# Less hard work = success



## AnotherGuy (Aug 5, 2013)

I was just sitting here thinking about when I was younger and how any job I got as a younger guy ended up with me in a higher position of trust and responsibility. Then I began to wonder what made me see that going above and beyond is never really worth it.

Some time ago I got a customer service office job. A fellow coworker was hired due to her 2nd language skills so she got to work helping people of all Asian backgrounds. Meanwhile I was helping English callers. I would receive close to 100 calls a day. This coworker got a total of 9 calls in one year. *that was not a typo people. NINE calls all year. * when the other phone queues were on fire, I had to accept calls for multiple departments, despite the fact I was hired for ONE - she still had to stay in the same queue that was lucky to receive 1 call in a few weeks. So I had to help with call overflow--she got to google stuff.

During this time I had to do all kinds of learning by myself because in a female dominated office, men were the punching bags. People would literally refuse to help me and answer my questions. So I put on my study cap and learned everything that I had to on my own. And I became amazing at what I did.

Eventually one year passed and we were allowed to change departments and jobs. She got a cozy job in a department that just monitors computer activity. She was personally groomed by one of the people from that department because the guy who groomed her thought he was gods gift to women and would constantly hit on her. She would just listen to the guy sing like a canary about all the info she needed to advance. Meanwhile I was asking people to learn anything I could to do my job properly, got ignored at EVERY turn, STILL learned anyway, and I lost out a really good position to someone who was on disciplinary action for attendance issues.

Sometimes walking out is your only option. And when that's your only option because you know that trying to advance is like ice skating uphill, quitting feels soooooo good.


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## TobeyJuarez (May 16, 2012)

*sigh*

i dont think this particular instance should be grounds to develop a new way of thinking


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## bottleofblues (Aug 6, 2008)

Was she attractive? Attractive woman and guys usually have an easier time getting ahead than others.


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## AnotherGuy (Aug 5, 2013)

illmatic1 said:


> *sigh*
> 
> i dont think this particular instance should be grounds to develop a new way of thinking


Sure, why not? What if this happens at every single job you go to? Would you keep a chipper attitude if this happened every time you tried to apply yourself at a new job?


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## AnotherGuy (Aug 5, 2013)

bottleofblues said:


> Was she attractive? Attractive woman and guys usually have an easier time getting ahead than others.


Oh yea. You can bet she was.


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## DeeperUnderstanding (May 19, 2007)

Every job is different.

Sounds like the one you had was pure hell, though. They really took advantage of you!


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## TobeyJuarez (May 16, 2012)

AnotherGuy said:


> Sure, why not? What if this happens at every single job you go to? Would you keep a chipper attitude if this happened every time you tried to apply yourself at a new job?


yes, infact it is what i did... for three years and as a result i ended up getting three jobs in a six month period and had to quit two of them cause i had found too much work ...

would have never happened had i gave up early


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## Zeeshan (Sep 4, 2011)

Look into naseem talib

He wrote a whole book about how you will be better off with random decisions then with knowing what your doing

Or something to that extend. Its very popular white swan I think


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## AnotherGuy (Aug 5, 2013)

illmatic1 said:


> yes, infact it is what i did... for three years and as a result i ended up getting three jobs in a six month period and had to quit two of them cause i had found too much work ...
> 
> would have never happened had i gave up early


Hey, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with hard work. It's cool. It's my nature. All I'm saying is there is a point where you notice that you won't get ahead in a million years when mediocre employees are being promoted ahead of you and clueless people begin to get ahead. There is a point where you say "f*** it, I'll just be one of them". Is that indicative of EVERY job? No, of course not. It's more than likely the norm at most of them though. My word isn't absolute. But its happened enough times where I can see it coming from a mile away. All I'm saying is that I've learned enough to play dumb.


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## TobeyJuarez (May 16, 2012)

AnotherGuy said:


> Hey, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with hard work. It's cool. It's my nature. All I'm saying is there is a point where you notice that you won't get ahead in a million years when mediocre employees are being promoted ahead of you and clueless people begin to get ahead. There is a point where you say "f*** it, I'll just be one of them". Is that indicative of EVERY job? No, of course not. It's more than likely the norm at most of them though. My word isn't absolute. But its happened enough times where I can see it coming from a mile away. All I'm saying is that I've learned enough to play dumb.


im not saying hardwork=blind work... two different things what i am saying is that u sound like your about to give up... what im saying is keep ur current job until u can find a better job and then walk in that gawd awful place flipping tables jesus style, screaming "i quits motha****as!!!" at the top of your lungs...


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## Omgblood (Jun 30, 2010)

Yes I've noticed people get ahead to higher positions by just climbing the social ladder. not exactly always by their merits. Someone doesn't even have to contribute much, but just appear to others to be doing so; some people just need to find it agreeable


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## ASB20 (Jun 5, 2013)

Hard work = success is a cultural thing. It's part of the Protestant work ethic, and whatnot.

Honestly, it's not about _how much_ time you put in. It's about _what_ you put in. If you, in an hour, can put in the work that takes another guy three days, you're golden. Succeeding is more about realizing your skills and what you can do rather than just lurching at any opening and smashing against the walls with effort.

Unfortunately, society still preaches "Hard work!" Smart work is better than hard work. Smart _and_ hard work is the best.


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

omg does your company need another asian


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

You just gotta love office politics don't you? While your job sounds exceptionally bad and like you really were being taken advantage of thanks to poor policy, I've always that if you just do your job best when the boss is around and jump through the bogus hoops and policies that people at corporate came up with (usually a result of somebody trying to cover their ***) you're good in most places. Make powerful friends and keep up appearances because it'll make them think you'd be a good boss or policy maker to other people. There's a reason it's called professionalism and not just performance. They want to see if you can manage people or rise to new challenges.


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## foe (Oct 10, 2010)

After over a decade of working dead-end jobs to finally have a respectable job, there's what I learned. Education, hard-work and dedication are all good but not the most important things. The most vital thing in a workplace is communication skills- both with customers/patients and co-workers and bosses. With communication, you make yourself more visible and the more connected you are the more opportunities you'll get.

It doesn't matter if you're the guy who's willing to cover every shift, work every weekend, never call out, always worked on holidays, if you don't make yourself noticed then you'll be stuck in the same position forever. 

I know it's extremely hard for people like us to have great communication, networking, social skills but if we want to go further in life or jobs we have to improve on that. Education and hard-work ethics are good to have but communication skills is what will put you over the hump.


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## Omgblood (Jun 30, 2010)

monotonous said:


> omg does your company need another asian


Don't know what you mean by that but the work is dead-end, thankless and menial; I would almost be doing a service by people to stay away


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

foe said:


> After over a decade of working dead-end jobs to finally have a respectable job, there's what I learned. Education, hard-work and dedication are all good but not the most important things. The most vital thing in a workplace is communication skills- both with customers/patients and co-workers and bosses. With communication, you make yourself more visible and the more connected you are the more opportunities you'll get.
> 
> It doesn't matter if you're the guy who's willing to cover every shift, work every weekend, never call out, always worked on holidays, if you don't make yourself noticed then you'll be stuck in the same position forever.
> 
> I know it's extremely hard for people like us to have great communication, networking, social skills but if we want to go further in life or jobs we have to improve on that. Education and hard-work ethics are good to have but communication skills is what will put you over the hump.


You nailed it on the head. I want to be mature and express an understanding for how this is the only way to get people (who are all basically selfish beings) to work together and trust each others' competence. But no matter how hard I try I have to admit that this basically sums up everything I hate about the world :/ Why would anybody want to be part of this garbage? Maybe I should just scam somebody once and live off interest for the rest of my life.


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## ASB20 (Jun 5, 2013)

asittingducky said:


> You nailed it on the head. I want to be mature and express an understanding for how this is the only way to get people (who are all basically selfish beings) to work together and trust each others' competence. But no matter how hard I try I have to admit that this basically sums up everything I hate about the world :/ Why would anybody want to be part of this garbage? *Maybe I should just scam somebody once and live off interest for the rest of my life.*


$10 mil, that's all ya need. Invest that into the stock market's blue-chippers that won't fluctuate much over time, and at 2% average dividend yield, that's $200K a year before taxes. Forever.

Assuming, y'know, you don't invest in the next Kodak.


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## asittingducky (Apr 23, 2013)

Oh sorry by scam I meant stick a gun to some rich person's head. And I was thinking something more secure like an account but you make a good point about how that would be too easy, gotta give myself a bit of a challenge after all.


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