The rules of a job
In the words of Bertram Cooper, there are other rules. These are the other rules.
Every so often, the yoots will get career advice from the olds. Most of it is rubbish so the kids assume all of it is rubbish … quit rolling your eyes at me, Kyle! This will be the one and only time I’m gonna publish my rubbish. Also, technology changes; people don’t. Study people and acquire tech skills as you need them. In that order.
The immutable rules of a job are thus:
Your job exists either to make the company money or save the company money. Sometimes there is some crossover of the two, but rarely until you get up into the management/leadership ranks.
Everybody at the company has a boss. The lower down the chain you are, the more bosses your boss has. The further up the chain you go, the more bosses you have.
This one is a tough one, but the more you understand it, the more successful you will be. NOBODY should give a sh*t1 more about the tasks you need to do or the outcomes of your job more than you, whether you grill burgers, assemble bicycles, solve IT problems, perform live music for millions, plan conferences, raise money for dog shelters, clean up vomit or plan strategy for global logistics. This isn’t to say you should accept being overworked and exploited — giving a sh*t and accepting abuse is not the same thing, helps to know the difference — but nobody should give a sh*t more than you about those things of your job.
Your boss cares, but if they have to care MORE than you, you are giving them stress they don’t need or want. After all, they have their own boss who expects they should give a sh*t about the tasks and outcomes of their job more than their boss.
You can argue, but you’d be wrong. Until you understand it and make peace with it, you’ll be a source of friction for your boss, the company and yourself.
Change is annoying. Your suggestions for change will be met with resistance, even when you have a C-job. But work on it anyway, just don’t tell anyone. Don’t ask permission to start thinking about what changes could be made, how they would be implemented or paid for … BUT don’t suggest them until your plan is fully formed and you’ve figured out to produce some outcomes with a few trial runs nobody noticed you do. Preparation meets opportunity is almost always the best road to change things in a lasting, meaningful way.
You’ll throw away more plans than you’ll execute. But make them anyway.
Lastly, don’t expect credit for anything. Accept it when given, but don’t expect it. Don’t get bitter when your boss takes credit for stuff you do because YOU are one of the outcomes of their job. Again, don’t accept abuse, but also accept your performance is one of your boss’s outcomes.
There are a lot of other nuanced immutable rules2 of a job — like how like-ability will always win out over skill — but these are foundational.
“Give a sh*t” defined as figuring out how things work, getting what you need from people and systems, getting skilled, efficient and effective, just handle it, not waiting to be told what to do, learn … learn more, figuring out and executing being pleasant to work with… there’s probably more but this is enough. “Sweep your side of the street.”
Please don’t ask me who Bertram Cooper is. Google, ChatCPT, TikTok it or whatever it is your generation does to find out stuff these days. But don’t be satisfied with your ignorance. Have you read nothing the past two minutes?
Well said - it’s why I’m encouraging my kids to “be the house” - the house always wins and so if you’re the house (aka own the company) you will do better with less bosses. That said it’s a huge amount of stress owning a small business and finding quality employees who have the values you espoused is hard these days.