This comes in the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished category, so I think it’s on topic.
My dissertation study assumed people do community service learning for altruistic reasons, indeed, they do not. People do stuff for reasons, even when they think it is selfless. Okay, that’s understood.
The presenting article to which I’m replying puts forth the notion that “strong and silent types” get ignored and left. I would like to point to a particularly annoying aspect of punishing the good, specifically, the gulf between what we claim to honor (honesty) and the reward (gained through deceit). My glaring example is the SOP whereby an outside job offer is necessary to get a raise. To get a raise, first, one must prove their disloyalty by going out and getting a job offer from somewhere else.
I have worked at places where if the powers-that-be knew you were looking for an outside job, they would fire you on the spot; however, once you do announced you’re leaving to a better offer, the elusive pay rise to stay, suddenly, somehow, coughs up and is extended. Huh? So there was money after all.
The only way to get a raise (particularly in this climate) is to practice deceit. It is deceitful because the new place expects your arrival, having spent money on it, indeed, they’re planning it; but you do not intend to go, because you are using them to get a raise. This deceit is rewarded by your current employer, suddenly able to cough up a raise that wasn’t available earlier, often way out of proportion to what should have come at the start.
By way of example, among every millennial I have worked with, only one I know recognizes this SOP as unethical and deceitful (and he worked for me). All the rest believe it’s the SOP to get a pay rise; best have another job offer in hand, that’s SOP. We teach everyone, everywhere deceit to get ahead, then wonder why American Management isn’t trusted and in the tank.
Old school was: work hard, when your efforts are a cut above, boss notices, puts your name forward, you’re rewarded with a raise. On campuses today, you could be St. Paul and Gandhi rolled into one, when you ask for a raise, wallop, you get “the script”: “Well, you know,… the budget cuts, constraints, restraints, best return to your desk, be grateful you have a job at all.” Except after you prove disloyalty presenting another job offer that’s in hand, somehow, money that wasn’t there is after all.
In a squeaky wheel culture, the “strong and silent” types finish last.
