Should I work more or less hard since one of my bosses redoes everything I do anyway?
My main job function is to write analytical reports. I am very low on the totem pole in my department, and one of my bosses (the rest like my work) redoes everything that I do for her. She once gave me a very short assignment: change this language and add this stuff here to this section here. It only took me about twenty minutes, and I know that I got all of the formatting correct. So I take it to her, and she is like "This looks very good. Good job. Why don't we just move this here, change this wording, substitute this for that, and change the tone of this here. There we go. Good work!"
She did all of this on her computer while I was sitting in her office, and I'm thinking "Yeah, you're saying it looks good because you just rewrote the whole thing."
There was another time when I was assigned a much larger report on very short notice, for which I was unable to finish the last page since I was leaving early that friday. So I gave the mostly completed report to her, and she said "looks good. I'll just finish this last page for you. I hope you have a fun weekend."
After said fun weekend, I come in on monday morning, and the secretary hands me a copy of the completed report, and it is COMPLETELY different. Not a word of it is the same. I plaster a smile on my face, go to her office, and say "this looks great. Thanks for the opportunity to work with you. I hope it didn't take you long."
"All day saturday," she says, and gives that supposedly lovable laugh. She really is happy when she gives that laugh. There is no sarcasm at all.
It is very important to note that she is one of those people that really enjoys working and putting in long hours. She likes to joke about how it feels weird if there is still light out when she leaves the office. She works seven days a week and often puts in 13 and 14 hour days monday through friday. I also think that one of the reasons for this is that she is trying to rack up as many extra hours as she can so that she can take tons of time off when busy season is over.
I know people say that the best thing you can do at work is to always do what you are told and do it to the best of your ability. Work hard NOW and the future will bring opportunities. Yes, I believe that, but should I continue to try harder, knowing that she will completely redo everything anyway?
She did all of this on her computer while I was sitting in her office, and I'm thinking "Yeah, you're saying it looks good because you just rewrote the whole thing."
There was another time when I was assigned a much larger report on very short notice, for which I was unable to finish the last page since I was leaving early that friday. So I gave the mostly completed report to her, and she said "looks good. I'll just finish this last page for you. I hope you have a fun weekend."
After said fun weekend, I come in on monday morning, and the secretary hands me a copy of the completed report, and it is COMPLETELY different. Not a word of it is the same. I plaster a smile on my face, go to her office, and say "this looks great. Thanks for the opportunity to work with you. I hope it didn't take you long."
"All day saturday," she says, and gives that supposedly lovable laugh. She really is happy when she gives that laugh. There is no sarcasm at all.
It is very important to note that she is one of those people that really enjoys working and putting in long hours. She likes to joke about how it feels weird if there is still light out when she leaves the office. She works seven days a week and often puts in 13 and 14 hour days monday through friday. I also think that one of the reasons for this is that she is trying to rack up as many extra hours as she can so that she can take tons of time off when busy season is over.
I know people say that the best thing you can do at work is to always do what you are told and do it to the best of your ability. Work hard NOW and the future will bring opportunities. Yes, I believe that, but should I continue to try harder, knowing that she will completely redo everything anyway?
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