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A former coworker went through a stretch where his manager deliberately assigned him insufficient work and refused to let him do anything but assigned tasks, in
by Joeri 4y ago
A former coworker went through a stretch where his manager deliberately assigned him insufficient work and refused to let him do anything but assigned tasks, in order to get him to quit, and he said it was the most miserable time of his career. Having more work than you can fill your days with is an ideal state of affairs, because it means you never run out of work.
Of course, as you point out, to work like that sustainably it is important to pace yourself, limiting working time. The natural consequence of that is a need for prioritizing the todo list, because not all of it will get done. I say “the” todo list, because if there are multiple they must be merged so it can be determined what tasks come first. It is cumbersome and distracting to do this merging and develop a business understanding of everything landing in an inbox to be able to prioritize it so indeed a natural temptation is to let a manager do this toil, and just follow their cue.
The consequence of letting a manager setting priorities is a loss of control. You have to have faith the manager will give the right kind of work in the right amount. I am not a good fit for this approach, so I tend to take control of my todo list by proposing my own projects or seizing opportunities as they pass by. This does require having good relations up and down the org chart and good insights into the nature of the business, so ymmv.
Seeing work as finite is imho mistaken. The possible work that can be done in a business is effectively infinite, and an effective business will find the best set of work to do with the resources they have, and an optimal level of resources to do enough work to deliver value, but without breaking the bank.
- codethief 4y ago> A former coworker went through a stretch where his manager deliberately assigned him insufficient work and refused to let him do anything but assigned tasks Interesting, even if it weren't to make him quit, in my home country (Germany) this would represent a breach of contract.
- lovich 4y ago> Having more work than you can fill your days with is an ideal state of affairs, because it means you never run out of work. I think we have very different approaches to work. I can’t imagine being anything but excited if some asshole boss thought I would quit because he was paying me to do nothing
- wollsmoth 4y agoWith the magic of remote work, I'd probably either start contracting or just see how long I can do 2 jobs at once.
- lovich 4y agoYou could also just enjoy your time. Not every moment needs to be filled with labor
- wollsmoth 4y agoYeah, but depending on where you are career wise you probably want to avoid letting your skills atrophy too much. That'd be my main concern. But if I wasn't worried about that, and the money was ok, then yeah. Rest and vest.
- gambiting 4y agoIt's a well known approach to punishing employees in big corporations in Japan - salaried positions are culturally "for life" and being fired is extremely rare. But.....you can still be assigned a desk far from everyone else and given zero work. You are still expected to sit there for full day of work, and follow all other rules of Japanese culture - not leave before your boss etc.
- lovich 4y agoIf the boss is putting you in a form of solitary confinement like the Japanese bosses do, then yea that would suck, but I would be surprised that an American boss would do that without HR getting involved as singling out an employee for extra special rules without a pip is an easy court case
- bbqbbqbbq 4y ago