em alone. Fair enough, but they aren't - or they are not assigned enough. I've seen management tolerate it by: 1) not holding people accountable 2) not mentioning it to that person at all or 3) not following up on assigments. And in some cases it's almost like, since some of them have been here a long time - they really have to do something bad for anything to be brought up. The odd thing is, the ones that seem to be the biggest slackers are NOT Millenials or Gen-X'ers, it's mostly Boomers! (I'm a Boomer - that's another topic altogether!) Some come in late - the company is a bit conservative - 8 am is the starting time, take long lunches - 45 min allowed, and leave before 5....every day. And when here, they're either surfing or frequently visiting each other in cubes to chat. In between, they take many smoke breaks. And some have no interest in learning new technology - even if it applies to their work - especially if they're former mainframers, as I am. I like having fun as much as anyone, but the company is paying us to do something. Plus, I wonder what our users think when they see the IT staff slacking? Am I just letting this get to me too much? Have you noticed slacking in your company? What's your take on it?
You must be in government.?.
MrPlankton
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You must be in government.?.
MrPlankton
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Don't know why, but when I see that someone in the department not being as industrious as others, it bothers me. But should I let it? Some would argue, mind your own business, do your work, and sooner or later that other person will get what's coming to them. Problem is, as I've seen over and over at various companies, that hardly ever happens. Or, as long as they get their work done, leave 'em alone. Fair enough, but they aren't - or they are not assigned enough. I've seen management tolerate it by: 1) not holding people accountable 2) not mentioning it to that person at all or 3) not following up on assigments. And in some cases it's almost like, since some of them have been here a long time - they really have to do something bad for anything to be brought up. The odd thing is, the ones that seem to be the biggest slackers are NOT Millenials or Gen-X'ers, it's mostly Boomers! (I'm a Boomer - that's another topic altogether!) Some come in late - the company is a bit conservative - 8 am is the starting time, take long lunches - 45 min allowed, and leave before 5....every day. And when here, they're either surfing or frequently visiting each other in cubes to chat. In between, they take many smoke breaks. And some have no interest in learning new technology - even if it applies to their work - especially if they're former mainframers, as I am. I like having fun as much as anyone, but the company is paying us to do something. Plus, I wonder what our users think when they see the IT staff slacking? Am I just letting this get to me too much? Have you noticed slacking in your company? What's your take on it?
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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Don't know why, but when I see that someone in the department not being as industrious as others, it bothers me. But should I let it? Some would argue, mind your own business, do your work, and sooner or later that other person will get what's coming to them. Problem is, as I've seen over and over at various companies, that hardly ever happens. Or, as long as they get their work done, leave 'em alone. Fair enough, but they aren't - or they are not assigned enough. I've seen management tolerate it by: 1) not holding people accountable 2) not mentioning it to that person at all or 3) not following up on assigments. And in some cases it's almost like, since some of them have been here a long time - they really have to do something bad for anything to be brought up. The odd thing is, the ones that seem to be the biggest slackers are NOT Millenials or Gen-X'ers, it's mostly Boomers! (I'm a Boomer - that's another topic altogether!) Some come in late - the company is a bit conservative - 8 am is the starting time, take long lunches - 45 min allowed, and leave before 5....every day. And when here, they're either surfing or frequently visiting each other in cubes to chat. In between, they take many smoke breaks. And some have no interest in learning new technology - even if it applies to their work - especially if they're former mainframers, as I am. I like having fun as much as anyone, but the company is paying us to do something. Plus, I wonder what our users think when they see the IT staff slacking? Am I just letting this get to me too much? Have you noticed slacking in your company? What's your take on it?
I tend to go down the "mind your own business" path (though what you describe can still bother me.) You don't know their life situation nor do you know how much work they may do outside the office. They may also have a different style of working. For example, sometimes I need to do ANYTHING but programming and let my brain mull over a problem. Generally, we are paid by salary. That means we are paid to do a job, not clock hours. Moreover, it's largely a management/executive responsibility to ensure someone's time is being used effectively. And that's the key; management. Sounds like you have poor managers and employees are simply taking advantage of that. I actually understand your frustration. I've been in both the situation of watching other team members slack off even though there is plenty of work to do. I've also been the person who is slacking off because my time isn't being managed well by my superiors. I had jobs where I'd ask my manager "what's next" and it would take days, sometimes longer, to get back to me. In other cases I had to wait on other parties, customers and/or vendors before I could continue. Again, though, this is a management problem--quite often, the reason I'm waiting is because of something they failed to do in a timely matter (like give me the specs I've asked for every day for a month.) The accountability issue is one that drive me batty. It seems that every company has golden boys made of teflon who deflect everything to someone else. The worse case for me was finding that a design pushed by the CTO was fundamentally flawed. I fixed it by extending the previous design, which he hated. I got congratulated by one group and vilified by another (and is most certainly why I got laid off during the next round.) The worse part is knowing the CTO lied through his teeth to the CEO about who was responsible for that disaster (and by knowing, I got the run down from someone who was there.) At that same company, they did an employee satisfaction survey. At the very top of the list was lack of accountability for executives and managers. To no one's surprise, nothing changed.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Great. Now I'm imagining the situation as a bunch of guys singing and dancing in the cubicles. "Six white boomers ... snow white boomers ...." :jig:
Cheers, Mircea "Pay people peanuts and you get monkeys" - David Ogilvy
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same difference. Big Govt == Big Company == Big Organization These are places where n'er-do-wells go to have an in-cubical-retirement.
Silence is the voice of complicity. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. -- monty python Might I suggest that the universe was always the size of the cosmos. It is just that at one point the cosmos was the size of a marble. -- Colin Angus Mackay
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I tend to go down the "mind your own business" path (though what you describe can still bother me.) You don't know their life situation nor do you know how much work they may do outside the office. They may also have a different style of working. For example, sometimes I need to do ANYTHING but programming and let my brain mull over a problem. Generally, we are paid by salary. That means we are paid to do a job, not clock hours. Moreover, it's largely a management/executive responsibility to ensure someone's time is being used effectively. And that's the key; management. Sounds like you have poor managers and employees are simply taking advantage of that. I actually understand your frustration. I've been in both the situation of watching other team members slack off even though there is plenty of work to do. I've also been the person who is slacking off because my time isn't being managed well by my superiors. I had jobs where I'd ask my manager "what's next" and it would take days, sometimes longer, to get back to me. In other cases I had to wait on other parties, customers and/or vendors before I could continue. Again, though, this is a management problem--quite often, the reason I'm waiting is because of something they failed to do in a timely matter (like give me the specs I've asked for every day for a month.) The accountability issue is one that drive me batty. It seems that every company has golden boys made of teflon who deflect everything to someone else. The worse case for me was finding that a design pushed by the CTO was fundamentally flawed. I fixed it by extending the previous design, which he hated. I got congratulated by one group and vilified by another (and is most certainly why I got laid off during the next round.) The worse part is knowing the CTO lied through his teeth to the CEO about who was responsible for that disaster (and by knowing, I got the run down from someone who was there.) At that same company, they did an employee satisfaction survey. At the very top of the list was lack of accountability for executives and managers. To no one's surprise, nothing changed.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Don't know why, but when I see that someone in the department not being as industrious as others, it bothers me. But should I let it? Some would argue, mind your own business, do your work, and sooner or later that other person will get what's coming to them. Problem is, as I've seen over and over at various companies, that hardly ever happens. Or, as long as they get their work done, leave 'em alone. Fair enough, but they aren't - or they are not assigned enough. I've seen management tolerate it by: 1) not holding people accountable 2) not mentioning it to that person at all or 3) not following up on assigments. And in some cases it's almost like, since some of them have been here a long time - they really have to do something bad for anything to be brought up. The odd thing is, the ones that seem to be the biggest slackers are NOT Millenials or Gen-X'ers, it's mostly Boomers! (I'm a Boomer - that's another topic altogether!) Some come in late - the company is a bit conservative - 8 am is the starting time, take long lunches - 45 min allowed, and leave before 5....every day. And when here, they're either surfing or frequently visiting each other in cubes to chat. In between, they take many smoke breaks. And some have no interest in learning new technology - even if it applies to their work - especially if they're former mainframers, as I am. I like having fun as much as anyone, but the company is paying us to do something. Plus, I wonder what our users think when they see the IT staff slacking? Am I just letting this get to me too much? Have you noticed slacking in your company? What's your take on it?
My company would just flip over and die if my coworkers had the same work ethic as me.
So the creationist says: Everything must have a designer. God designed everything. I say: Why is God the only exception? Why not make the "designs" (like man) exceptions and make God a creation of man?