Friendly reminder that “Employees of the Month” (and “Students of the Month” in schools) are rarely exceptional at their jobs. Rather, they are chosen by management as examples for what they want from their other employees (or students.) Suck-ups and people who quietly obey orders are frequently awarded such titles.

You could be the most supportive coworker, the most productive worker in your field, and have a genuine passion for the work you do - but if management sees (or even senses) any sort of disagreement with you, you’ll never find yourself on that poster.

Which is all for the best anyway, since in all the places I’ve worked, there’s rarely an actual prize. If there is, it’s usually a cheap gift certificate to some dying chain restaurant.

Well, sorta.

Plenty (maybe even most) of 1st level manages will see and understand, but are still unable or unwilling to push back on unrealistic expectations coming from outside (sometimes not even from above, just from customer) so from the point of view of those working under them the result is the same if they’re not doing their own internal time reporting averaging and and are honest towards them.

Further, they often fuck-up things, from planning to analysis and taking in account the dependencies on external providers and it’s the team that has to make up for it. Absolutelly, the managers will notice people going the extra mile … and do the same thing again next time around and it will be just as “unexpected” and “we have not other option” as all the previous times.

I would even go as far as saying that the “understanding” manager that fucks you up anyway (sometimes because they’ll always put themselves above those working for them and might even be fake, others because they’re not very good at playing the game that needs to be played to other stakeholders) is the most common of all.

Looking back (to almost 30 years of experience in several countries), some of my worst managers were “really nice” people but the team still suffered massivelly because they were not in fact good managers (they suffered alongside the team, for all the good that did to the rest) - essentially the team was holding the career of somebody who should probably be doing something else and at the end of the day, the managers rather than the rest were the ones getting more pay and bigger bonuses.

I learned a long time ago to do your job and do it competently … if you are in good work environment, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts … if you are in a bad environment, you’ll be taken advantage of … if you are in a terrible environment, you’ll literally be abused emotionally/financially/physically

If you end up in good environment, then keep doing what you are doing

If you end up in a bad environment, keep doing your job but start looking for an exit strategy and look for other options to eventually leave the current place you are working.

If you are in a terrible environment … leave immediately even if it means you lose everything (don’t worry about it because if you had stayed, you would have lost everything anyway)

Most management systems focus on short term horizons because arbitrary calendar sections allow them to pretend the past work is no longer a factor in the current work.

Good managers are a rarity though.