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> If you want to know what your defined role is, a simple way to do so is to simply stop doing your job and seeing what people complain about first. Whenever I

> If you want to know what your defined role is, a simple way to do so is to simply stop doing your job and seeing what people complain about first. Whenever I've done something like that in the past, the complaint is always some variant of "I noticed you goofing off". Historically this was a source of incredible frustration because it basically acknowledged I was undertasked; the complaint would never be some variant of "Why isn't X done yet?" I suppose that means I had no defined role in the company?

kyllo 11y ago
Pretty much. And there definitely are jobs like that out there. I once had a job where literally no one would have complained if I didn't do any work except for sitting at my desk, replying to e-mails, and attending meetings (which I don't consider "real" work). Because I was part of a management training program, I was not expected to produce any output, I was just "there to learn." In reality, that meant I was a professional internet surfer and no one cared. I was miserable and left that job as soon as I could afford to.
vinceguidry 11y ago
> the complaint is always some variant of "I noticed you goofing off". OK, there's a political status-quo you have to learn how to internalize. If you work at the front desk, you can fuck around on the computer, but you can't take a book out and read. One looks like work, the other looks like fucking around. You can't make your organization look bad. The perceptions are more important than the substance. If you can't get the perceptions right then you were never going to make it in corporate America, and should probably stick to contracting. So the way to actually do this is, to look like you're working, but actually be producing nothing. When they complain, you can say you were busy on X, where X is some obviously unimportant meaningless detail. That forces your boss to clarify what he expects you to be working on. That your boss never asks you about specific tasks means that your defined role is to be a repository of knowledge and not a cog in a machine. This is a good thing, knowledge workers can bullshit their way to perks that the rank and file could only dream of. My current job is just such a thing. The key to this is understanding that nobody actually knows what you do. Management can only guilt you into being productive, they have no way of actually knowing if you are being productive or not. Perception is reality and you control the face you put out to the organization.

kyllo 11y ago

Pretty much. And there definitely are jobs like that out there. I once had a job where literally no one would have complained if I didn't do any work except for sitting at my desk, replying to e-mails, and attending meetings (which I don't consider "real" work). Because I was part of a management training program, I was not expected to produce any output, I was just "there to learn." In reality, that meant I was a professional internet surfer and no one cared. I was miserable and left that job as soon as I could afford to.

vinceguidry 11y ago

> the complaint is always some variant of "I noticed you goofing off". OK, there's a political status-quo you have to learn how to internalize. If you work at the front desk, you can fuck around on the computer, but you can't take a book out and read. One looks like work, the other looks like fucking around. You can't make your organization look bad. The perceptions are more important than the substance. If you can't get the perceptions right then you were never going to make it in corporate America, and should probably stick to contracting. So the way to actually do this is, to look like you're working, but actually be producing nothing. When they complain, you can say you were busy on X, where X is some obviously unimportant meaningless detail. That forces your boss to clarify what he expects you to be working on. That your boss never asks you about specific tasks means that your defined role is to be a repository of knowledge and not a cog in a machine. This is a good thing, knowledge workers can bullshit their way to perks that the rank and file could only dream of. My current job is just such a thing. The key to this is understanding that nobody actually knows what you do. Management can only guilt you into being productive, they have no way of actually knowing if you are being productive or not. Perception is reality and you control the face you put out to the organization.