“ I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage.“ - General and Commander-in-Chief Weimar Republic https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord
Some of these may also work in different life stages.
Want reasonable job security & compensation but currently pursuing a masters / raising an infant / dealing with elderly parental care - "useful¬ valued" may not be so bad for a few years.
Good points and maybe expressed to generally by me.
I suspect who is laid off first is more to do with the lifecycle of the company actually, having been in high/low/negative growth environments myself.
I have found in negative growth environments, managers tend to get pretty sober about who is actually useful not just valued, and cut accordingly. Negative growth environments is also when more cuts happen, with generally a worse job hunting environment if you are cut.
But in frivolous times, yes, I've seen plenty of useful people get cut.. but they always bounce back better anyway.
I kinda feel called out. My work should speak for itself. It often does, but I will always forget it when it comes time to speak of myself nicely.
I simply do not care to self-promote. It feels vain and vanity is one of the most useless things possible to me. Donald Trump is about 98% vanity, if you want to see what vanity is.
Not being able to actually cite the things I’ve done to someone who already knows what those things are has cost me several promotions, though. I can do the work, I can forecast needs, be ready for them, and solve them before they arrive, but because I don’t self-promote, people who can’t shut up about themselves get promoted beyond me.
Now that I’ve typed all that out, I am remembering just how many times this has happened, and now twenty minutes into the week and I am 100% misanthropic. People suck.
I am bad at this as well. I think part of it is to do with my upbringing as a poor, smart kid at a bad school. The way to be well thought of by teachers was to not cause a fuss and get good grades whilst the teachers concentrated on the disruptive kids.
I shudder at the thought of becoming one of those gobshites that asks senior management questions in townhalls like "How do you stay so grounded with all the awesome responsibility you are dealing with?"
There a few things that motivated me to start self publicising a bit more:
1) A Chris Williamson podcast where he said "Shy bairns get nowt" and also "Somewhere there is someone with half your talent and twice your confidence earning 10x your salary."
2) I email all my senior stakeholders (not just my line manager) details of the major projects I am working on. I try and frame this as an "FYI" and an offer for them to add extra context or re-align my priorities.
It is good. I used to do that and get some positive feedback on it. But lately with change in management who are least interested in such mails, and with constant banging of stay in your lane, I just lost the energy.
Point is these things can yield result but it is neither guaranteed nor welcome so many times. Also praising "leadership" is race to bottom, there are always bigger suck ups pushing themselves.
I've tried the brag document but I just can't do it. "ooh look at me, so special" i hate that crap.
I don't need 10x my salary, I just want to feel valued by my team. I have never felt that in my entire life, even though team members often mention that I save their bacon repeatedly in team meetings with supervisors. it's like no one hears it.
unless i change who i am as a person i will never be valued at work. it's just that simple. I won't play the vanity game solely for money. I won't do anything solely for money. I just want to feel valued and I don't think that is possible for me. I'm just not wired to feel that. So fuck me I guess. "you don't fit the mold kid, so you can go fly a kite"
For me, the motivation to move out of my comfort zone and become more "braggy" was to provide a better standard of living for my family. And also my ego - getting annoyed at seeing less talented people do better.
> because I don’t self-promote, people who can’t shut up about themselves get promoted beyond me
You need to re-frame this problem, so it's not about "self-promotion", and instead is about proactively forecasting the needs (as you put it) of your manager, not just the technical system you're managing.
If you view it as part of your job to document (not promote, just document) the work you've done, it's trivial to collect those links into a doc at the end of the promotion cycle, hand it to your manager and collect a promotion. Make sure that you're communicating throughout the cycle that you're expecting a promotion in your 1:1's and ask if you're on track towards that goal / if there's anything un-discussed you'd need to do to get there.
It's critical to understand that this is not vanity, it's part of your job (if you want a promotion, that is). I hope this is helpful!
how can i understand what my manager needs if i don't know what he does?
I have no idea what managers do, and I can't ever get an answer when I ask what managers do. "oh, all kinds of stuff." gosh, thanks. it's so clear, now.
It's important to understand the incentives of everybody in an organization, even if they're not able to articulate it clearly to you, you should make it your personal mission to understand them. The incentive structure of your manager (i.e. the standard by which they are judged) is to keep their ICs productive while also attempting to keep costs "under control" (i.e. growing, but at a predictable rate that is below some hurdle).
If you want a promotion, your manager needs to be able to explain / provide evidence to their manager (and so on, all the way to the board in theory) as to why you deserve a higher salary.
If you are doing the right work, are able to provide them with an artifact (brag sheet / promotion packet) that concisely outlines the value provided, and consistently provide the signal that you'd be dissatisfied (i.e. potentially leave) without a promotion, you'll get a promotion. It's within your power to remove the only remaining obstacle for them by providing the packet, which is 80% of their work in securing you a promotion.
There are almost always more urgent issues for a manager to address than a high-performing employee who is quietly upset about not getting a promotion. By stepping up and helping them do this small part of their job, you're demonstrating empathy by solving an important but non-urgent problem for them. They will be grateful.
Not sure if you are looking for an answer or just letting the steam out... But if you are searching for knowledge, then I would suggest picking up a book or two on leading people. It was a big surprise to me that such books exist and that they actually help understand the dynamics in companies, and how to achieve win-win outcomes. Good luck!
Guess I fit the stupid and lazy category, interesting thoughts though. I act like I work half of the day and the other half I procrastinate and work simultaneously. Part of it may be ADHD but somehow it works out for me... Still getting my work done.
That kind of work avoidance sounds like a lot of work.
Advice would be to try to find a job or role doing something you’re interested it.
A lot of the subject matter of my work is not that interesting to me, and the politics and lack of any sort of vision or leadership at most organizations these days makes project work sometimes stressful. But (maybe as a survival mechanism?) I’ve found that focusing on improving how I do my work and taking pride in my output (even if no one else notices) is a way for me to have some control over my work day.
This way it’s about me and I’m not looking for external validation (which isn’t coming for a myriad of reasons that would be exhausting to list here).
My point is that we all (most of us anyway) have to work so my theory is that it’s best to try to find some balance of interesting, pays ok and you’re good enough at it that you can find some meaning in your work.
I do, only I've spent a lot of time the last 15 years thinking objectively about my strengths and weaknesses. I am so "lazy" that I work hard nearly every day. Let me explain.
1. Big tasks are stressful because, well, they're big. So I break them down in to components and chip away every day at them so that I am not overwhelmed. I call this taking care of my future self.
2. I love to have days where I get to wake up and do whatever I want to do that day. But I can't enjoy that freedom with bad conscious tasks hanging over my head, so I work my ass off to have those days. For example, my goal for the ENTIRE summer was to spread a yard of mulch, re-build two firewood racks, re-stack and move the logs that are in different areas to keep them seasoning, split and stack a cord of wood for next winter, lay posts for a fruit tree espalier, rebuild shed doors, cut back the wood line 10 feet. These are all already done because we had a nice weather spring. On top of that I changed the fluids on the tractor, the lawnmower, the riding lawnmower and cleaned the gutters.
3. Future proof my job. I got ISO 27001 certification in the spring during dry project spell, and I'm now doing my CCP certification. I have also made it a goal to do 2 hours of business development and networking every week.
4. I do billing on weekdays now, no longer on the weekends.
5. Exercise and sleep. Eat healthy. Don't drink alcohol. This means I wake up early and fresh and motivated to do a couple hours of early work every day. This usually means I'm done with my workday by 2:00pm.
6. Remove toxic relationships from your life. This could be friends, an employer, a client, whatever. They suck your happiness which impacts your productivity.
7. Don't keep up with the Jones's. Figure out what makes you happy. I've never cared about how people view me, I wear jeans and t-shirts mostly. Fancy cars & houses do nothing for me (I live in a great house on an amazing property in a very special area next to a city I have always loved even though it wasn't my "home", but it's not a McMansion). My car is low mileage and 10 years old.
8. Don't do ALL the hobbies. Find the one or two that you really get a lot out of and focus on those. For me it's music.
Did I know or do much of this when I was 20? no. 30? not really. Maybe some of this just comes from experience.
Nah actual work is mentally draining. While I avoid work I do private projects that are actually interesting to me. I work, just not on company stuff that I don't care about.
I am a quitter, I start projects for 2 weeks until I find the next shiny thing. I have a tendency to quit once projects go from learning to tedious repetitive work.
I'm the exact same. Sometimes work scratches that itch and I can work a productive 8 hours. Other times it's boring repetitive work and I'll start slacking off.
Learn to finish projects, that's where the satisfaction is. Perhaps go into it without an overambitious design, hit a milestone. Step away. Come back later and augment.
I had to quit my job as president of a company and start a consulting practice to do this (to varying degree of success, freedom requires constant vigilance).
I had to double check that I wasn't sleep posting or something cause that's literally what 90% of my days are like.
Probably 5% of the time I'll get stuck completely and those days are immensely stressful but on the flip side, the 5% of the time I actually am able to silence the procrastination demon in my ear, those days are so satisfyingly productive.
Or you’re clever and lazy but haven’t found the right general to promote you to high leadership yet. I think of Sir Ken Robinson whenever I hear anyone say ADHD is synonymous with “stupid”
I worked as a small elite unit in a world leading airline, team of about 5 poeple that went down to basically 1 ( after I was finally labelled as "difficult to work with" - ( I actually was always quiet calm friendly used to working in critical teams and worked basically close to 12 hour days.
Eventually a deadline was missed and "someone had to be blamed".
Having worked in countless companies I was ready for this and calm, basically fine with it, just kept working hard.
But I always remember of this one "middle manager" product lead or something, was constantly interrupting people, sitting with them, walking through what they were doing, following them, and eventually made a private accusation that I was "insulting other members of the team". ( I was basically silo'd knew no one, and also knew better than to criticise anyone). Stay with me...
I got chewed out by a seemingly random , mild mannered usually polite manager who never had a problem with me, infront of a few people ( I didnt say anything - instinctively I just knew this mean I was about to be let go, nothing I would say would help, and tensions were high due to deadlines ), accused of being troublesome etc. I calmly said I didnt know what he was stating, he calmed down and left.
Then I was "released from my contract".
As a consultant I don't get upset by these things, I am fine with it, I work as hard as I can and when the contract is over I leave.
However I will never forget how the one man, who never actually did any work, who interrupted everyone, and who made these accusations, was basically doing everything he could do "seem like he had a job".
He was infact, not quite the "hardworking and stupid". My only amendment that perhaps he was a special version of this, the "hardworking and unethical".
Only ever saw that once in nearly 2 decades of working but Im sure there were many more I didnt pick up on,
He stayed on, causing trouble, disrupting etc, and I always realised its because he kept a close profile to his superior, who had no eyes on the ground, and blindly trusted him due to an overload of work.
EDIT > Sorry I want to emphasise the main take away in my rant, is that the polite quiet well meaning, happy, working, well adjusted polite english gentleman behind me who was in management was suddenly shouting at me in front of others because he felt shocked at the accusation that I was a bad person, obviously which mean I deserved a dressing down, stood up and just starting shouting at me. This was a calm, relatively intelligent person, with his things in order, not affiliated with my project. Yet he just assumed an email chain from management around him, possibly with a very accusatory snippet from the trouble maker, was enough to convince him to act unprofessional and give me the dressing down. If anyone would have got into trouble or sued, it would have been this well meaning "smart" individual. That was my other main point.
In the end, there were no moves I could have made, but it was incredibly surprising how many poeple were easily manipulated into being unprofessional etc because of false information coming from their tier / one tier up. Whole narratives painted. It was quite interesting. Eventually that individual must have been let go, but what a desperate, unethical way to live.
> However I will never forget how the one man, who never actually did any work, who interrupted everyone, and who made these accusations, was basically doing everything he could do "seem like he had a job".
Judging from your description, you could actually be a threat to his position. So that might be a preemptive strike.
I had not even thought of that! I did accidentally after a 10 hour day - slip for for half a second and said "what!?!?" it was less than a second and I was half way through leaving - it was after working hours, it was a big, complex question and interrupted my flow brashly, I didnt even realise I had said it in the wrong tone and that other poeple may have heard it. I immediately did my best to answer the question, but that slight slip up must have made him feel embarrased and under threat. I remember it now. To be fair it was after work, the wrong moment and really an interruption, when a calm "can we discuss this at one point" was expected in that env.
A lot of people in management also have imposter syndrome which makes anyone under them that appears competent seem like a danger to them.
While doing a contract and consulting I've ran into this, but nothing like my wife in her career.
First corporate job as webdev/design, had her boss get fired for embezzlement of about quarter of a mil. Bosses after that kinda sucked so she left.
Second job (marketing manager/design) was fine for a while, until her great boss left and they replaced her with a sketchy character. I listened in on a number of her meetings and we came to the conclusion that he wanted to bring in a contracting group that was going to give him kickbacks. This guy seemed highly threatened by her. She found another job and within 6 months that guy was fired and the people that still worked there didn't know the exact details but there were hush hush whispers of fraud.
Third job (sr marketing manager) was fine with the first boss over her. But as always, that person found an even better paying position and left. Next director had an issue with taking other people's work and calling it her own. Wife did something unintentionally to embarrass the director in a meeting when the director had taken my wife's work and put her name on it and upper level management saw it. A few days later my wife was put on a PIP by her manager the director even though she had got outstanding remarks on the last quarter review that had ended a month before. Needless to say she did the following. Went and got a better job (director level now) but didn't tell them that. Then went to HR and filed a complaint over the PIP and ethics violations. After some back and forth it ended up with her leaving with a severance.
Really everything I've seen in management as you go up higher in the food chain is that it seems everyone is willing to, and expects others to knife them in the back in a lot of companies.
Another wild, unsubstantiated guess... The reason for him interrupting others, might be the stress caused by not understanding what's being said, but having to hold the professional image
...the polite quiet well meaning, happy, working, well adjusted polite English gentleman...
You need to watch out for those, speaking as one myself. We did run an empire once and not by being nice. Have a look at George Orwell's short pieces set in Burmah (now Myanmar).
I've noticed a strong trend that newly hired managers suffer from imposter syndrome more than anyone else. Rocking the boat, lighting fires, picking fights with their reports or people outside the team - these are common symptoms.
I am in my mid forties. I have always walked away the moment I have been yelled at any job. Each time I have done this I had zero dollars in the bank. That is a privilege I give to my family, and they don't even use it. If it is a big organization walk straight to HR or go home and call a lawyer.
I also agree it’s o er the line. However what I do is I leave “on my
Own terms” as a form of victory. I will make that the moment I mentally decide to leave but I let myself choose the timing as much as possible as a form of not letting my environment affect me. Not sure if that makes sense
Thank you for posting this. Someone had told me this and attributed it to Clausewitz - so I've never been able to track it down. I've used it to make the case that laziness is not always a bad thing - i.e. lazy people find it easier to delegate.
Love this quote and tell it to friends often. I strive to be the clever and lazy officer. It was also eye opening to meet the first hardworking+stupid individual of my career and see just how much damage they really could do.
Unfortunately I've found that big tech companies are stuffed with "stupid and hardworking", an inevitable consequence of perf eval cultures that value work output over anything else.
