Every workplace has its own rhythm, established patterns of how people interact with each other and get work done.
That elusive aspect of the office known as “company culture” certainly influences the way things get done, along with how each individual approaches their work.
The career coach revealed that employees are classified into three “buckets” based on their work style.
1. Do-nothing employees
Tanya, a career coach and speaker, argued that people in the workplace are divided into three groups, and the first group are those who do nothing.
“I don’t even know how they got this job,” Tanya said of people who fall into this category.
She noted that these workers could have gotten their jobs in a variety of ways, including through nepotism, personality-based hiring, or simply being con artists with an understanding of how to rise higher and higher within the company.
“At the end of the year, if you look at their job description and see what they’ve done, they’ve probably contributed 50 percent,” she says. “They always have some excuse for why they can’t come in, they’re going to be late, something’s always going on, they have drama in their life, but somehow they manage to stay in the job with barely any contribution.”
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Tanya distinguishes between these workers and those who are quitting quietly, noting that the first group of people aren’t just quietly working less than before as a form of protest: “They’re either lazy, unqualified, or well-connected.”
People in the first group “are at every level of an organisation,” Tanya explains. “Some of the people on the entry level and in the C-suite are the ones who watch Netflix all day at work and do nothing. They’re in Congress, they’re everywhere.”
These people negatively impact workflow, making it more likely that their coworkers will be given extra work, but for some reason, people in bucket 1 are spared from being fired.
2. Employees who perform minimal duties
Tanya called those in the second category “barely thugs doing their job.”
“You look at their job description at the end of the year and they can check off every item on the list. They get it done and they do it well, but they’re not doing anything special,” she said. At least not getting a raise.
“They don’t work late and they don’t come in early,” she continued.
Employees in the second bucket know the value of their time. They won’t do anything that isn’t in their job description, but they do complete those tasks and do them well.
“They can do more,” Tanya says. “Maybe they could have done more before, but they failed. They’re traumatized by bad work experiences.”
She further subdivided the second group, saying marginal workers “may be baby boomers coasting toward retirement.”
“Don’t ask them to do something else, but respect that they are doing the job you paid them to do,” Tanya advised.
She explained the various situations that can lead to someone finding themselves in a position where they’re only doing the bare minimum at work, explaining that “maybe you’re working a second job” or maybe you’re a new mom trying to figure out how to split your time between work and family.
“There are lots of reasons why people just want to work and go home,” Tanya says.
As long as they are not harming other members of the team, all employees deserve at least some tolerance.
I don’t know if other people have had experiences that distract them from the workplace, but it’s totally fine to treat your work as just a job and not as your passion in life.
3. Great employees
Tanya places these employees on “maximum effort teams,” saying, “They’re high performers, or people who are just playing the corporate game.”
“They’re either doing this because they love it or they’re trying to get ahead and do political things,” she said. “They’re going to do their job, they’re going to do some of your job, they’re going to do some of their boss’ job.”
Tanya believes that people in bucket three are either happy or on the verge of burnout.
She explained that some members of the third group were “smarter than the rest of the group because they knew, ‘It’s not how much you work, it’s who you’re connected to that matters.'”
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“The people in this group who do the most work end up failing, not getting promoted, and becoming the worst of the worst,” she asserted.
The amount of energy and dedication you put into your work depends on a variety of factors, some of which have nothing to do with the work itself at all, but rather with what’s going on in your life outside of work.
The three buckets aren’t necessarily static: employees move between buckets and may be more enthusiastic about their work at some moments than others.
You can’t pour from an empty cup, and no matter what bucket you fall into, it’s always important to set clear boundaries and do what’s necessary to take care of yourself.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer for YourTango’s news and entertainment team. She covers all things related to social issues, pop culture, and the entertainment industry.
