my only motivation to be there is to earn money and my 401k. So many of my coworkers and management feel offended by this statement.

I’m union. Union lawyer thinks this is a management strategy to try to manipulate me.

Cue BS answer for any c-suite that tries making me feel insecure over this:

well, I’m a terrible liar, that’s why I’m asking you :D

the unfriendly party might be easy: I’m always friendly and direct because I want to work. maybe that?

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    I don’t really follow.

    If you could select your own team from a large pool of employees, would you choose the person who said “I’m just here for the money and will do the bare minimum required per my role’s responsibilities”, or would you choose the person who said “I’m so passionate about whatever thing we do and I’m excited to be part of your team because I want to learn all I can from you”.

    If you chose the first guy then you’re an idiot, sorry.

    IDK why you’d tell that to team members honestly. It’s great that you want your team to be happy and relaxed and also great that you don’t want to take advantage of them. However, you need to balance that against helping them be the best they can be. Imagine joining a rowing team and your captain just saying “yeah so on this team we invest the minimum effort we can get away with while not sinking”.

    If I looked back at the colleagues and supervisors that really received my best work and pushed me to be a little bit better than I really was … I didn’t like any of them at the time.

    • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Depends what job its for. I really really struggle saying im passionate about sweeping floors, or that scrubbing toilets has been a dream of mine since I was a nipper.

      I would assume anyone telling me that is bullshitting.

      • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        Maybe, but you could say I really wanted a job with these hours, so I looked around. I’ve always taken pride in my cleanliness and to be honest, I’m a bit fastidious, so this job seemed like the perfect fit for me.

        Just find something about it to make it seem like you want this job over another job

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I currently work at a bakery as essentially a barista. I don’t have any special passion for the work, but I love the idea of being a part of putting bread on so many community members’ tables. I considered switching to a cleaning job at my company and I would have the same motivation.

        I don’t expect anyone to have a passion for sweeping floors and would also think they were lying if I heard that, but they can have a passion for the work the business does and want to support it any way they can.

    • DearOldGrandma@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I don’t control the hiring process and I don’t control the incoming members of my team, so don’t assume I’m an idiot. My team has excellent performance and I was able to get approval for my team to grow from 30 to 60+ people.

      IDK why you assume I don’t try to encourage my team, honestly. We get good results so I reward them well. For our line of work and our company, we have greater efficiency than a majority of our counterparts in our region. If we performed poorly, I would have a different approach.

      We do have people the test the boundaries, so I work with them on it and try to improve it. If nothing gets better, I have them replaced.

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        I’m not assuming you’re an idiot, but I’m sure you agree that team members with some aspirations are better than those who like OP, tell you they’re only there for the money.

        If you could choose, you surely wouldn’t choose the latter.

        • DearOldGrandma@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Of course lol obviously I want a team member that works hard and is motivated, and ultimately polite and easy to work with. But also, people can change. Things happen in their lives that change their motivations and needs.

          If they just want money, that’s fine, but I’ve seen and experienced how pushing someone who is working decently (or great, even) can cause their performance to tank if they didn’t want to be pushed in first place.

          Managing large teams is less about managing their work and more about managing the people so that they can work more effectively.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Managing large teams is less about managing their work and more about managing the people so that they can work more effectively.

            Well done for realizing that within three years. It’s true for smaller teams as well, but with a smaller team, it’s possible to get away with managing their work, it just won’t be nearly as effective.

          • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            23 hours ago

            Everything you’ve said here is pretty much the opposite of your initial “minimum job requirements” comment.

          • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            23 hours ago

            Everyone lies in interviews. However, a lot of people don’t understand what will make them desirable so they lie about the wrong thing.

            Someone who understands the role enough to lie to make themselves seem desirable is better than someone who doesn’t.

            • RenLinwood@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              17 hours ago

              Just fyi responding to criticism by unpromptedly referring to actual laborers derogatorily doesn’t make you seem like any less of a parasitic middle manager

              • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                13 hours ago

                You seem to be laboring under several misconceptions.

                Firstly, that being a parasitic middle manager is somehow undesirable. It’s natural to dislike the people who are supervising you (but building some kind of ideology around that to justify your dislike is a bit cringe). However, as they progress through their lives most people want more money, more responsibility, more challenge, and with those things comes more authority.

                Secondly, that anyone complaining about “parasitic middle managers” would actually refuse the opportunity to take such a role if they were able to do so.

                I’m sure that “parasitic middle managers” do exist, but one feature of capitalism (which I’m sure you also despise) is that it’s very good at weeding out people that don’t produce any value. In the vast majority of cases, the parasitic middle managers you’re talking about are in fact well experienced and highly skilled professionals, who earned the role on merit because they can produce lots of value.

                It’s the same way everyone that doesn’t own a home complains about landlords, but ultimately aspires to be one.

                  • sarah2653@lemmy.mlOP
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                    8 hours ago

                    Ren, don’t waste your time with null, he’s completely reactive at this point, unable to see how he contradicts himself (first writing to hire only candidates who claim to be excited to be part of your team because I want to learn all I can from you, immediately after writing Everyone lies in interviews).

                    projecting

    • Bobo The Great@startrek.website
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      1 day ago

      Not all positions require outstanding motivation. If you are a project manager, sure a motivated one will probably outperform someone there just for the money that doesn’t give a shit. A technician on an assembly line? It doesn’t matter, you are there to operate a machine and motivation will not make you (sustantially) more productive, incentives on the other hand will (benefits, salary, less stressful working condition…)

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        23 hours ago

        That’s fair, but for this type of job management isn’t going to be asking you about your hopes and dreams.