Lessons you've learned in employment?

[Poppy98]

Mine is very vague: the importance of all of the rules that everyone but me knows.


Also that when people expect me to do their entire job, I need to say "no" in order to protect my own.


Do you have any?

 

[thejuice]

Keep track of your hours worked, managers can take advantage

 

[JayCee]

Watched criminal activities at one place or another . Just could not make it work.
Management ,other employees . Except one job my 3rd one . But stayed with them until they folded 2 years after I joined them . But it was good . Inspite of that place almost turning me into a beeraholic . Afterhours gatherings , realized that stuff was bad. And those influences were bad. Worst hangovers ever. Not good for Aspies.Brains did not like peer pressure or Liqour. But was proud of that job .

 

[AprilR]

I found this very weird but, do not work so hard and try to take responsibility. Otherwise, everyone keeps expecting more and more from you.

 

[Chingching]

Do not drink the provided milk if you don't drink tea or coffee.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

1. Your co-workers do not care if you are blind, deaf, autistic, pregnant, etc... whatever the case may be... they only care that you can perform well... and they don't have to "pick up your slack". Are you dependable, reliable, skilled, accountable, and responsible? Your issues are your issues... don't let them affect your team or customer service.

 

[JayLapointe]

If you can always use the Rule of Scotty, the engineer from Star Trek. Always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of 4 that way you can look like a miracle worker.

I have an irregular sort of job in that my position was created specifically to keep me there. I learned if you are useful and able to find new ways of doing things that improve efficiencies people keep you around. Same job now for close to 15 years that was originally supposed to be a couple months Government grant contract. Most of the projects I've worked on through the years now have just been me looking at how they do things and going "well that's dumb, it'd be 10 times easier if you did it like this". Then they look at me like I'm a genius, when really I just have an eye for inefficiencies. Also I'm dealing with a crew that even now technologically is confused by Cloud based file sharing vs files on our network server. There are a lot of inefficiencies to correct.

Also, if you are in any sort of Office environs, and you just need a quick break grab a few sheets of paper, or better yet a file folder with a few sheets and just go for a walk. Nobody ever questions you if you are walking through an office with a file folder, because obviously you must be bringing it to someone who needs that right away.

 

[Judge]

1. Watch your six. Your coworkers are always your primary competitors.

2. The more work you accomplish, the more work they expect you to expedite. Without any guarantees of being compensated for it.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Every company's well-being is dependent upon its asset-to-liability ratio. If your position and decisions make the company more money than what you're getting paid... you're an asset... if not... you're a liability. It is in the company's interest to reduce liabilities... low to mid-level employees.

You might not be receiving a "living wage" from your employer for the simple reason you're costing the company more money (wages, benefits, liability insurance, etc.) than you are producing. It sucks... but that's the truth in most cases. Most companies have employees because they have to... not because they want to.

The age of A.I. software and humanoid robotics will "clean house" at most companies, dramatically improving their productivity and profit margins... likely by greater than 10X. Money talks and the BS walks.

 

[cooljethro]

Whether your face fits socially in a business, is often more important than how hard you work, with regards to workplace advancement.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Working as a carer for the elderly taught me the value of helping people. How much we take our health and well-being for granted. How we need to live our life to the fullest whilst we are still young, as life-changing events could happen at any moment.

Working with people with learning disabilities taught me patience.

Both jobs brought me out my shell significantly. From agoraphobia back in 2012 to being able to go anywhere without panic attacks or overwhelming symptoms and aches and pains.

Ed

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Just leave me alone and I will take care of your organization micro manage, find somebody else, Your choice. My son was over today asked him about my former employer as he is good buddies with a current employee, Americans bought facility couple of years prior to my retirement. Said there was a rumour they wanted to move south of border Rumor died down now as duplicating what waa done here is not transferable My former manager, who asked me to stay after retirement rook early retirement as did plant manager who had apparently threatened to sue me.
If I put on linkedin what I did. As the world turns. I suspect those rich people in California who lost their houses in that fire would love roofing and siding prints that are fireproof and faux Only in Canada pity. Interesting new plant manager was production manager who had responsibilities for California plant they owned Which I noticed is no longer part of the organization. Put my stuff on linkedin Noticed new plant manager checked it out unfortunately he is mechanical engineer I am chemical engineering technologist and Aspie The manager who asked me to stay was a chemical engineer, Former plant manager was a metallurgical engineer.

 

[Poppy98]

I found this very weird but, do not work so hard and try to take responsibility. Otherwise, everyone keeps expecting more and more from you.

Yes, that was probably my biggest struggle. It nearly lead me to some form of burnout.

 

[Poppy98]

Nobody ever questions you if you are walking through an office with a file folder, because obviously you must be bringing it to someone who needs that right away

If you can always use the Rule of Scotty, the engineer from Star Trek. Always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of 4 that way you can look like a miracle worker.

That's very true. As much as I would like to get things done as quickly as possible for whomever, I need to keep that in check because they will definitely be happier to have a longer deadline that I'm early for than a shorter deadline that I'm harried to finish for.

 

[scleod]

Working for corporations is sometimes better than a smaller business. They reward you for excelling, hard work ethic, good attitude. Instead of who is friends with the boss and doesn't challenge a negative or narrow minded view point. You are treated as an asset in a corporate setting. Corporations are also more tolerating and accepting towards diverse people (Autism included) because of so many hr protocols. Where as some smaller businesses don't like how diversity / being different can effect their "image".

 

[Hypnalis]

do not work so hard and try to take responsibility. Otherwise, everyone keeps expecting more and more from you.

Yes, that was probably my biggest struggle. It nearly lead me to some form of burnout.

This isn't wrong, but it's incomplete.

If you're just exchanging hours for money, and have no interesting in improving your value - i.e. get more money per hour - there's no need to be more efficient than the bottom of the top third of your peer group.

If you want to advance, you need to be in the top 10%.

And very important: it has to be visible to the people who can promote you. Working hard to impress, or even worse do the work of, a noisy peer is a waste of time. Better than 50% of the time they'll steal the credit.

Getting promoted isn't necessarily easy, but it's easy to understand if you want that or not, and it's not difficult to make a plan for it. Start there.

BTW the more technical the work, the easier it is to "excel by doing". There are certainly people here who've been on that path.
But almost all employment is competitive to some degree. Being good in a high-added-value technical area raises your baseline for a while, but then you face the same issues as in low-added-value work.

 

[AprilR]

@Hypnalis Sadly the place i was working was a very small office, not a large corporation so there was no chance of promotion or raise. I was getting the same salary as people who were watching tv shows at the office while i was trying to do everything myself.

 

[lunarious]

I've learned in my Journey as ASD why Royal Guards are the best of us. Why we can expect best performance from Royal Guards, in Guardianship.

Royal Guards gets the best food. And Royal Guards get the best bed. They get Royal treatment. That's why they are better than than the rest of us. Their surroundings is Heavenly.

What is the best food? Answer: Wgen you've been hungry a long time or very long time, a dry bread with water is delicious. What is the best bed? When you've been working Hard Long the concrete floor even, is a good bed.

Imam Ali (as) has a quote about Believers comparing them to Dogs: "Dogs eat on the floor, the sleep on the floor, they are Loyal etc". Yet Dogs are not clean, so not very Halal.

 

[Hypnalis]

@Hypnalis Sadly the place i was working was a very small office, not a large corporation so there was no chance of promotion or raise. I was getting the same salary as people who were watching tv shows at the office while i was trying to do everything myself.

I've never done that kind of work, though I've been exposed to the same things in other kinds of teams.
I always found it annoying.

That's the case where being good enough to be sure you're not the first one fired is the best move

Doing other people's work is just inviting them to give you even more of theirs.
OFC that becomes a social game, so it's not necessarily easy for us, but the strongest opposition is to do your own work at the approved pace for exactly one full working day every day, and be able to prove it.

That doesn't work in every case though - for example in support work (which I've been indirectly involved with at times) poorly managed teams will include people who try to take only the easy cases, and will either transfer or drop the difficult ones. (that way their "cases closed per day" stat looks good).
It's so common that these days even the low-end incident-management software has logic to make it impossible.

The point being that there's no "magic trick" that can fully protect good workers from leeches. Even less so if the team leader is a leech that's been promoted.
It does help a little to know that leeches are everywhere though, and that the sooner you identify them and look for workarounds the better.