The art of not giving a ****

I have had to take the view that they are going to pay me for the work I do, so I'm not going to get stressed or go nuts doing more.
The exclusion is if there is something that interests me, then i will do more.

It took pretty much a break down to realise that the employer pays the same no matter how hard you work. So just chill, do what you can do & try not to let incompetence at work annoy you.

It's surprising that senior members of Government are posting here.

It took pretty much a break down to realise that the employer pays the same no matter how hard you work. So just chill, do what you can do & try not to let incompetence at work annoy you.

It’s surprising that senior members of Government are posting here.

All of this. Though I'm only HO grade, not very senior.

If you cant beat em join em. Seems to be an emerging culture of people who will do the least anount of work possible but just enough to not get fired. Be one of them. Unless its your own compamy and your money at stake the work thing is really not worth worrying about.

I take the view that other employers are available, with the caveat that the grass won’t be greener it will just be a different smelling alternate shade of brown.

Unless its your own compamy and your money at stake the work thing is really not worth worrying about.

Or in Sales. Lazy Sales mostly doesn't work, although a few get lucky. It always amazes me how people move from Sales role to Sales role increasing their Seniority but are basically lazy Sales people constantly being let go.

Oh hold on, maybe it does work...

Not to mention the ridiculous company politics and hypocrisy.

Oooh, we work for the same company!
Good people offered redundancy and let go, crap people kept and protected, good people handing their notice in and nobody fighting to retain them, senior management having not one iota about what we do or how we work. Very well-paid management consultants coming in and telling us how we should do things, then realising that their ideas won't work, and leaving. Rinse and repeat.

Agghhhhhhhhh.....

Early in my career I worked with a chap who was nearing retirement. The best advice he ever gave me was -
“ Just keep taking the money, nipper”
All these years later, if work is winding me up, I can still hear Bill’s wise words.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a **** is on Prime, actually just about to watch it! Apparently there's a book too.

I'm guilty of caring too much about my work and wanting to do a good job, my wife's the same actually with hers. My jobs have always been stand alone roles where I'm responsible for everything for my fairly niche, but publicly responsible role.

Enough for it to make me ill enough with stress that I'm not able to work and any complicated or stressful situation now my head just shuts down, computer says no.

Not sure if the film/book is any good, but I'm giving it a watch...

So come on how do I just let it go give me your tips?

There's a very very short list of things i care about in the world... very.

Corporate environment just do what u need to get by, when it's your own show there's no hiding place or anyone else to blame.

Every paid job I ever did my then colleagues said after, u d never get away with that now. I m sure I would.

Don't take it personally but yr employer doesn't give a stuff about u.

Its your company / boss that doesn't give a flying ****

Or, else, why are they letting it happen?

Don't get down, think about your home life, or cycling etc.

PMI --- Positive Mental Attitude

'ook for "self help singh life coach" videos very inspiring..
youtube, insta et al

think about your home life, or cycling etc.

This for me. Work is a means to earn the £££, and family life, biking etc is what really matters. I do need to remind myself of that sometimes at work, it's easy to forget.

How feasible is it to look for another role (within the same company or elsewhere)?

I've been pi55ed off in past jobs and either found another role internally, discussed voluntary redundancy, or left for something better.

Do a good job to a good standard, but make sure someone else's cock up doesn't affect you. We just 'lost' a half mill contract as someone forgot to ensure the bid was submitted. The work done, just didn't submit on time on the portal - down to one individual. They just said 'sorry'. WTAF. We've lost a big chunk of work.

Good people offered redundancy and let go, crap people kept and protected, good people handing their notice in and nobody fighting to retain them, senior management having not one iota about what we do or how we work.

There's an argument that if someone wants Voluntary Redundancy, it's better to give it to them rather than refuse it and have a pissed off individual who doesn't really want to be there and isn't going to put their full commitment to anything...

I think some places actually don't like high achievers/ competent people because it highlights how shite the rest of them are hence not bothering to retain good people. This is especially true when those people know more than management do!

I have days of anger then days of **** it its not my business.

It's just tiresome. It's not hard not to be a dick in work but so many people fail to realise this.

Then ending the day foaming at the mouth with incompetence of some of the people I work with and the idiocy of the way we work.

Is it your job to correct the incompetence and make things work better? If not stop worrying.

I came to the conclusion a long time ago at work that around 95% of the people (myself included) are just winging it, trying to get through to the next payday without f***** up or being found out. The other 5% are genuinely very good but are limited in what they can do because if you get rid of the other 95% there'd be no company. So we all carry on and muddle through, and somehow the world keeps turning and we all make a living. 🙂

There’s an argument that if someone wants Voluntary Redundancy, it’s better to give it to them rather than refuse it

I wish someone would tell the directors in my firm this. 😀

I think some places actually don’t like high achievers/ competent people because it highlights how shite the rest of them are

It also creates single points of failure. I was talking to one of our technical architects/dev leads recently who told me he didn't want a 'rockstar developer', he just wanted 'a developer' because otherwise everything would hang on that one person who can get everything done, and then when he moves on the team will be screwed.

It also creates single points of failure. I was talking to one of our technical architects/dev leads recently who told me he didn’t want a ‘rockstar developer’, he just wanted ‘a developer’ because otherwise everything would hang on that one person who can get everything done, and then when he moves on the team will be screwed.

Standard operating procedure in the teams I'm involved with. No rockstars, no ninjas, no heroes thankyouverymuch!

No Brents (#PhoenixProject)

I used to work for businesses where not giving a * did help.
But once I moved away from that to a business where everyone did their best, it was much better for me mentally. Going to work was nice, the rewards were not just the pay packet. Makes a massive difference.

So if you are in a place where you are frustrated and realise its not worth giving a *, move on. Move on fast. You don't want to waste your time, its precious. Even work time can be good.

So come on how do I just let it go give me your tips?

Go self-employed. Your 'couldn't-give-a-shit-ometer' immediately goes off the chart. Office politics are totally irrelevant, all working relationships are transient, the buck always stops with somebody else, you can pack your stuff up and walk away from it at the drop of a hat and you'll be working somewhere else next week, so... meh!

Then ending the day foaming at the mouth with incompetence of some of the people I work with and the idiocy of the way we work.

When I was in a 'proper job', for example: someone making pointless changes to artwork just to justify their own jobs, or making huge cock-ups that I would then have to sort out would drive me absolutely mad. Now I'm self-employed its just more hours on their invoice. They can carry on doing it to their hearts content. It just means a bigger bill. I actually want them to be idiots because its financially beneficial to me 😀

I take the view that other employers are available, with the caveat that the grass won’t be greener it will just be a different smelling alternate shade of brown.

I took that view, then got a job at a company near the top of the list of best places to work in the UK, according to Glassdoor. Grass is luscious, green and smelling pretty sweet…

Early in my career I worked with a chap who was nearing retirement. The best advice he ever gave me was –
“ Just keep taking the money, nipper”

I had a similar maxim as a contractor, one which I still lean on fairly heavily as a permie:

"Smile and invoice”

I always think it is worth doing your work as well as you can, but not to the point of exploding yourself.
It is possible to have pride in your work while also not getting pissed off at everyone and everything else

We just ‘lost’ a half mill contract as someone forgot to ensure the bid was submitted. The work done, just didn’t submit on time on the portal – down to one individual. They just said ‘sorry’. WTAF. We’ve lost a big chunk of work.

Not even close.

My company.

We have one large subcontractor, in China, who makes all our stuff and we pay them $ms a year. Anyway, new invoice comes through from them only bank details had changed suddenly after nearly 20 years of being the same. Eagle eyed finance minion spots this and raises it as potential fraud attempt. CFO over rules. Barclays bank stop the transaction as it looks like fraud. CFO over rules. This happens three times. A month later CFO of sub contractor phones our CFO to say your account in in arrears, you owe us $1.5m for last month....

He kept his frickin job!

However, we had to lay off some people to make up for the shortfall....

It also creates single points of failure. I was talking to one of our technical architects/dev leads recently who told me he didn’t want a ‘rockstar developer’, he just wanted ‘a developer’ because otherwise everything would hang on that one person who can get everything done, and then when he moves on the team will be screwed.

There is, unfortunately, a counter point to that and it's when you get someone who is fundamentally a bit shit but is also the only one who can be bothered to do / is capable of doing X so the single point of failure revolves around them and they've made themselves invaluable. To them, it's a way of ensuring their own job security but to everyone else, it becomes the blockage in the company.

I actually want them to be idiots because its financially beneficial to me 😀

'Where there's chaos there's cash'

I took that view, then got a job at a company near the top of the list of best places to work in the UK, according to Glassdoor.

I work for one of the top 10 on the Glassdoor best places to work rankings. One of the things that has changed in the past few years (and moreso since covid) is that working long hours and being stressed are now seen as negatives rather than a sign that you are working 'hard' or are dedicated to the job. I know a lot of organisations pay lip service to the mental wellbeing stuff, but where I work they really do take it seriously. Mrs Daz can't believe how relaxed my job is these days compared to what it used to be like 5 years ago, and I get paid a lot more than I did back then.

He kept his frickin job!

did he have $1.5M in his account...

did he have $1.5M in his account…

Many people did ask that...

I went through this a few years ago.
Went through a warranty failure case, FMEA, interim and "permanent" corrective actions.
Suggestions/lessons learnt to design practices to ensure it won't happen again, blah blah blah.
Finished up by announcing that this is the same presentation i used last time, and the time before, and it's derived from my predecessors presentation. And here are the previous case numbers.
I've just been updating the images, statistics and project numbers. Even the FMEA just gets cut and pasted, because it's all the same shit, every time. We all know that no one is going to fix this, this issue has already cost the company over half a billion dollars for the sake of 2 or 3 million dollars worth of tooling mods/development and about 30c on the piece price. If it becomes a priority case again, i simply won't work on it.

Absolute silence for about 90 seconds.

The relatively new chair (less then a year in the role) of the meeting went utterly ballistic.
I left the room.
And got a new job ~6 months later.

The fall out was immense. People lost jobs. Suppliers had contracts cancelled.

I always think it is worth doing your work as well as you can, but not to the point of exploding yourself.
It is possible to have pride in your work while also not getting pissed off at everyone and everything else

This is where I am at the moment (or try to be). There's plenty of problems with the company I work for, but it's a small company, very relaxed environment, a very long way from corporate. So most of the time I'm fairly chilled and happy despite pay not ideal. It's only tensions with those who like to stir that causes the biggest issues.

i am a world champion at not giving a shyte.
spent all my working life perfecting the role.
never wanted to earn a load of money, never wanted to climb any kind of career ladder, never wanted to impress anyone. never worked overtime, never relied on overtime or bonuses to live. never took a job that i could not cycle to, so never drove to work. retired when i wanted, not when i could afford to.
went to work, did my job, came home.

away from work i have always been the same.
i care about family, friends, bikes and beer. nothing more really.
current affairs and news are wasted on me, i have never taken it in, stuff that dont affect me directly mean nothing to me. and the older i get this is becoming moreso.

the best ethos is something i saw,or read,or heard. it was a hashtag thing.

#lesscashmoretime

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a * is on Prime, actually just about to watch it! Apparently there’s a book too.

Came on here to recommend the book... It really helps to put things into perspective!

Not so much self help as helping you realise everyone else has got their own problems too... Many of which are weirder than yours!

Helps put a smile on the face at least if nothing else...

His 2nd book "Everything is Fed" is more of the same... 👍🏻

@ton

Christ I wish I could be more like you! I'm almost the polar opposite... Spend far too much time worrying about things that I have no control over, it's only now I'm in my 40's that I've been able to start to put things into perspective, but even then, I worry unduly about the situation in Ukraine for example, and was giving myself a hard time last year for not having a spare room I could offer for a Ukrainian refugee when if I'd already moved to a bigger house (with a bigger mortgage), I would have been able to! 🤯

I'm starting a new hashtag...

#bemoreton 👍🏻😉

The first rule of contracting:

Never have a shit on your own time.

My problem seems to be the inverse of most of the tales above. I work very closely with a designer who is very passionate about her job and is forever bothering me with the minutest detail of shite I have no interest in...

Is there a polite 2023 way to say "stop bothering me, you're the designer, design it"?

I used to enjoy giving a shit, I had some jobs that were interesting, inspriring even, and when they no longer inspired it was time to do something else or nothing at all for a while. I gave a shit whether it was providing people with safe drinking water or picking grapes. Is it wrong to enjoy doing your best with other people doing likewise? I think not.

Like @Edukator I do like giving a shit and contributing positively. It's great working with people of a similar mind set and you can see the projects you have incepted/planned coming along and bearing fruit.

The trick is to know when to stop caring. I.e. when you are battling insoluble broblems or constraints that you are not empowered to resolve. All you can do then is to report it up, to those who *may* be empowered.

Is it wrong to enjoy doing your best with other people doing likewise? I think not.

No, but you can give too much of a shit...

I literally have to drag my GF away from her work laptop, every single night, and at the weekends too...

Her former employer really took the piss because they knew she would just keep working and working until burnt out. Fortunately she saw sense and handed her notice in and now has a new, better job. But she's constantly looking out for more work to do, because that's the kind of person she is! 🤦🏻

The trick is balancing the number of ****s you give.

I have to work, so I may as well do something I enjoy and get well paid for. So I give enough ****s to manage that, but not so many ****s that it becomes unmanageable.

I've always given a shit about the work I do as I like to do a decent job, but as I got older I tended to restrict giving a shit to working hours only. Now retired it's easy not to give a shit.

I’ve always worked on the principle of doing absolutely the best I can at any given job. If someone raises a query about me taking a bit too long on a job, as one boss did, I replied, “ yeah, maybe, but how often does a job of mine come back because I’ve made a big mistake?”

He looked at me for a moment then walked away. Never said a word.

Where I work now, because of the shifts, I do a twelve hour day, but because of the way the shifts work, I get 180 days off a year, plus I get 27 days actual holiday - 25 plus a day off for birthdays and a well-being day, so 207 days all in. Plus I’m fairly well payed, compared to previous places where I didn’t get as much time off, and one previous place the workload kept increasing within set hours, with zero tolerance for the slightest error or something forgotten. It didn’t start like that, but it got really toxic and I got kicked out because “your performance has failed to meet our expected standards”. A number of other people just left at the same time, because they’d had enough of the ‘same shit, different day/the shit I’m getting isn’t worth the shit I’m getting” situation.

I don’t even want to imagine what my mental state would be like after the last couple of years if I’d been somewhere like that.