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Comment by 3eb7988a1663 | Hacker News Reader

I can think of at least two people in my career who were, ahem, load bearing for the company. They did all of the BS, non-sexy work required to keep the place running. Never wasted time on vanity projects, just showed up day after day doing the actual necessary things.

They were criminally under appreciated by management. Their career trajectory significantly worse than those who engaged in the highly visible projects.

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As someone that has done a lot of that work, can confirm.

I've never understood why people would continue to care so hard when their efforts are unappreciated.

But I've also never worked at a large company.

Do you exercise because it makes you stronger and faster? Or because it's something you enjoy, and it also keeps you healthy?

Many people get satisfaction from doing their job well. From their perspective, if they are already happy with what they have, why would they make themselves unhappy by constantly pursuing more?

For me - I don’t enjoy it personally.

Some people have the primary goal of making things work for everyone. Other people have the primary goal of personally benefitting. These are often in conflict. The better a company or team can align these goals, the more effective it is, and the more everyone tends to benefit, but in many organizations the folks looking for personal advantage are most likely to end up in charge.

These people exist all over the place and they are the reason why society generally works. Shit would, and shit does go sideways when they stop doing their jobs, small and big companies alike.

>why people would continue to care so hard when their efforts are unappreciated.

So quite a few marriages.

It's because being rewarded is not the primary reason they do anything. It's a component and it's nice, but it's not the definition if life and existence.

I think you've completely misunderstood my point. It's not that they shouldn't keep doing what they do, its that there are places that will appreciate what they do.

I accept that public sector, charitable sector etc, make this calculation a bit different. But in the private sector it just seems silly to give yourself to a job that doesn't appreciate what you give it.

Because it’s how the brain is wired. Some are wired to not give AF, some are. Doesn’t take much to figure out who is who.

You never understood why some people are not grifters?

Wait, you think to not be a grifter you have to "care so hard when their efforts are unappreciated"?

Wut?

I'm not encouraging the to grift, ffs, I'm encouraging them to go and work somewhere that will appreciate their efforts!

I've been at the top of the org chart. I hated it. I intentionally decided to go back to engineering.

"Appreciation" in this case means, promotions. I don't want them, and would actively change jobs if you forced it on me.

So I am more than happy to just do a great job at my job. I do not desire or want anyone to notice me in any particular way. I want to be paid a reasonable amount, and make sure everyone that uses anything I touch is happy with the experience.

That's a great life. I don't understand why anyone would think that caring about things matters at all.

There's a massive difference between your users, and peers appreciating you, and management appreciating you.

Management doesn't know anything. Why would I value their appreciation?

I care much more about my intelligent peers, or even commenters here, than what a non technical person thinks.

Was the company over 1000 employees?

In my case and experience, yes.

Significantly larger, yes.

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