‘I'll just do my job slower’: Overworked employee decides to do the bare minimum after manager denies their overdue raise, leading manager to quickly regret their decision

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jan 27, 2025 11:00 PM EST

Being good at your job brings about certain dilemmas that no one expects, yet almost everyone has to deal with.

In theory, doing a good job at work is something we should all aspire to, that is the goal, right? Not necessarily. When you're doing a good job–keeping customers or clients happy, completing tasks quickly and efficiently, finishing your quota, or however else your workplace measures success, that leads to the expectation that you are going to be rewarded in a certain way. Usually, employees expect to be rewarded by getting a raise or a promotion. However, the only 'reward' they end up getting is more work and more tasks, and let's be honest, who wants that?

This leads employees to be not-so-motivated to do any more than the bare minimum at their job, so they wouldn't be rewarded with more work. They aspire to be mediocre, and just good enough to keep their jobs. Some employees end up resenting that mentality, which results in them seeking another job, while other employees find the positive in this way of life, like the employee in the story below.

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    Cheezburger Image 10459447808
    via PeopleImages

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    "Won't get paid more for doing my job quicker? alright I'll just do my job slower."

    I'm a software developer at a medium size company where I would get a project and a timeframe to get said project done. This time frame is insane not because of the
    via Different-Average-37
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    lack of time to get it done but because of the excessive amount of time it would give me. something I could get done in 2 weeks is given 3 months to complete. My first
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    6 months at the company were spent with me doing said projects in the amount of time they took me as opposed to the amount of time given for them to be
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    completed and when my performance review came back I assumed my raise and bonus would reflect my performance.
    via Different-Average-37
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    As many of you can probably guess from where I'm posting this story, my raise did not in fact reflect my performance and instead was the base amount my
    via Different-Average-37
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    contract guaranteed. My response to this was not to complain as I frankly didn't care and instead to just stop submitting my progress at the same pace I had been
    via Different-Average-37
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    doing it. I still did it in the 2 weeks for 3 months but it was a work from home job and I would just add in bits and pieces to keep the progress at the expected
    via Different-Average-37
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    pace while having the completed project on a personal machine. I still work there and have been working there for 4 years now and and very
    via Different-Average-37
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    happy spending maybe 2 months of the year doing my job and the working my second job at a different buisness as a software developer as its a work from
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    home job and there are no mandatory check ins or anything of the sort. I've been offered a decent raise to return to my original pace multiple times but I've
    via Different-Average-37
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    declined each time and after around a year and a half they accepted the current pace as I still do quality work with no delays.
    via Different-Average-37

  • While it did not seem that way at the start, working from home and having a job based on projects with timeframes is the best-case scenario for this hardworking employee. Being able to complete the job in half the time means they can do whatever they want in the other half, and nobody needs to know about it.

    Sure, it is no raise, but it allows a certain peace of mind that is arguably much better than a raise. So we're happy for the employee for managing to make lemonade from a pretty lousy workplace situation.

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    I guess don't shaft me originally and expect me to change my mind when you realize my value? no idea I just make way more money
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    than I would have needed to and now effectively get triple my salary as my other job makes twice my lousy job.
    via Different-Average-37
  • 15
    Coolbeanschilly If workplaces were smart, they would have some kind of a bonus for piece work that met quality standards, to reward the high performers who actually do good work. Instead, they disincentivize the top performers in this manner.
    via Coolbeanschilly
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    Different-Average... OP For sure. If I was given a raise in accordance to what I did then I would've kept working at the same rate. I wasn't working excessively hard and was just doing a normal rate of work for me so no skin off my back and no real risk of burnout if I kept that pace.
    via Different-Average-37
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    Cheezburger Image 10459453696
    via Dragos Condrea

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    notanotherfot Your reward for hard work? More work for the same pay!
    via notanotherf**t
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    Straight_Physics_894 I learned this the hard way to. I am now doing the work as fast as I want to and basically submitting it when it's requested or before it's requested.
    via Straight_Physics_894
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    I just spent my entire workday today running errands like getting gas and going to the bank and planning out next month's budget. There were
    via Straight_Physics_894
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    about three assignments I could have submitted today but they will be submitted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it looks like I'm working so hard!
    via Straight_Physics_894
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    No_Hippo 1965 Not as bad as USPS, where if you get done early they'll usually just give you more work. So usually people just work kinda slowly, exactly how long they're supposed to take so they don't just get loads of extra work (without extra pay).
    via No_Hippo_1965
  • 23
    Koolest Kat Took me waaaay too long long to figure this out. No good deed goes unpunished.
    via Koolest_Kat
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    glenmarshall Sometimes it does pay-off. I did rapid high-quality software development work and got regular significant raises and stock options. I asked and found out what the performance reward structure was before taking the job.
    via glenmarshall
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    Different-Average... OP Not asking was a mistake I made in part cause I didn't expect the work to take so little time to do assignments
    via Different-Average-37

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boss workplace-stories employee manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace reddit story raise overworked-employees workplace Reddit company malicious compliance reddit
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