What is your work ethic?

I'm interested in how people judge their own work ethics at their jobs. A couple questions if anyone is interested:

1. Do you think you work harder than your peers, about the same, or less hard?
2. Do you think you do a better job, and equal job, or a worse job than is done by most of your peers?
3. If you think your work ethic is good, what drives you toward same? What's important about doing a good job? Pride? Money?

YUGE cash prizes to anyone who wants to play along. Not really.

[Rapewta]

Well... that's a hard one.

Did you have a Mother and Father that a good work ethic?
Did you serve in the Military?

Do you have a passion for your line of work?

Too broad of a question.

[jyl]

I have a strong work ethic - it comes from being Chinese and being lectured all the time about how our family were war refugees, escaped from the Japanese then the Communists, hid in trenches and fields during bombing, drank rice paddy water, yadda yadda. And then having my dad sit me down as explain that we didn't have any money so we might have to go on welfare, he couldn't replace my broken glasses, etc etc. But as I get older, I increasingly try to work smarter rather than work longer. I figure its still a work ethic but a more refined version.

[LWJ]

I am naturally lazy
I am motivated by play - hence the Porsche
I work smarter, not harder
I do work more than most of my peers - there are some crazies that do work more than I do.
I do much better work than most
Pride. Ego (is that the same?) a vision of the type of life I deserve.
My weekly hours are a little over 40. Used to be less at work and more at side gig. I get way more done than most. I am pretty spent if I work a full day. Work used to be way more fun.
I question my work a lot now. I earn more but it isn't fun.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I’ve always had the attitude that I might not be the smartest or most naturally talented, but that there’s nothing that keeps me from outworking everyone else. Typically I’m a “whatever it takes” type person. I also have the attitude that if you can do something, so can I. That one has gotten better with age and experience, turns out there are some things I suck at.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by madcorgi

3. If you think your work ethic is good, what drives you toward same? What's important about doing a good job? Pride? Money?

YUGE cash prizes to anyone who wants to play along. Not really.

My work ethic is driven by what I guess is pride. I want anyone looking at my work, whether it is an hour from now or 50 years from now, to think, "This guy cared about what he was doing."
I waste a lot of time doing jobs that would be approved of by a journeyman even though I'm pretty sure no one will ever see them again -or at least before I die.
I can't compete with my father on this account, but I certainly learned to appreciate his attention to the smallest detail. The man could dig a ditch and it would be a work of art.

[Evans, Marv]

Of course I'm retired, but during my working life I always wanted to be regarded as at least one of the best. I feel I achieved that almost across the board. My parents always told me to work hard. My father always told me to "Make 'em a good hand." I always felt an obligation to do my job the best I could even when there was no one around. Some people said I marched to a different drum, but lots of them were slackers. As I got older, I realized my parents were good at telling others how they should be, but were basically lazy themselves with no interests, hobbies, or drive.

There is much that can be made up for simply by showing up and putting in extraordinary effort. But that's different than doing a truly outstanding job, which is why I broke the question into parts.

The guy who repaired my rotator cuff is considered THE rock star shoulder guy in Seattle. Every other medical professional I mentioned him to knew him and said he was the best (even another shoulder guy!) I gotta think that top-flight people get there through natural talent PLUS extraordinary effort, and that neither alone will suffice to get you into the elite ranks.

The shoulder guy is an interesting case. He's not at all arrogant (at least to patients), is really friendly, and is perpetually running late because he's a talker. He's a soft-spoken big guy who clearly, at age 68, is still having the time of his life--doing shoulders. He told me he has done over 7000 rotator cuffs. From my vantage point, this guy has his life fully together.

[Bill Douglas]

I don't do much.

But anything I do the quality is perfection. I never do a half arsed job, even if a half arsed job will do, and it doesn't really matter, I still do a 100% quality job of things.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I’ve always had the attitude that I might not be the smartest or most naturally talented, but that there’s nothing that keeps me from outworking everyone else. Typically I’m a “whatever it takes” type person. I also have the attitude that if you can do something, so can I. That one has gotten better with age and experience, turns out there are some things I suck at.

Same here. I started a new role in July, and my boss looked at me last month and was like dude, you need to pace yourself. She was like “just because I do the work of 3 people doesn’t mean I expect you to”. To which I replied that I just don’t know any other way to work. I see **** that needs done and I throw myself at it 110%.


But that might explain why in the 2 years with the company I’ve moved up twice while most of the people i started with are still in entry level jobs...

[ckelly78z]

I'm much more of a "Do it" guy than a "let's talk, and plan about how to do it" guy. Meetings drive me crazy, while actual activity getting something done is re-assuring, and almost therapeutic. I live on a farm, so being lazy is not part of my vocabulary, at any one time, I have several major projects going on, and always would rather be at home working like a dog, rather than sitting at my desk in the office.

My family has a saying that most others don't abide by....."See a need, fill a need" ! which means don't wait to be told what to do, just get it done.

When I walk through the production plant (where I worked for 15 years doing manual labor before I was promoted), everyone I see waves, and has a few kind/funny words for me. I believe that they respect me for continuing to show up and do my job while sick/going through chemo/heart issues.

[cabmandone]

I have always been a head down moving forward type of guy. I get that from working with my dad when I was younger.

[Gogar]

I have a lot of natural skill that I have been able to disguise as a work ethic but im lazy when I know most people won’t recognize the difference.

[DWBOX2000]

Mine use to be a lot better overall. I would kill myself everyday. Did so for close to 25 years with a job I have hated since day one. I go in and out now and try to slow myself down. I've realized most don't care so why should I make myself miserable. Now with my own stuff, balls to the wall all the time. I think about it non stop until I complete. Wife says it's a flaw in my DNA.

Trying to chill and realize whats important.

Strange world, I just won Finance Employee of the year for a finance team of over 200. Life is weird sometimes.

[legion]

1. Do you think you work harder than your peers, about the same, or less hard?

I work less hard than my peers. I try to work smarter. I have a peer that painstakingly manually compared two spreadsheets once a month. It often took several days. I spent a couple of hours and wrote a quick and dirty Access database that I imported the spreadsheets into and did the comparisons in seconds. My method was both MUCH faster and more accurate.

2. Do you think you do a better job, and equal job, or a worse job than is done by most of your peers?

I think that I do a better job. See the example above.

3. If you think your work ethic is good, what drives you toward same? What's important about doing a good job? Pride? Money?

What motivates me? Pride, laziness, money, and not getting fired.

In my example above, laziness motivated me to write an access database because I had no desire to manually compare thousands of rows. Doing it faster and getting a better result were side benefits.

Because I automate so much of my job, I often find myself with little to do, while my peers are often super busy and getting less work done. I try to find things to fill the gaps, but sometimes I fail.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Gogar

I have a lot of natural skill that I have been able to disguise as a work ethic but im lazy when I know most people won’t recognize the difference.

Human nature and a talent we share.

I grew up on a small ranch, more or less, and had stuff to do. My father was eerily talented (as was his father) at specific things I was not adept. They recognized the difference and adjusted their expectations.

I was asked to do menial tasks well so I did.

Niche market...

[Sarc]

I am a bootstrapping grinder, though I've been told by my peers, professors, colleagues, bosses, business partners, etc that it appears I effortlessly accomplish my goals and tasks that often results in being labeled a "slip-n-slider".

After turning 40 and dealing with a lot of work related crap in the past 10 years, I no longer feel the need to prove myself. Therefore, I aim to exceed expectations with the least amount of effort possible (in the interest of preservation and energy conservation), though that effort is concentrated, efficient, and calculated in nature. It helps to be pretty good at what I do as well.
Seems to work for me.

[craigster59]

I realized at an early age that I could get by on my personality and good looks alone, but a strong work ethic would make me complete as "the ultimate package".

[Zeke]

Well, who's gonna admit they are a slacker who doesn't put his best effort into a job? Silly thread.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Well, who's gonna admit they are a slacker who doesn't put his best effort into a job? Silly thread.

Yep.

As a business owner I do a lot more work to keep customers happy and trying my best is all I can do. I did just hear from one client that the data set we just delivered for a job was just amazing and they loved it, and now they want all the future data delivered to the same high standards. We try, but we ain't perfect. Dang good, but not always perfect.