Drama Affecting Work

[Hobbs]

The "Team Player" thread made me think of this. I didn't want to go OT, so I decided to post this.

Basically, I hate it when people refuse to go along with the team and are only out for themselves. They do it knowing they're screwing everyone else, but want to show-off or prove that they're better. I saw it happen a lot during training, with people refusing to put away their own personal goals and work for our collective success. I mean, there are times to be the lone-wolf, but sometimes you need to buckle down and work to the benefit of the group.

[Boozy]

Do you have an example?

Sometimes working as a team benefits everyone on the team, but sometimes it doesn't. I tend to be mercenary at work; I'm not going to do much for the company or the "team" if there's zero benefit for me.

For example, my company is always asking us to increase our sales, but we aren't on commission, and our raises (stupidly) are not based on our sales records. I'm making top wage for my position, and there's no position to which I can be promoted. So I don't kill myself on the sales floor unless there's an incentive program. If there's a prize to be won, or a bonus to be had, I'll work very hard. Even if that prize or bonus is to be shared amongst everyone.

[Hobbs]

Okay, a common example. This one is from training, but it happens elsewhere too. The group has to make a decision, several ideas are given, the group discusses and then comes to a consensus. However, one person-and possibly their friend(s)-doesn't like the idea and brings it back up in discussion. This bogs down the decision-making process, and in the end the team/group doesn't do anything.

[McDreidel09]

I'm with Boozy on this one. I am in the same position at my own job. I earn the most I can, without being able to be promoted because I only work during the winter and the summer. I do my job, but I don't kill myself over it. If I only have one day off in a week, I am going to take that day off, no matter how much work pleads me to come in. If I have two or three days off, I am more likely to work with them.

[BlaqueKatt]

well at my job I was a team player-until today-when I found out one member of my "team" is getting promoted above me due to my hard work(I picked up her slack constantly-ad made the team look better)-I've worked there longer-and in my two years I've called out sick exactly 4 times-her average is twice a month-oh but she's younger and blonder(boss loves blondes), and I suppose the fact that she invites the lab managers to her house to drink every night doesn't hurt

Mind you this is the girl that got "employee of the month" the week after she put in her two weeks notice-one of the managers begged her not to quit and put her in for employee of the month. While I was working 60 hour weeks to her 32....

[blas87]

I'm only willing to work as a "team" if my fellow team members will also work as one. Someone who is bound and determined to bring others down and make everyone else look bad is no longer on my team.

I also think of it the same way Boozy does. I don't support Team Corporate, nor will I help bail them out of stupid and poor decisions by sacrificing a paid holiday or a weekend off just to help them bring productivity back up.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm only willing to work as a "team" if my fellow team members will also work as one. Someone who is bound and determined to bring others down and make everyone else look bad is no longer on my team.

I also think of it the same way Boozy does. I don't support Team Corporate, nor will I help bail them out of stupid and poor decisions by sacrificing a paid holiday or a weekend off just to help them bring productivity back up.

Agreed, oh so much. My example is the one I posted in the Team Player thread; that of someone going sick and me and my collegue being asked to go home and come back to work the late shift; so therefore, working the equivilent of a fourteen hour day (I'd only have had an hour before having to return, and I'd already worked an entire morning) for nothing; no overtime, no extra day off.

Had I been off and been rung up, I would probably have agreed to come in to work the late shift; but then, I'd have gotten five hours overtime. At the end of the day, it's not up to the drones to dig management out of holes or to pick up the slack; it's down to the managers. They are paid more for managing the place; therefore, it's perfectly reasonable to ask them to do something about a problem rather than dumping a load of crap on to the reguar workers.

[blas87]

Just remember, shit may roll downhill, but blame always goes back uphill. And rightfully so.

I've never been able to wrap my head around the fact that managers and big honchos are PAID more and have more authorita for emergencies/shortages, and aren't supposed to be paid to just drop bombs on their poor serfs or make idiot decisions and let the serfs suffer.

[Hobbs]

I'm only willing to work as a "team" if my fellow team members will also work as one. Someone who is bound and determined to bring others down and make everyone else look bad is no longer on my team.

Well, that was the point of my OP and my example. Why is it that there seems to be this tendency to not be a team player (excluding examples of being screwed by co-workers, since that's just retribution). I'm looking for the reason why the "Someone" you mention refuses to be a team player.

I also think of it the same way Boozy does. I don't support Team Corporate, nor will I help bail them out of stupid and poor decisions by sacrificing a paid holiday or a weekend off just to help them bring productivity back up.

I think a second part of my question should be, why don't you? What's the motivation for a worker to say "Screw the company!" etc?

I've never been able to wrap my head around the fact that managers and big honchos are PAID more and have more authorita for emergencies/shortages, and aren't supposed to be paid to just drop bombs on their poor serfs or make idiot decisions and let the serfs suffer.

For example, my company is always asking us to increase our sales, but we aren't on commission, and our raises (stupidly) are not based on our sales records. I'm making top wage for my position, and there's no position to which I can be promoted. So I don't kill myself on the sales floor unless there's an incentive program. If there's a prize to be won, or a bonus to be had, I'll work very hard. Even if that prize or bonus is to be shared amongst everyone.

I'm with Boozy on this one. I am in the same position at my own job. I earn the most I can, without being able to be promoted because I only work during the winter and the summer. I do my job, but I don't kill myself over it. If I only have one day off in a week, I am going to take that day off, no matter how much work pleads me to come in. If I have two or three days off, I am more likely to work with them.

I've never understood that either. If there's no incentive...then no work/bad work should be done? Even when I was pissed off at work for my annoying hours or bad scheduling, I always prided myself in working hard and diligently. On CS you've seen my encounters with bad customers, and my sometimes harsh reactions. But as a low-management position, I always felt working hard encouraged the work of my subordinates, and that helping my managers decreased their work-load. Are those bad things?

[telecom_goddess]

Same thing here....I used to do my job by myself so I had no choice but to work 12 hour days to get everything done. That means switch programming, dsl programming, coordinating installs, doing work required for future installs in terms of porting numbers, releasing numbers etc ad nauseum. It was an insane amount of work. Well hear we are about 3 years later and it's now a group of 6 doing all this crap. And of course I am still doing most of the switch and dsl programming because others are being lazy asses and not doing their share. But I did everything in my power to make sure our daily load of work was done or as close to being done as possible. I also distributed the installs around the group on a daily basis.

Now we have a director of operations who's a complete ass and insists on sticking his nose in jobs that he's never done and has no idea how we do them. Now I no longer get to distribute the jobs, and they are no longer distributed in a fair manner in terms of number of jobs per person, working around lunches and whatnot. No now whoever programmed the order gets to do the install too. So that means I got stuck with like 10 jobs while other people had 1 or 2.

I no longer give a shit whether this crap gets programmed or not. I don't do any more than the absolute bare minimum required. It's the only way to keep my jobs a little more balanced with everyone else...cause now they HAVE to stop being lazy asses and get shit done. But this whole experience broke my spirit and took a job that I used to love cause it was unique and cool and turned into a drudgery I hate.

Way to go management.

[Hobbs]

Way to go management.

It seems like you have a bit of seniority. Have you ever addressed this with you manager? I realize there are bad managers out there, but it's also the responsibility of the subordinate to make sure the manager is doing their job right. Why not offer to sort out the jobs for him? Make it fair? Or give him pointers/reasons why your work needs to be done a certain way?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Oh, I've tried the other route, believe me; all it got me was a shitload of extra work and no extra pay or kudos. In the pet centre, my collegue left to have a baby, meaning that we were one person short in the pet centre; we needed two people to cope with the workload. I stepped up to the plate telling management that I'd be happy to run the unit while they looked for someone to replace my collegue. Stupid me; what happened is that I ended up doing the equivilent of two jobs for the same amount of pay. I got called a manager but had no-one to manage, save for the weekend girls when they bothered to turn up. I never once got any expression of gratitude that I'd stepped in and saved them from having to hire someone right off the bat. Screw that; I'm not making that mistake again, even in a different job.

[telecom_goddess]

It seems like you have a bit of seniority. Have you ever addressed this with you manager? I realize there are bad managers out there, but it's also the responsibility of the subordinate to make sure the manager is doing their job right. Why not offer to sort out the jobs for him? Make it fair? Or give him pointers/reasons why your work needs to be done a certain way?

I was sorting out the jobs but the director (who's my manager's boss) decided it would be better if he did it. Basically my manager has no control over anything and the director just walks all over him and doesn't let him have any actual power over his own people.

The former director wasn't like that and I miss him.....

[McDreidel09]

I've never understood that either. If there's no incentive...then no work/bad work should be done? Even when I was pissed off at work for my annoying hours or bad scheduling, I always prided myself in working hard and diligently. On CS you've seen my encounters with bad customers, and my sometimes harsh reactions. But as a low-management position, I always felt working hard encouraged the work of my subordinates, and that helping my managers decreased their work-load. Are those bad things?

They aren't. However, Boozy and I never said that we do bad/no work. At my job, my store manager treats me like shit. I am the only one she does this to. Before my new found attitude, I worked extra extra hard, came in whenever they asked me to, sacrificed my days off, and was always praised by managers over my hard work. However, she treated me like shit since day one and I don't feel that after all I have done for her, that I should be the one who gets treated like that. My coworkers who are constantly late or doing shoddy work are always treated so nicely.

I always do a fantastic job and the managers still praise me. Hell, some over nighters are trying to top my last over night, when the opening manager walked in and everything for the over night was done, everything for opening was done, and the whole place was spotless. So what if I don't want to come in on my only day off for the week or do the stupid suggestive selling that my store manager said that corporate told us to do, but they were actually her own dumb ideas (which only lead us to getting yelled at, btw)?

[Boozy]

I've never understood that either. If there's no incentive...then no work/bad work should be done?

You're jumping to that conclusion all on your own.

I believe that we said that we would not go "above and beyond" without an incentive. At no point have we said that we're going to slack off and refuse to fulfill our job requirements.

I always felt working hard encouraged the work of my subordinates, and that helping my managers decreased their work-load. Are those bad things?

If I helped my manager decrease her workload any more, she'd be able to laze about in a hammock all day.

Sometimes decreasing your superior's workload just puts you in a position to get taken advantage of by more mercenary-minded people.