obligatory I’m a German nurse living in Germany, but the German channels on lemmy don’t have as many members as this one, so I ask here.
When I work I like to do my job and then relax. To me, doing it the other way round is just stupid. I was never the kind of person that goes to work to socialize, I don’t need it and I strongly resent forced socialization.
For the last 2 years I’ve worked within the same hospital system and it’s clear to me now, nobody thinks like me: all my coworkers spend the first hour of the shift talking about their private lives, as they were looking for excuses not to work and expect anyone else to take care of patients. And because I’m the only one with this job mentality, it’s always me the one who works while the rest do nothing.
This is very frustrating and I’m now applying elsewhere, but it bothers me that my new workplace can turn out to be like this.
I’m also applying for office positions (no shifts) and wonder: does this happen there as well? Ideally I’d be completely responsible for my work alone.
I feel like a student at school again, when the teacher forced me to work in a group with the lazier ones and I ended up either doing most of the job or became as lazy as them. Why work when they don’t?
I don’t want to work with people who slow me down.
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German office worker here. It can be the same, or some other way that drives you nuts. My current coworkers are just extremely slow. I mean really. They “work” all the time, but it takes them like an hour to write a short email. I usually get my days work done in an hour or two and then do my own stuff and will still have achieved more that day than the slow ones. So of course, I get more workload because “I get things done”. I sometimes even secretly do their work because I like some of them and don’t want them fired… The boss is prone to hiring idiots (I mean, look at the people he has, including me), so it’s usually worse people coming in when someone leaves.
That said, your or my situation or variations of them are pretty much the norm. If you really want to put the work in, don’t look at big offices or established companies. I guess some small places or startup might be the way to go. Or mobile nurse, where you have your own route and patients. And of course, if you like being overworked, there’s always Amazon …
You’re being used, and your coworkers are more than happy to slack off and give the CEO the finger. The only reward for hard work is more work.
I can’t speak for German work culture, but in America, you absolutely will get lazy workers in office jobs.
It’s like 99:1 ratio of lazy workers to working workers. Unless you’re on 3rd shift. Then you’re the only one there.
I’d say this happens everywhere, with some exceptions maybe. Like I used to be in academia, it’s generally a stressful environment since you are 100% responsibe for everything. There is freedom in that too, but stressful.
Now I work in an office. There are some that take any chance they get to relax for a bit, socialize, snd so on. I don’t, I go there to work. I’m a bit introvert, so I don’t socialize much, but I put in some effort not to appear antisocial, but that is it.
I like my work, as in the tasks I do give me some satisfaction. I do it for me. I don’t socialize or relax at work because I happen to perfer the tasks. I know I’m lucky here, a lot of people do not get to work jobs like this. My collegues probably do not think the same way about their jobs, and I don’t blame them.
What I don’t get with what you are saying is the following. If everyone is “slacking off”, you get to do your work. I suppose you are not in a position where doing the tasks are satisfying enough to you, and that is why you’d want the others to do the tasks as well. But if you don’t get that satisfaction from doing the tasks, don’t you sympathize with your coworkers? They too probably do not get the satisfaction they’d prefer from the job alone, just like you? The difference between you and them is maybe then in the desire to socialize at work.
If you, unlike them, do not have any way of getting some base level of satisfaction at work, by the tasks alone or by some other means, and instead start resenting them for trying to get that satisfaction, then if you have to opportunity to change your line of work may help. People will probably still be the same, but maybe you won’t resent them?
their first hour consists of looking for excuses to do nothing but talk with everyone around, whereas I prefer to finish my duties as soon as possible. During the other 7 hours, if somebody from another unit comes to ours, that’s another excuse to do nothing for 10 minutes. If while checking vitals somebody gets a funny meme or video sent to her, another 10 minutes go to waste. Something that could be done in 15 minutes like serving food lasts 45. This is what grinds my gears.
And I just want to finish my duties and go home.
It is true that changing jobs might help, but it’s also true if people are like this everywhere, I’m going to keep resenting them.
So you get to leave as soon as you are done? Do the others not get to do that?
80/20 must about everywhere , work places, volunteer organisations etc 20% of the people do 80% of the work.
in your experience, do managers recognize and pay this 20%? This being nursing, I don’t believe it’s gonna be the case: this is a job nobody wants to do, reason why slackers get away not doing much.
It’s never been my experience in any job. A company doesn’t exist for your benefit, they exist to extract as much labor out of you for the least money.
Is this just the mornings or all day? Do they do any work? Does anyone hustle at any point in the day?
Why is work so important for you? I think you’ll find that a large number of people simply go through the motions because the stakes are low and their lives outside of work are more interesting. To them, it is an exchange of labor (that isn’t valued anyway) for (not enough) money. Why push yourself at work when it simply doesn’t matter? And what will drive you nuts later is that people from that “lazy” group will eventually end up promoted over you. The work is ultimately inconsequential, but the relationships built matter.
I don’t really have an answer for you other than to introspect a little bit on your work ethic.
work is important to me because I like having a roof, food and healthcare. I don’t have the luxury of not having to work.
Are you saying that work is a place to dump your issues or what you did on the weekend to the point of not doing your job? This is something I find very odd. I don’t want to work with people with this mindset.
Are you advising me to ignore patients when they call? cause that’s what they do and if a job is simply inconsequential, why bother?
Are you also advising me to listen to them when they rant against greens (an ecologist party in Germany) or migrants? It’s tiring and closeted racist.
I don’t see how my work ethic is the wrong one, or how yours would be better. Better if I want to become a careerist? absolutely. Better if I want to feel good with myself? absolutely not.
You think you’re pissed off now, wait til you find out those slackers are making more money than you and will be promoted ahead of you because, well you do such good work, how would they ever find a good replacement?
This following sentences are something that took me years to fully internalize, thankfully it didn’t take more.
Nobody on their deathbed ever said “I wish I worked more unpaid overtime”. Nobody grieving at a funeral ever said “I wish I spent more time at work instead of with them”.
And nobody at your company ever said “I wish I paid you more”.
