https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XarOCep13U

The linked YouTube video above made me bristle a little bit--although the speaker shares my distaste for employees who don't work hard or do the work right, she presents her distaste for "Slacker Chad" as she calls him in an unpleasant way...I don't think that's the best way to reach certain kinds of viewers in her segment, but I suppose that is her choice.

The video maker presents four interesting pieces of advice for people interested in improving their work performance without focusing on merely "working harder." The approach seems to be marketing driven, with an emphasis on "treating yourself like a business" (my words) and competing a little bit like an advertiser (also my assertion) within your firm and market.

I don't want to share all four things that the woman mentioned, but I'll mention the one that I am most critical of: "try to be liked by the right people at work."

The reason that I would criticize that insight, in spite of not having tons of experience working for firms for various reasons although I would be great, is that the mere act of ingratiating one's self to carefully selected employees at a workplace is a) a very well-known and cheap/unproductive tactic that doesn't really give you a competitive edge or add value to a firm (although it may support the vision of one collection of employees in an office political contest), and b) an unpleasant and generally non-optimal way to carve out a niche for yourself in the working world. In general, I assert that you ought to show yourself to be a "highly principled and ethical, high-performing, always-get-the-results 'mercenary'" of sorts, rather than a possibly irritating wannabe leader who falls victim to "premature optimization" (which is a CS term related to genetic algorithms) and becomes the "Corporate Homecoming King or Queen" rather than the "Corporate Valedictorian," to use a high-school metaphor.

In general, the best worker--regardless of work type or quantity--at a firm is the one who shows him or herself to be like a "very effective tool" that can be "equipped and un-equipped" at will and without many associated unpleasant feelings or results by a smart CEO who is looking for results and not trouble. Pleasing all the right employees is just a short-term success approach--although pleasing customers is of course a must.

Overall, this video was quick and thought-provoking, so I liked it. As always, I found something to disagree with and add onto, too.

-Philip White (philipjwhite@yahoo.com)

On Monday, December 27, 2021 at 6:01:16 PM UTC-5, B.H. wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XarOCep13U
>
> The linked YouTube video above made me bristle a little bit--although the speaker shares my distaste for employees who don't work hard or do the work right, she presents her distaste for "Slacker Chad" as she calls him in an unpleasant way...I don't think that's the best way to reach certain kinds of viewers in her segment, but I suppose that is her choice.
>
> The video maker presents four interesting pieces of advice for people interested in improving their work performance without focusing on merely "working harder." The approach seems to be marketing driven, with an emphasis on "treating yourself like a business" (my words) and competing a little bit like an advertiser (also my assertion) within your firm and market.
>
> I don't want to share all four things that the woman mentioned, but I'll mention the one that I am most critical of: "try to be liked by the right people at work."
>
> The reason that I would criticize that insight, in spite of not having tons of experience working for firms for various reasons although I would be great, is that the mere act of ingratiating one's self to carefully selected employees at a workplace is a) a very well-known and cheap/unproductive tactic that doesn't really give you a competitive edge or add value to a firm (although it may support the vision of one collection of employees in an office political contest), and b) an unpleasant and generally non-optimal way to carve out a niche for yourself in the working world. In general, I assert that you ought to show yourself to be a "highly principled and ethical, high-performing, always-get-the-results 'mercenary'" of sorts, rather than a possibly irritating wannabe leader who falls victim to "premature optimization" (which is a CS term related to genetic algorithms) and becomes the "Corporate Homecoming King or Queen" rather than the "Corporate Valedictorian," to use a high-school metaphor.
>
> In general, the best worker--regardless of work type or quantity--at a firm is the one who shows him or herself to be like a "very effective tool" that can be "equipped and un-equipped" at will and without many associated unpleasant feelings or results by a smart CEO who is looking for results and not trouble. Pleasing all the right employees is just a short-term success approach--although pleasing customers is of course a must.
>
> Overall, this video was quick and thought-provoking, so I liked it. As always, I found something to disagree with and add onto, too.
>
> -Philip White (philip...@yahoo.com)

I have a couple more comments on this that I just thought of:

1 - The idea of "a good worker as a good tool" is from the beginning of a book that I started reading that I never read much of or finished, at least not yet--it's called, "The Effective Executive."
2 - A good way to think about my argument for why you should want to be "the tool" instead of just "the people person": According to my understanding, the top executives at a big firm mainly access the totality of human resources in the firm by looking at these people as parts of "business units," i.e., by looking at some data files with metrics and diagrams describing data about the firm, the employees, and performance. As opposed to a low-level manager, the CEO doesn't really relate to the human faces of low-level or junior employees much at all...he/she will probably never meet or see most of the employees who aren't top-ranking. That is why, since CEO-types are so influential over the firm--obviously--you want to impress the firm mainly with your non-objectified employment as and ability to be a "highly useful asset" that adds value to your firm in its competition within the relevant market in a way that is easily measured quantitatively. One way or the other, through whatever manager or other means, your firm's CEO will "sense your achievement" when it impacts the firm's profits in a good and big way. At least, that's how it works at good firms that are big. Even if your firm's CEO never knows who you are, you might positively impact your "business group" or whatever it's called, and your manager at least will know that it was you who improved performance in this unit and compensate you accordingly.

All of this, of course, is "according to me," and I'm not at all an expert--I don't have any formal education in business, although I've read about it a lot because it interests me.

-Philip White (philipjwhite@yahoo.com)