Comment by photon_off | Hacker News Reader

Comment by photon_off | Hacker News Reader

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Absolutely great advice here. Except for one problem:

"Before you know it, people will automatically know to come to you when nothing else works."

And then what? Ask for a raise? In the environment he is describing, it is likely his extra effort will not go unnoticed, but rather, unrewarded. What's worse, this extra effort may even become expected of him, without his receiving any additional compensation besides making his boss look good.

While I do find great satisfaction in making myself indispensable and particularly useful, and in the whole process of learning and implementing new things, I also find extreme irritation if it only works to set a new standard for what's expected of me. That's just my personal experience and personality. Perhaps there are more altruistic types that enjoy feeling like a more efficient cog, but for me, it sucks to feel like a cog at all.

That's not to say all is lost. Certainly being an achiever and an innovator are awesome qualities. Think of your current job as a framework to discover and deploy these things. I neglected to do this at my last job, but keep a list of all of the projects you took the initiative on, what new skills you had to acquire to achieve them, and the net benefit to the company. Myself, I always figured I'd remember all the awesome additional effort / personal touches I put on things, but I didn't, and for me, interview season is right around the corner.

Bottom line, if you're not progressing and learning from your coworkers on a regular basis, it's time to look for new options. In the meantime, give your best effort and take note of your triumphs.

You are concerned that "The reward for good work is more work"?

I must respectfully beg to differ. First, it may come with time rather than immediately, but such things often are the path to raises and promotions. Nothing in his original post would indicate it was not so at his company.

Now, if he really feels he has hit a ceiling at his company, that for whatever reason (politics, no room to move up, etc, etc) he really cannot get a raise or promotion there then he may want to think about leaving. But if he leaves just because most of his coworkers are 9-5 dayjob types then he is likely to be disappointed to find that it is the same in most other places.

If he really wants to be challenged by his coworkers and his environment is bothering him, then he needs to leave but he needs to look in very specific places to find that type of environment. He should look at start ups or research labs that are on the bleeding edge.

Otherwise, he should look to himself to find his own challenges and grow in his own ways, hopefully with a community outside of work to help him do that.

I agree with you and must add that if someone truly enjoys their job, more work is not an issue. Often, an employee that enjoys their job (truly enjoys it not merely saying they do) will welcome more work as long as it continues to challenge them and test their limits. If you did something mundane such as answering technical support telephone calls all day, for example, and you found that you enjoyed it, you might push yourself to answer as many calls per day as possible. The higher your numbers, the greater your pride in your work. On the other hand, if you only received two telephone calls per hour and spend the remainder of your time sitting around, every telephone call that arrived would interrupt your 'waste of time', and you would begin to hate it. Sometimes more work can be a blessing.

"Before you know it, people will automatically know to come to you when nothing else works."

That in itself IS the reward.

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