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Bad for Good
Jun. 4th, 2006 02:05 pm"Work hard at your job and your boss will appreciate you" is one of those well-worn conventional wisdoms that probably springs from the naive belief that life is fair. Do good and good will be done to you. What goes around, comes around.
But, is any of it true? Perhaps in the days of small companies and situations where you had a personal, non-economic, relationship with your boss, as well as a strictly economic one, it might have been. These days, I think that things are different.
My bosses are uncomfortable with me being good at my job. More specifically, they are very uncomfortable with the thought that I might be irreplaceable in my job. Now, as we know, the cemeteries are full of people who thought that they were irreplaceable. But with two senior people leaving from Insurance Day, both of them very knowledgeable about insurance and both of them good journalists, it has come home to roost that, as a breed, we are not that common. In times of full employment, we are no less common and are even harder to find in an "available" state.
Economically, if you could make the same profit on a product that was less good because it employed less competent people, that would be the sensible way to go.
In times of full employment, being unusually good at your job can be a bad idea on at least two fronts (from the point of view of your employer). In the immediate sense, it might make your boss feel bad about the fact that he or she isn't working as hard as you are (a point I wish I hasten to add doesn't apply to my case personally) and in the more general economic sense, you are creating a monopsonistic situation which no sensible company wants to find itself in. Just ask all the farmers who supply Tesco, and no-one else, what happens when you have only one buyer.
So, kids, the next time someone (such as a teacher) tells you to work as hard as you can at your job because then your boss will appreciate it, point out the economic flaw in their argument. Far better to be just a little bit better than everyone else. But don't, whatever you do, make yourself irreplaceable. Because, if you do, there's a good chance that a sensible employer will simply change his business structure so that your "irreplaceable" job doesn't exist.
But, is any of it true? Perhaps in the days of small companies and situations where you had a personal, non-economic, relationship with your boss, as well as a strictly economic one, it might have been. These days, I think that things are different.
My bosses are uncomfortable with me being good at my job. More specifically, they are very uncomfortable with the thought that I might be irreplaceable in my job. Now, as we know, the cemeteries are full of people who thought that they were irreplaceable. But with two senior people leaving from Insurance Day, both of them very knowledgeable about insurance and both of them good journalists, it has come home to roost that, as a breed, we are not that common. In times of full employment, we are no less common and are even harder to find in an "available" state.
Economically, if you could make the same profit on a product that was less good because it employed less competent people, that would be the sensible way to go.
In times of full employment, being unusually good at your job can be a bad idea on at least two fronts (from the point of view of your employer). In the immediate sense, it might make your boss feel bad about the fact that he or she isn't working as hard as you are (a point I wish I hasten to add doesn't apply to my case personally) and in the more general economic sense, you are creating a monopsonistic situation which no sensible company wants to find itself in. Just ask all the farmers who supply Tesco, and no-one else, what happens when you have only one buyer.
So, kids, the next time someone (such as a teacher) tells you to work as hard as you can at your job because then your boss will appreciate it, point out the economic flaw in their argument. Far better to be just a little bit better than everyone else. But don't, whatever you do, make yourself irreplaceable. Because, if you do, there's a good chance that a sensible employer will simply change his business structure so that your "irreplaceable" job doesn't exist.
