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Lyndalou

Work ethics

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I've always known that I have a strong work ethic. It's something that I've always thought of as a strength but looking back, I know that it has contributed to what has caused me a lot of problems in the workplace and with colleagues. I was never able to understand the 'laissez faire' attitude of people that I have worked with and even when others seemed to agree that other colleagues weren't pulling their weight, they would always stick up for them with reasons that they were having a hard time of it or they had not been feeling well. I found that it someone's work was questioned then the questioner tended to come off worse in that they (me) weren't sympathetic to the other person's situation etc.

 

I suppose it wouldn't have been such an issue if I hadn't quite often had to actually do more work and put more effort in because others weren't. However, I still tended to end up being in the 'wrong' because of my 'attitude'. No-one ever seemed to appreciate that I worked through lunchbreaks and went home late and quite often didn't claim overtime. A person who did half the work and had long lunches seemed to be appreciate equally or even more.

 

How can this be? I simply don't understand how getting a job done to a good/high standard in the agreed amount of time can ever be viewed as a negative thing? I am still at a loss - it is something I will never understand and I think it will always upset me.

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Hi, yes it just doesn't seem fair does it? For me, I have worked since I left school. Both my parents worked. For me, it was a case of having to in order to live and fend for myself. I am not the sort to sit around. And I too do not like people who don't pull their weight, don't do their fair share and above all, do not take responsibility for their actions. You know what I mean, the shirkers, the ones who whine and complain all the time, I see first hand the "degree culture" people who come in, expect to do a senior person's job but don't do their own job properly or don't even know what to do. They have no work ethic, they expect everything to be handed to them especially as they've been "promised" by the gov'ment that they will get a superb job upon graduation. These people have no experience in the workplace and are not expecting to start from the bottom. I have worked with all sorts of "difficult" people.

 

Lyndalou, perhaps you should take a step back and look at your work ethic. Do you "have" to work lunchbreaks or stay late? Why should you be the only one or even have to? Do you feel taken advantage of by your colleagues? You should think of yourself first.

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Thanks Robert,

 

I'm actually not in work at the moment but this is a lot of the reason I fear returning to work in any shape or form. I am in the very fortunate position that I would no longer have to do a full time job but this issue is something that I know would affect me even if I did a part time job.

 

I'm doing voluntary work at the moment, working towards a common goal to set up a family group as part of a team and I've found that similar issues have cropped up, even doing this. You are right in that if I returned to a paid job I would have to work hard to ensure I took proper breaks and went home on time. For this reason, it's always been easier for me to do shop work or something that has defined breaks and people who take over from me at the end of a shift. For this reason, I've decided I would just do something like this if it's for some extra money but if it was to 'work' I would work by myself from home.

 

I suppose this is teaching me more about myself and how I view things and it's a learning curve yet again which I didn't see coming. I had to undergo a number of months of work councelling in a workplace around 10 years ago as I was informed that my standards were too high and I expected too much of people. This intensive period of 'retraining' if you like did help me to see things more broadly in the workplace in terms of people's roles within teams and working to people's strengths. What it didn't really address however was that some people you work with have an ability to shift responsibility for work and how it is best to deal with this as different situations arise. I've found that often there are all sorts of reasons why people shirk work and I don't really know how to distinguish what are 'genuine' reasons from 'not so genuine' ones and how I'm supposed to respond. I automatically find myself questioning my own standpoint while at the same time having a knawing suspicion I'm just being taken for a mug (and a bad team player when I complain).

 

I completely agree with you that people just expect to step into well paid jobs now without doing all the dogsbody work first and I believe this nitty-gritty stuff can be what you learn from the most. I find it hard to see graduates complaining when I know all the menial jobs I have done!

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I have very high expectations of people too. Perhaps this reflects on my own experiences as I was brought up to be curteous, polite and to do the best to my ability. Working did not mean sitting around - there was always something to do.

 

Maybe attitudes have changed now (for the worse?). I expect newbies to the job to be enthusiastic and to work hard - especially as jobs are hard to come by. But the newbies I have seen of late seem to not want to work and just want to earn as much as possible and do as little as possible.

 

Recently, I went into a shop. The twenty-something girl was nattering to her colleague, she didn't look at me when asking for payment, she did not say "please" or "thank you" - I mean, what sort of "attitude" is this? Am I old fashioned or out of touch? Decent manners would not have gone amiss...I really felt like complaining to her manager.

 

In my line of work, I work with "real" people who have feelings. I "have" to take responsibility for what I do/say - but I don't think about it, it's innate. So I expect others to take responsibility too...is this too much to ask in today's society?

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I think work colleagues who make you feel bad because you are working hard and then expecting the lazy ones to pick up the pace are really just feeling guilty that they are not working as hard as you. I too have always been a hard worker....I love the sense of acheivement......but on the odd occasion when I have been a bit off the pace and someone has commented, then my first reaction is guilt......and not always has that guilt been justified......I have worked long days and been genuinely too tired to do much the following day on many occasions. If you have several people with a guilt complex they are likely to try and convince themselves that it is you that is making unfair demands.......but in reality they know deep down they are at fault. It all comes down to numbers......there are usually more people working with "spare capacity", shall we say, than those working to the max! However, I do think it is important to take all your breaks etc, as this in it's self can cause bad feeling if people get a (totally unjustified) guilt complex for taking their normal breaks. I have been in that situation too. If we all worked hard and played hard the world would be a betty and happier place in my view.

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Put simply - it makes the others look bad. There's nothing wrong with working hard and doing your best, that's all an employer could ever want from an employee - but work colleagues don't like to be 'shown up' as it were, and then expected to work harder than normal because someone is over achieving in their eyes. If you had been asked to work through your breaks etc, then no one would bother - but for some reason the extra effort put in comes across as sucking up even though you aren't. The reason I know is because that's exactly what I do! :)

 

Chin up x

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I think work colleagues who make you feel bad because you are working hard and then expecting the lazy ones to pick up the pace are really just feeling guilty that they are not working as hard as you. I too have always been a hard worker....I love the sense of acheivement......but on the odd occasion when I have been a bit off the pace and someone has commented, then my first reaction is guilt......and not always has that guilt been justified......I have worked long days and been genuinely too tired to do much the following day on many occasions. If you have several people with a guilt complex they are likely to try and convince themselves that it is you that is making unfair demands.......but in reality they know deep down they are at fault. It all comes down to numbers......there are usually more people working with "spare capacity", shall we say, than those working to the max! However, I do think it is important to take all your breaks etc, as this in it's self can cause bad feeling if people get a (totally unjustified) guilt complex for taking their normal breaks. I have been in that situation too. If we all worked hard and played hard the world would be a betty and happier place in my view.

Yep, I know that guilty feeling when it's pointed out you've been a bit slack! It doesn't matter how much you tell yourself that you work very hard the majority of the time, you think that when you've taken that extra bit of time out or not put in your all even though you know that the person making the comment only works half as hard as you, you still feel guilty. Of course, when I say 'you' I actually mean 'I', lol! There's always been an anxiety that comes over me when someone makes this type of comment because I simply don't know what the 'acceptable' amount of effort is for each job. All I know is that I've had to work hard and I want to work hard but I also want to be appreciated for the effort I put in! Over time, I have recognised the importance of breaks in order to be able to be mentally able to do the job much the same as you need propler nutrition in order for your body to function properly - that is never easy though as I always find something to do!

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Put simply - it makes the others look bad. There's nothing wrong with working hard and doing your best, that's all an employer could ever want from an employee - but work colleagues don't like to be 'shown up' as it were, and then expected to work harder than normal because someone is over achieving in their eyes. If you had been asked to work through your breaks etc, then no one would bother - but for some reason the extra effort put in comes across as sucking up even though you aren't. The reason I know is because that's exactly what I do! :)

 

Chin up x

In one job, I know that I wasn't able to fulfil what was in my job description very well because I was overwhelmed with everything I was meant to do. I asked for help but I was told I didn't need it; I had requested extra training because I was actually teaching myself on the job while 'teaching' other people what to do. I knew that I didn't have the skills necessary and knew that those who I was supervising knew I was blagging it all the way! I had stepped into the post when another member of staff went off sick with stress. I had a triple role; I was running a business (while teaching myself how to make the product we were selling), overseeing staff with mental health problems (some of whom refused to co-operate with me because of my gender and my age) and I was also meant to oversee the staff running 2 other departments. It was this part of my job that totally went by the wayside and this is when the bullying began. I repeatedly asked for the bullying to be dealt with too and was told that as it was not 'observed' so there was nothing that could be done about it. The 'promotion' I had been given I had neither requested or applied for - I was actually given it as a 'thank you' for previous work I had done and in hindsight I should have turned it down but I was in desperate need of the payrise back then! My boss was prone to say that being a boss was all about delegating and he was very good at that meaning that the staff were handed some of his job to do too. I will never again work within mental health in this type of capacity...it's not good for my mental health!!

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I am also out of work at the moment and understand I have to get back in ready or not as the threat I feel from our masters is that palpable to me but I fear the world of work through what wages are possible and will I lose my home.

 

But prior to five years past I was never out of work not once in my life aside from the maggie era where one in four in my locale were without jobs and though I could sail interviews no problem I somehow annoyed employers to the point I was forever being let go and that is how I ended up in the military to be medically downgraded and imprisoned on one unit for the entirety of my six year short career. I was good at what I did, my skills were exemplary but beset with emotional imbalance the mood shifts got me negated for further training and promotion and that mood set into my psyche, so on quitting the job I took was a driver for a plant hire company, where the company concerned realised my worth when it was the driver was sent out to exchange faulty machines and they were repaired on site by the driver for although an unskilled lowly driver machines are easy to work out and get working and so I was made a fitter and in time with that company there was a consensus of the best fitters in the south of England and I was one of them for my thirst for knowledge I was self taught and took on anything I have never dealt with before. This continued until five years ago where I was made redundant due to the company concerned discovering the last straw as they knew I was having mental issues but my thirst for knowledge had stepped on their toes and I had identified a nationwide fault with some of the machines and found an effective cheap cure and gave them my thesis and costs to rectify a problem that was costing far more in terms of lost production and customer confidence, but it fell on stoney ground, this was a secret I had discovered and the area technical manager told me the real reason I was being let go was because of the embarrassment I had caused for silly me I had circulated my theory to all the fitters is the company and they were now asking questions - oops !

 

But redundancy one day short of two years with that once great company it was a relief really for soon after I crashed in what the medics believed was a nervous breakdown and not surprising really as I had worked through an attempted murder upon myself that changed loads, a violent marriage, the break up of the marriage, my relocation to another part of the country and back into a profession that was making me ill due to the stress involved and the chemicals I came into daily contact with, where the ideal of Cossh regulations and health and safety in that environment were regularly ignored through operational necessity, it was the done thing and why many ex fitters suffer ill health for diesel fumes in closed environments are not good for health, that was the worst pollutant then came old mineral oil, petrol, sewerage, trichloromethane, dead things, inflammable gases etc and myself also being a lifting engineer I had the stress of certifying decaying equipment safe for use, the stuff others passed I failed through my attention to detail I saw things other's missed, which did not make me popular one bit, but public safety was my concern not any notion of my compatriots feelings or company profits.

 

But as to now, I am in consultation with the job centre where I report my biggest problem is I have lost confidence in my abilities for I have tried since to repair stuff for free and have felt panic at what I was doing, even the most simplest of jobs, people that know of what I used to be able to do ask me to take a look at their faulty equipment and I make excuses to avoid, I have simply lost my confidence and the job centre are reporting this is the biggest hurdle they are coming across to get the long term unemployed back to work, they want to work but their confidence has gone, how this can be addressed they don't know as they know forcing people into jobs to fail is not going to work for people, it will work for the country's finances as those sacked or quit will not get back on benefits and so those who have lost their confidence won't move through abject fear for their futures.

 

But no one is addressing this loss of confidence issue which manifests as fear, fear so palpable it is making people mentally ill and then such people are attacked by society for being work shy, can anyone see the likely outcome ?

 

I have known a middle aged unemployed who has taken their own life through lack of self worth through not being able to hold down a job and others who are drinking themselves stupid, one being a decorated Falklands veteran and another a professor of American history. Key people from the past now forgotten and ridiculed , anyone know what such denigration does to once proud people ?

 

I have to get back into work, whether I can handle it or not is immaterial I will sink or swim as there is no help for the long term unemployed other than bullying and threats.

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it is because people don't really care how good you are at your job they care how much they like you

 

so that lazy worker may be a popular person with good social skills while you are a good worker but the boss may not like you so much as a friend therefore does not bother showing you his/her appreciation for what you have done

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Lyndalou you could have seriously written that first post on behalf of me, for the most part. I really don't understand a lot of what goes on over here.

 

I used to think it was an Australian work ethic, but I'm coming to the realisation that perhaps, what I have, is an AS work ethic. I've been working since I was about 16 (however old we could have a part time job whilst in high school) and the only time I've been out of work was when I fractured a foot, and then broke a toe on the other, after moving up north from Dorset. That was for a grand total of a couple of weeks.

 

I've taken jobs that no one would really want and I had to endure being told that I was 'taking the jobs of all the English people that would want them'. One job was literally running an office and sorting out jobs / ordering materials at a refrigeration company, for less than what is now minimum wage. The other job that I apparently 'stole' from all these people that wanted it was working as a ward clerk at a high secure mental hospital. So many people wanted it, that when the job alongside mine was advertised they had no takers!!! Go figure.

 

I've always worked my butt off... I always want to do a really good job... my boss has said to me I'm a perfectionist, and I guess she's right.

 

I too have had the situation in just about every job where people have commented on how little certain colleagues seem to be doing and how much I do, but again, they don't do anything about it. Very frustrating isn't it!?

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I know I work hard as my manager has always told me so and other people have not complained. But since a new person has started, she comes in late, has had the equivalent of 7 days sick within the first month and this is her first job... I have been told "I'm not pulling my weight".... How sick does that make me feel?

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I know I work hard as my manager has always told me so and other people have not complained. But since a new person has started, she comes in late, has had the equivalent of 7 days sick within the first month and this is her first job... I have been told "I'm not pulling my weight".... How sick does that make me feel?

All I can say is 'Boo, Hiss'. I can understand you being upset - that really is not fair. Doubt they'll be saying that when she jacks the job in and they are asking you to fill the void. My next door neighbour ( who does not have AS) went for a job after a few years of being mum full time and was told that even with her years of experience and qualifications that she was not suitable for a job (within the health sector and she and the person who interviewed her for the post had a 'history'). They offered the job to a young woman who had a history of walking out on jobs and being off sick. She went off sick within a month of being in the new post and then after she'd been in post for the amount of time she needed to be in order to get a proper severance, she walked. Karma........

Edited by Lyndalou

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