You Shouldn’t Give Your Job a 110%
It’s just not worth it
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After months of applying for jobs and hundreds of ghosted emails, I received an offer.
Actually, it was more of a last minute confirmation. See, there was some restructuring in the company at the time and the department’s hiring manager left shortly after interviewing a number of candidates.
I guess they were pretty slammed and desperate to fill the positions so they scooped up a handful of us. It was an entry level, desk job — so if we ended up being duds, it wasn’t like they were trusting us with rocket science.
But I was over the moon. This was my first “real adult” gig — whatever that means. And I was prepared to be the best that I could be. Hell, I was prepared to be better than the best I could be.
Looking back now, sure — I accomplished more than my co-workers, but I really regret being such a keen bean.
Some tasks simply aren’t that hard
Most jobs have some mundane responsibilities baked into them. Maybe it’s managing the Google calendar. Or perhaps it’s taking twenty minutes every day to print meeting notes for everyone.
For me, it was arranging documents and organizing the filing cabinet. And I took these things as an opportunity to display my potential for growth and showcase my talent. I tried to do so with a nauseating amount of enthusiasm. And it was futile.
The truth was, many of my tasks were just mind-numbingly boring. Anyone could have done it. That person just happened to have been me.
I was trying really hard to do the job in a way that would convince me and those I worked with that I was not replaceable. Silly me, who was I kidding? Lots of people can staple stacks of paper — not rocket science, remember?
But simple tasks still need to be done. And maybe it’s your job. Your mundane, easily replaceable position. But that’s not an excuse to pull a long face or to believe that you don’t have any talent. Your extra efforts and tender loving care just isn’t going to pay high dividends here.
Don’t make my mistake. Don’t pour your heart and soul into the trivial tasks. It’s a giant waste of focus and energy. The extra effort doesn’t help you do your job better. You’re already doing a great job. And no one will notice or reward you for doing an extra great job.
The expectation is that you just do the thing and move on. Treat it like a pseudo-break. It’s a mindless task that you need to do, but not one that requires much of your attention.
Stop aiming for a 100% ROI
This is the way I saw it:
If I gave my job 10% of my effort and energy, I might see a 9% return of attention from my boss. (I actually this is more like 9% return, plus a whole lot of warnings. But stay with me here.)
So then maybe I try and give it 50% of my attention. This seems to lead to a 35% return. Interesting.
Okay, what about 75%? …50% back. Hmm, we’re onto something.
Let’s play big. How about 100% — everything. Only 66%?!?!?! Huh…
And at this point, I was frustrated and a little angry. I wanted more — attention, praise, and reward. Hell, I wanted 100%. And my sunk cost fallacy wasn’t going to let me quit.
So I started dipping into my savings and my reserves. I took a loan and drew a line of credit so that I could give my job 110%. And what did I find? 70%.
These numbers are just for illustration. There are two things you should really take note of here.
- Invested effort and energy in the workplace follows the law of diminishing returns.
Sure, the more you invest, the more you’ll get. But there’s a point where eventually, you’re investing a helluva lot and you’re not getting that much more for it.
And for simplicity’s sake, there are plenty of caveats I didn’t factor in.
For instance at 10% effort, it’s actually likely that you get more than 10% response from your employer. But that response is probably in the form of irritation and annoyance. And that’s definitely not what we’re going for.
2. Getting 100% response from your supervisor or manager or employer is damn near impossible.
If you follow the trend, you’re going into dig yourself into some serious debt. And that’s going to come in the form of damage to your personal time, space, and life.
This graph has an asymptote at 100%. You can get really close, but you can never touch it. And it’s going to take a lot to get marginally close.
Instead, aim for happy middle ground. Draw lines and set boundaries. Work hard, but don’t overwork. Your employers should be happy, but not completely satisfied. Make sure you still produce good quality results, but don’t aim for Nobel Prize worthy work.
It shows and it ruins your rap
I couldn’t hide my whole goody-two shoes act and over the top efforts — I was too busy trying to figure out how I could be better than the best I could be. And it came with a price.
When you’re busting your chops, everyone can tell — your employer, your co-workers… everyone! And frankly it looks a little pitiful.
“Oh poor Susie — she really is trying her best.”
For one, your equals aren’t going to be want to be your friends. They’ll think you’re trying to upsize them. And even if they’re kindhearted enough to give you the benefit of doubt, you’ll be too busy working on putting your best foot forward.
If the goal is to move onward or upward or both — you don’t want to be pitied by your boss. Not if you’re trying to impress.
The idea is to be calm, cool, and collected. You were hired because you are capable of doing the job — so that’s what you should do.
At work, don’t waste your time checking things over a bajillion times. Do a thorough check, couple glances, and then move on.
Take your breaks and go for lunch. You deserve it and you’ll probably make some cool work friends. Sitting at your cubicle with your burrito contents spilling over your laptop is a sad and pathetic look.
Don’t donate extra hours way before and long after you’re expected to be there. Your only responsibility is to show up respectfully early and stay put until it’s time to clock out.
Outside of work, don’t make yourself available and reachable around the clock (unless you work one of those on call jobs). It’s okay to ignore emails and miss phone calls — you have a life outside of work.
And the whole creative brainstorming to bring out-of-the-box ideas to the next meeting? Try not to overdo it.
Bottom line is, keep work at work. And when you’re at work — draw the appropriate boundaries.
If you are anything like I was, the chances are: you care a lot more about your job than your job cares about you. As a result, you wind up investing more than your 100% to get the response you’re looking for.
But you are qualified. So, stop burning all the oil on the little things. Don’t aim for all of your employer’s attention and energy, they aren’t going to give it to you. You’ll wind up looking helpless if you try to do so.
Instead, save a little gas in the tank in case things take a detour. Work is filled with surprise tasks and pop-up projects. You don’t need to give your 100%, and you certainly shouldn’t give 110%.
