Work ethic never went out of fashion. Many, many people work very hard everyday. Always have. Work is a part of life, always has been, always will be. It's the incentives that are the problem. Paying people just enough (or not enough, in many cases) to just keep their heads above water, for taking on more and more work, so that owners, investors, and executives can make ever increasing profits, just doesn't motivate people to work very hard. Much of the hard work in the current system is motivated by fear. That is not positive or sustainable.

Shit when im the first one in, i leave the lights off. Then i get mad at the person who eventually turns them on. If i have to be in that early, i dont also want to be miserable from the bright lights

I've learned to be the one to turn the lights off. It pisses the boss off but ensures everyone knows the shift is over

Having a work ethic is a fine thing. Just don't let sleazy employers take advantage of it, because you'll get nothing in return.

If you pride yourself on being a hard worker just know that everyone else is in a group chat without you.

Repeatedly devalue workers through layoffs and never promoting

Workers give up trying to climb the corporate ladder and do the bare minimum

surprised pikachu

Fuck you. Pay me.

So you turn on the lights, get your coffee and read your newspaper/browse your phone until someone else is actually there.

Then you do the same thing once you are the only person left.

Congratulations. Flipping on and off lightswitches is the shittiest metric a company can seek and is evidence of bad management.

End of year performance review.

“We think your performance this year has been ok. Not great, not bad, just ok. We can’t justify a bonus for you this year with senior management.”

“But I am always the last one out every night and have been nearly all year.”

“Really, I wouldn’t know. I never stick around that late. Now that reminds me, there were those two days last month where you were seen leaving early. We don’t appreciate that lack of work ethic at this company.”

“It was because I had stayed back late the previous days!”

If I saw one of my employees being the first one in the office turning on the lights as well as the last one turning them off, I'd see that as a problem.

I'd talk to that worker and first ask why they were doing this as I'd be concerned that they may be having trouble at home (and were using work as an escape). I'd want to find out if there was anything they needed to help their home situation. When you manage people, their home problems become your problems. The corollary to this is that a solution for a personal home problem can become a solution to a workplace problem. I had one worker that had difficulty at work because they didn't have working laundry facilities which affected them wearing presentable clothing at work. I bought them a new laundry appliance for $500 and had it delivered. After that they were always dressed presentably at work. This was a very good worker otherwise, and this fixed the work problem as well as helped them at home in their personal life.

If they communicated they believed the "first in, last out" was their understanding of the work expectation, I'd correct them on that immediately. One of my favorite phrases to use at work are "There are days I might have to ask you to stay later. This is not that day. There's nothing urgent that can't wait for tomorrow. Go home early." (these are salary folks, so they're not losing money by leaving early).

If they communicated they were overworked, I'd work with them on the tasks to make sure they were only getting assigned a reasonable workload. This may mean hiring another worker, or eliminating tasks that don't produce a meaningful result to the company to make sure the workload would be reasonable.

Requiring your workers to be "butts in seats" (mine are WFH anyway) simply to be tick a box is the fastest way to lose your best people as it is disrespectful of their skills and their effort. Further, well rested workers (mentally and physically) perform far better than exhausted and stressed ones.

This made me far more angry than your frying pan, just gotta say.

Hahahaha talk about corporate propaganda. I feel sorry for the poor schlub that reads this and is like "yeah, I'm gonna do that".

I turn the lights on in the morning and make coffee. Because I'm the only one that knows how to make coffee that doesn't taste like dirty water. Has nothing to do with work ethic and everything to do with coffee.

I managed an auto parts warehouse with a small fleet of delivery drivers, I was the one with the code to the alarm and they keys to everything. Sometimes if I had trouble sleeping or was a bit hungover from imbibing too much I’d sleep in and roll up to the shop around 9-10 instead of 7. Not a single one of my employees ever had an issue with starting the day later and I didn’t care about them leaving early to pick up kids or whatever. Long as you show up and shit gets done I’m putting the same hours on all your paychecks anyways

Gus Catlson: US based company consultant who writes for right based Canadian newspaper Globe & Mail. Also was a director at that newspaper. Was in charge of communications for the Thompson Reuters merger. Has a Pulitzer from 1992, but beyond that its all business reporting and opinion pieces.

Everything in his background tells me he hasn't had to work insane hours in decades. He hasn't had a boss ask him to work 10 - 20 extra hours just to have a 2% increase at the end of the year. He was in charge of a Canadian major newspaper, which aren't known for paying a proper wage. So he knows he's lying, he's just annoyed people want to have lives.

the only people who want to put in longer hours at the office have absolutely nothing to go home to.

they should be pitied instead of being vilified. drop them a "get well soon" message in social media should you encounter them.

No, no, this is good advice, actually. I mean, it is a pain to go to the office twice, but flipping a switch only takes seconds, and you have the rest of the day to fuck around.

I have a work ethic. My work ethic is to be paid fairly for my labor.

Company Objective: Pay minimum, Gain maximum work

My Objective: Gain maximum pay, work minimum

You know how a country has their country prioritized? (eg: "America First") Well I have a similar idea: "Me First". Fuck the company. They are maximizing their profits, I'm gonna maximize my profits.

Every damn job where I tried to do this did not end well for me. I got treated like absolute shit and the people who abused me were praised for their actions even when they got fired after I was for trying to do the same shit to other people. It brought only harm to me and did not even benefit my employers all that much.

This advice makes you an exploitable schmuck and they will do that simply because they can.

Sounds like someone who's really, really bad at managing their time 🤷‍♂️

I work just hard enough not to get fired

This is a ticket to being seen as insufferable.

Pay me as little as you can get away with and I will work as little as I can get away with.

Actually, guys, boots are super tasty and licking them is very cool.

This gives big "Brian Johnson is a working class hero" vibes.

So, become the office janitor?

Even if you work at one of the rare unicorns where hard work is rewarded with raises and promotions, hard work has nothing to do with working extra hours. Fuck off with this "You need to be the first one in and last one out" shit.

If you want to play it that way: let me count my 2 hour commute through standstill traffic as paid hours.

When you have nothing in you life but your job, are you even living at all? At the very least not a life that is worth living IMHO

Not just on the Americas side of the pond, apparently.

I'm applying for dozens and dozens of jobs right now in the UK, so I expect to get plenty of rejection emails, but today, Monday, two days before Christmas, 11 rejection emails so far, which is a record (I'm not upset, I am aware I will get far more rejections than interviews). Obviously people are working like crazy to get everything done right before Christmas, but I thought at least the UK was more relaxed on this stuff. You really couldn't wait until January to send out rejection emails? Gotta grind right up to Christmas?

It wants you to be a janitor?

Side tangent: I hate the term 'nuggets of wisdom. Seriously, only Tenders of Wisdom are much tastier.