Trying hard has become unfashionable in the workplace. How did we get here?

[Tylenol]

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/tod...-trying-work-effort-initiative-office-5233026

 

[True Believer]

Most of us have been brought up to believe that working hard and displaying competence at the workplace should be rewarded. However, many who excel at work not only get ignored, but marginalised.

 

[True Believer]

In the world of office politics, there is a clear and present danger about being too competent in what we do. Those who shoulder their duties with customary aplomb, risk showing their bosses that they are not only talented, but evidently too talented for their own good.

 

[True Believer]

If such employees display any more brilliance, their supervisors might fear being replaced by the very subordinates whose work appraisals they graded favourably. Many rising stars in a company receive a rude shock at their next performance review; instead of the expected glowing appraisal, their bosses criticise their decision-making and marginalise their contributions.

 

[True Believer]

Whether genuine talents resign in anger or are forced out, the company loses a vital contributor because of a paranoid boss trying to sabotage a subordinate perceived as a threat to his job.

 

[True Believer]

If we work under a boss who is insecure enough to marginalise us for being excellent, then it's probably not a boss worth working for. A lack of competency is not the only trait that can get us passed up for promotion, demoted or fired.

 

[True Believer]

Poor leaders look out only for themselves instead of trying to achieve unity within the company. Bosses who are not sure of their own self-worth use divisive tactics to maintain control, without truly understanding the risks of such tactics.