When do you let go...

[Youngeyes]

"and very little accolades for good performance"

Now that's the key to the problem right there. The reward for doing a good job should be that you did a good job. If you are the type that is OK with allowing poor quality work, and others to cover your ineptitude than you have other major character flaws to work out. Blame these defects on the way we raised these mongrels. My parents taught me to to do the right thing because it is right, not because I expect to be thanked for it. Keep your eye on your kids and on your grandkids. Keep setting the good example. As it's been said, " the reward for hard work is more hard work". And, if sometimes at work, you need to use a little "kick in the a$$" teaching method, go for it.

[GrumpyOne]

We have become a society of entitlement....

[kneelingatlas]

Grumpy, if the brass at your company are soulless monsters who don't care about anything or anyone, why have you worked for them so long?

[GrumpyOne]

Grumpy, if the brass at your company are soulless monsters who don't care about anything or anyone, why have you worked for them so long?

Nothing else out there in my field...

[kneelingatlas]

Nothing in your field? Or nothing in a close proximity with comparable pay and benefits?

[GrumpyOne]

Nothing in your field? Or nothing in a close proximity with comparable pay and benefits?

Both...we have the contract for a 18 state area...there are other company's out there, but no where near the pay and benefits...too specialized field of work...

[kneelingatlas]

Must not be that bad then right?

[Bill Nesbitt]

Keep a personal record of what happens. What you said or did and what everybody else says and does. I had a notebook where I kept stuff. I never had to use anything, but I felt better with a written record.

Retirement is great.

[fyresq]

Anytime I have to cover my butt, or might think an "I told you so" will eventually be in order, I either send it, or follow up a face to face conversation up with an email. Email can be difficult to make go away, especially if you BCC the original and any replies to a private email address outside of the companies servers.

[bountyhunter]

"and very little accolades for good performance"

Now that's the key to the problem right there. The reward for doing a good job should be that you did a good job.

In my career, the reward for a good (or perfect) job was silence.

It meant that my boss couldn't find anything to bitch about despite his best efforts.

[bountyhunter]

I wish the lazy and inept people would just skate here. Then, they'd be out of my way.

Problem is, the lazy and inept end up causing more work and headache for me, cause they are lazy, inept, and know someone else will pick up their slack...

By coincidence, that was the exact job description for a "manager" at my company......

Back when my wife got promoted into management, her buddies bought her a little desk gremlin with a sign that says:

"To err is human, to have someone to blame shows management potential."

Edited December 20, 2013 by bountyhunter

[bountyhunter]

Grumpy, if the brass at your company are soulless monsters who don't care about anything or anyone, why have you worked for them so long?

Same reason I worked at national Semiconductor for 20 years: limited options and their paychecks never bounced. The finance company had this bizarre insistence on getting the mortgage payment EVERY month....

[bountyhunter]

Retirement is great.

The bumper sticker says: "The worst day retired is better than the BEST day working."

[Nik Habicht]

Just remember:

Excellence is deviation from the norm.

[GrumpyOne]

Just remember:

Excellence is deviation from the norm.

I like that...

[Lifeislarge]

Character, ethics, integrity, morals...... Good luck with that. I've been in sales for years and have been basically self-employed for the last five. I was mentored exquisitely in the Black Arts of Selling early on in my career and for a time, used them to my benefit and ultimately the company's benefit. Close at any cost. Hunter, aggressive, killer, these were the terms of endearment used by management. I was number one in North America.

Five years ago I had a spiritual awakening and haven't been able to get a job since. If you go out with the intention of simply fulfilling a clients needs and wants, without up-selling them or closing them on a product or service they don't need, you aren't doing your job. Maybe I haven't found the right product or industry yet, or maybe I just need to continue to work towards developing my own, but in the interim I am frustrated and disenchanted with the expectations of the profession as a whole. So, I choose to sleep at night with a clear conscience. It's a slippery slope.

[Nik Habicht]

Just remember:

Excellence is deviation from the norm.

I like that...

It's part of some advice I recently got -- to try not to hold everyone else to my standards.

Bottom line -- not everyone is capable of A level work within a specific time frame. Some people, even people with drive, who do everything they can to improve, will never get there. Others will take twice or three times as long to get there.

Focus on what you can do to effect change. Maybe all you can control is your own output. Maybe you can mentor or coach others to apply themselves, and help them progress faster or farther than they could get on their own. What ever it is -- focus on what is in your control, and let go of the rest....

[Alaskapopo]

At my work, we have standards, set by the customer, that we have to follow. These standards are black and white, very little ambiguity in them. If we don't folow them, and the job gets audited for quality, my company can be held financially responsible for correcting the defect, and also for loss of revenue from the defect.

When you see something that doesn't follow the standard, point it out to the boss, and are told to shut up and keep quiet about it, do you? When do you just let it go, and not care anymore? The defect in question is very likely not going to be caught, but does it make a difference?

I have a very hard time with this...it's much like USPSA rules to me...there is a right and a wrong, but the stakes in this game are much higher than in USPSA...

I was brought up to have integrity, to be honest, to do the best job you could do, and to be proud of your work. Shutting up about a known issue just rubs me the wrong way...

If it bothers you I would start looking for work quietly at another organization. Your not going to win this fight. That sucks but that is the way the world works. Eventually it may come around to bit the boss but in the short term not much you can do other than what you have. I would not keep pushing the issue as that could affect your chances of getting hired someplace else.

Pat

[mpeltier]

At my work, we have standards, set by the customer, that we have to follow. These standards are black and white, very little ambiguity in them. If we don't folow them, and the job gets audited for quality, my company can be held financially responsible for correcting the defect, and also for loss of revenue from the defect.

When you see something that doesn't follow the standard, point it out to the boss, and are told to shut up and keep quiet about it, do you? When do you just let it go, and not care anymore? The defect in question is very likely not going to be caught, but does it make a difference?

I have a very hard time with this...it's much like USPSA rules to me...there is a right and a wrong, but the stakes in this game are much higher than in USPSA...

I was brought up to have integrity, to be honest, to do the best job you could do, and to be proud of your work. Shutting up about a known issue just rubs me the wrong way...

As I read this and then many responses following I realized you could apply this question not only to work but religion and politics etc and the answers would be pretty much the same. If the majority of people felt this same sense of "it won't make a differance so well just let it go" in the mid 1800's the civil war probably wouldn't have happened. What have we become?

[bountyhunter]

At my work, we have standards, set by the customer, that we have to follow. These standards are black and white, very little ambiguity in them. If we don't folow them, and the job gets audited for quality, my company can be held financially responsible for correcting the defect, and also for loss of revenue from the defect.

When you see something that doesn't follow the standard, point it out to the boss, and are told to shut up and keep quiet about it, do you? When do you just let it go, and not care anymore? The defect in question is very likely not going to be caught, but does it make a difference?

I have a very hard time with this...it's much like USPSA rules to me...there is a right and a wrong, but the stakes in this game are much higher than in USPSA...

I was brought up to have integrity, to be honest, to do the best job you could do, and to be proud of your work. Shutting up about a known issue just rubs me the wrong way...

As I read this and then many responses following I realized you could apply this question not only to work but religion and politics etc and the answers would be pretty much the same. If the majority of people felt this same sense of "it won't make a differance so well just let it go" in the mid 1800's the civil war probably wouldn't have happened. What have we become?

I think the general response is not to "just let it go", it's about at what point do you have to let it go. A single individual can affect things to a degree, but not universally. Every person has to decide where to draw a boundary line as to what they can do. There is a famous saying about having the serenity to accept what you can't change, the courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Interesting corollary in my carerr at national Semiconductor: the group director Dennis Monticelli was always looking for ways to screw people out of their annual performance raises...and find ways to get them to work 80 hours a week. One year he came up with what he termed "goal alignment". Since he was a director, his goals (and bonus triggers) were all "monetary". Like 50% PBT (group's profit before taxes), stock share price, sales targets, etc.

So he decided that he would just pass that down to his employees so we were not going to be graded on our DIRECT performance (projects on time, support functions, technical writing, etc) but our annual raises would hang on how well the company did financially.

What a load of crap.

His claim was that every individual controlled the outcome of the universe (so to speak).

I told my boss the story about the cartoon showing an elevator door opening with eight people in a pile of broken bodies..... and the caption was:

"Are you the guy that pressed the button a dozen times?"

It's a joke because presing the BUTTON does not DIRECTLY cause the elevator to move up and down, it indirectly affects it's movement. Banging on the button doesn't make it jump up and down.

As in life: there are things we directly can affect, but most we indirectly affect. Wisdom is knowing the difference and accepting it. Folly is believing we can change everything if we just try hard enough.