This page is devoted to those who believe that YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR #1. The well being of your employer and/or your fellow workers is secondary to your own success and security on the job. The company could fail, but as long as you are the last one out the door you are happy. So you position yourself so you always come out on top and do not worry about the effect this may have on the company or your fellow workers.
NICK'S NOTE
Hi, my name is Nick . I am an engineer and I work in the product development group of a large company designing new products. When I first started there as a young engineer I worked very hard to do a good job for the company. I put a lot of effort into my new product designs and carefully worked out the important technical details which usually resulted in simple but effective products.
All of my designs worked well the first time they were put together. Other engineers struggled to make their new products work. They could never get them right the first time. They would do them over many times before they finally got it right. When the boss would ask them how they were doing, they would always reply that they have almost got it fixed now but would the he/she please help them plan the rest of the project and they would also solicit the bosses' ideas of how to turn their current disaster into a success. Finally, with a lot of input from the boss they would get it done. The project would be over budget and very late.
Smugly I thought that they would never get promoted to positions of greater responsibility and higher pay but that I surely would, based on my stellar record of success. Boy was I surprised when THEY, not me, got promoted! My product design projects were dismissed by the boss as EASY. They must be easy if you haven't appeared to struggle with them and never needed the BOSSES' help. Besides, the boss never got a chance to put forth some of his/her pet concepts into my product designs.
The engineers who blundered their way through, but finally made, it were deemed to have gained valuable experience dealing with adversity and were "team" players since they let the boss help a lot Never mind the company money they wasted or the lost "time to market" they became trusted promoted employees.
I learned from this and changed my "on the job behavior" and basic approach to a new design project. I now make sure that I solicit the bosses' ideas and work them into the design (no matter how inane). This leads to at least one CRISES in each project where I can show off my leadership ability (guiding the crises team) and technical brilliance (substituting the correct design for the "team" design). When upper management asks how the project is going, I say that we just have turned the corner and with just a little more money and staff I can get it done. Just look at my heroic struggles and I tough problems I have already overcome. When the project is finally complete, I am a HERO. I am now ready for bigger challenges (like a manager's job).
Well, it worked for me. I just got promoted to Manager. Now what should I do when I see one of my subordinates using this technique on me?
Submitted by,
nick@florence.1512.com 2/27/97
Max's Comments on NICK'S NOTE
What Nick is telling us is the following: Doing something right and efficiently the first, time makes the accomplishment look effortless. The average boss will think that it was just an easy job or that you got lucky and not give you the credit you deserve for the "job well done".
It would afford you better recognition and be considered to be more valuable to the company, if you screwed the task up at first but tell the boss that you are very close to getting it right. Ask for his advice and plan the rest of the job out carefully with him. This will allow him to properly appreciate what you have done and are about to do. You can go through this cycle several times always staying tantalizing close to achieving success.
Then you can finally do it right and be a hero.
There are probably traps and hidden pitfalls in using this technique. I would appreciate reader feedback on their results using this technique.
Definitions of Job Security
From Local 73 of the IBEW in Spokane WA, their take on Job Security.
I found the following definition on the web site of the Dept. of Computer Science, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada;
job security: n. When some piece of code is written in a particularly obscure fashion, and no good reason (such as time or space optimization) can be discovered, it is often said that the programmer was attempting to increase his job security (i.e., by making himself indispensable for maintenance). This sour joke seldom has to be said in full; if two hackers are looking over some code together and one points at a section and says "job security", the other one may just nod.
© Weir Associates Inc. 2002