It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. It's a problem of motivation. If I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So what am I working for? My only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. -- Office Space
This blog post really made this type of error clear to me: https://acoup.blog/2024/08/16/fireside-friday-august-16-2024... (read the whole thing):
> [weakness with George R. R. Martin’s worldbuilding of the Night’s Watch]
> And sure, from the elite perspective, this all makes sense. Someone needs to stand on the wall, so we’ll send someone (over time, increasingly low-status, disposable someones) to do it, provide them very minimal comforts necessary for minimum survival and decree harsh punishments should they ever leave their military-penal colony. For a Warden of the North in Winterfell or a King in King’s Landing, that all makes sense.
> But consider it for a moment from the perspective of the brothers of the Night’s Watch. Sure, someone needs to stand on this wall, but it doesn’t need to be them. Fear of the Others or Wildlings is useless here: that answers why someone needs to be here, but not why I need to be here. Some people will self-sacrifice for the community with no thought to other rewards (money, prestige, status), but they are very, very few.
So why don't I use them to do the absolute best I can as a software engineer because doing great work will improve my skills in the future. I'm losing nothing because 8 hours are 8 hours and doing nothing instead does not gain me anything either.
But by god this behavior is not rewarded by higher-ups. They just tended to see me as an loyal useful idiot even when that's not the case.
This has taken me a long time to internalize, but it's finally managed to work it's way through a thick skull. When you're spending your time constantly bailing poor planners who reap the fruits of your heroics out while burning your own candle at both ends, you harm yourself, and anyone working for you, and anyone who works for the higher ups in question.
And the only ones who can recalibrate, are you, and the higher ups. Who won't, unless you force it.