If we ignore the actual stress of a manager suddenly finding out and asking you to report what you have been doing. Probably still possible to bullshit long enough in a big company to recover a normal situation or find another job.
This is why you shouldn’t get rid of all your work. Keep a bit and make it immaculate. If they ask why you haven’t done more, just say “nobody asked me to.”
Problem with that approach is that they will argue that if you didn’t have enough work to do, you should have asked for more. OP knowingly slipped through the cracks to, so the argument of ‘I don’t have a line manager to give me any’ probably isn’t going to cut it as their work will argue that OP should’ve gone to HR to sort their responsibilities as soon as they were aware.
They might get fired but no one has to “seek” extra work, there’s no legal obligation. If they do their simple existing task, they are meeting known expectations.
I mean it doesn’t sound like they’re seeking ‘extra’ work, because Anon is not doing any work at all. I’d argue there’s a difference between ‘extra work’ and ‘any work’.
They’re not meeting expectations either because the expectation for their role is unlikely to be ‘doing fuck all’, the expectation is doing whatever job is outlined in their JD, which they’re demonstrably not.
Again, I don’t really care either way. Do what you can get away with, but be cognisant of the risks, and how that might affect your future employability otherwise you may find yourself doing nothing because you don’t have a job at all.
I agree that anon shouldn’t have given away their existing tasks. And that being fired is the likely end of this road.
Just clarifying that if you are doing your stated tasks, you aren’t in some sort of legal violation by not seeking more work. You.might get passed over for a later promotion, or deemed as dead weight in a layoff round, but you aren’t doing anything criminal
Do things that are never finished. Optimize the everloving bejeezus out of some code. Endlessly fiddle with webpage layouts. Explore and review all the ways not to reticulate a spline.
Nah, when you jam up the machine in an unexpected way, more likely than not they’re going to keep it quiet. A manager isn’t going to want to go to their boss with a problem no one noticed… It’s going to do nothing to benefit them and it’ll make their life harder
All you have to do is play dumb. Insubordination is one thing, waiting for orders is just having a job with little autonomy. If you maintain you were just a good little cog waiting to be reconnected to the machine, they’re better off sweeping it under the rug.
They might get upset instead, but what are they going to do? Sue you for not being more proactive? They’d probably lose more in legal fees than they could get back from most people
If we ignore the actual stress of a manager suddenly finding out and asking you to report what you have been doing. Probably still possible to bullshit long enough in a big company to recover a normal situation or find another job.
This is why you shouldn’t get rid of all your work. Keep a bit and make it immaculate. If they ask why you haven’t done more, just say “nobody asked me to.”
Problem with that approach is that they will argue that if you didn’t have enough work to do, you should have asked for more. OP knowingly slipped through the cracks to, so the argument of ‘I don’t have a line manager to give me any’ probably isn’t going to cut it as their work will argue that OP should’ve gone to HR to sort their responsibilities as soon as they were aware.
They might get fired but no one has to “seek” extra work, there’s no legal obligation. If they do their simple existing task, they are meeting known expectations.
If you get fired, you can sue for wrongful termination and file for unemployment. But then you still need to find a new job.
Instead, take on extra work that’s incredibly easy but also has a paper trail that you can point to. You might even get a raise. :)
I mean it doesn’t sound like they’re seeking ‘extra’ work, because Anon is not doing any work at all. I’d argue there’s a difference between ‘extra work’ and ‘any work’.
They’re not meeting expectations either because the expectation for their role is unlikely to be ‘doing fuck all’, the expectation is doing whatever job is outlined in their JD, which they’re demonstrably not.
Again, I don’t really care either way. Do what you can get away with, but be cognisant of the risks, and how that might affect your future employability otherwise you may find yourself doing nothing because you don’t have a job at all.
I agree that anon shouldn’t have given away their existing tasks. And that being fired is the likely end of this road.
Just clarifying that if you are doing your stated tasks, you aren’t in some sort of legal violation by not seeking more work. You.might get passed over for a later promotion, or deemed as dead weight in a layoff round, but you aren’t doing anything criminal
Do things that are never finished. Optimize the everloving bejeezus out of some code. Endlessly fiddle with webpage layouts. Explore and review all the ways not to reticulate a spline.
“I’ve been awaiting my next job”
Probably get fire but oh well, easy run until that point.
Nah, when you jam up the machine in an unexpected way, more likely than not they’re going to keep it quiet. A manager isn’t going to want to go to their boss with a problem no one noticed… It’s going to do nothing to benefit them and it’ll make their life harder
All you have to do is play dumb. Insubordination is one thing, waiting for orders is just having a job with little autonomy. If you maintain you were just a good little cog waiting to be reconnected to the machine, they’re better off sweeping it under the rug.
They might get upset instead, but what are they going to do? Sue you for not being more proactive? They’d probably lose more in legal fees than they could get back from most people