Have you ever been in a relationship (either romantic or platonic) in which you feel like you have put more work in than the other person? Maybe you always remember their birthday, anniversary, or other special “big days” in that person’s life and you make them feel special during those times. You were probably the one that that person turned to in times of need and you were always right there when they needed you. You validated them and made them feel important, and they made you feel less than that. Maybe they forget your birthday, or even worse, they remembered your birthday and didn’t do anything to celebrate. Or maybe they just weren’t as supportive of you as you were of them. However it goes, an unbalanced relationship can lead to major problems.
The same is true at your work. If you did not find yourself relating to the above example, you are a very fortunate person, but you likely have experienced unbalanced relationships at work. Starting in college we are constantly forced into group projects in which a small percentage of the group does the majority of the work while the rest of the group slacks off. If you do not have the memory of doing the lion’s share of a group, then you likely were the one not pulling your weight. It is very hard to assemble a completely balanced team. Sometimes it goes beyond the normal and there is one person who just refuses to contribute. When this problem occurs in the workplace it can lead to one person feeling unfair pressure to take on another person’s additional work.
I don’t want to focus on the person who willingly takes on the extra work to make up for slacking coworkers. I want to talk about the person who does not pull their weight. In anything you do, you must put something in to get something out. In the case of work, when you put in the extra effort you are eventually rewarded. When the opposite occurs you are not always immediately confronted with the negative effects of your behavior. Sometimes a person can go years without seeing what they would define as real consequences of your actions. Often times, especially in big companies, it is easy for these type of workers to remain under the radar. This scenario can be incredibly frustrating for the workers who are complying and performing because it can seem like it is not worth it to go above and beyond.
Generally in these types of scenarios, there are things occurring behind the scenes. Sure that unproductive employee might keep their cubicle space in the office regardless of whether or not they are completing their work, but there can be other things going on. Maybe that employee was in the running for a promotion and the management team passed him over. Similarly, there might have been more exclusive/exciting projects that that person was considered for and ultimately overlooked for not being a team player. While the employee may or may not be privy to all these occurrences, there is evidence building against them that will continue to add up.
For the people who are consistently doing their work, it can be really difficult to remain motivated while they see unproductive coworkers keeping their job. Likely another thing that is going unseen is that the productive worker is getting steady pay increases while the other employee remains at the same salary. There are a lot of little things like this that can all be occurring simultaneously but largely behind the scenes. The moral of this story is that the worker who doesn’t put in the work will not reap the same benefits as the workers who do. If you want to move up in your career and receive promotions and raises, you have to be willing to put in the work. These things do not come from showing up and sitting at your desk all day. You have to be proactive and efficient and thorough. Doing more in your job will get you more. Doing less will get you less. You have to put in the effort to receive rewards.
- Bria