A few years ago Business Week did a survey of Rank & File employees at 1000 different companies. The results? 90% of those surveyed believed they were in the top 10% of employees performance-wise at their company.
Me? I have no such delusions. I produce quality work and get it done ahead of schedule consistently. I also routinely find myself with too little to do. (12,000 post, anyone?
) I do tell my boss when I have spare capacity, but it seems to take months to find me new work, and by that time I am busy again. I tend to need assignments that can fill 2-3 weeks of down time, and they are hard to come by. I see myself as top of the middle and capable of being in the top 10%, but not there. I honestly have no desire to give up my weekends and hobbies to be in that group.
Now I find myself in an interesting situation. I've been working on a large project since 2002. I have very rare and specialized skills (Aion developer). I have finished unit testing a year ahead of schedule--meaning I will have nothing to do for the next year. The problem is, there is still system testing and implementation. System testing starts in a year, and implementation begins 1st quarter 2010. I need to find an assignment that lasts a year so that I can return to the project for system testing and implementation. This project is the absolute top priority for the organization, and has been given carte blanche to pull any people necessary. Because of this and my rare skills, I know that I will be pulled back in a year from now.