"In the department, I am definitely the most obedient and cooperative," Xiaohong said with some grievances, "I have never had a second word to let me work overtime; let me take over the accounting of the new business line, and I have no complaints."

"However, the leader has never praised me. Except for assigning tasks, I don't exist!" Xiaohong said angrily, "On the contrary, it was another colleague in the same department. The leader always praised him for his ideas and potential. When he arrives, he smiles, and he often eats lunch and chats with him about work. I don’t think I’m worse than him, but when the boss is watching me working overtime at most, they say 'hard work' and get rid of it. Do you think it's unfair? ?"

After listening to Xiaohong's complaints about the experience of "obedient, serious but not appreciated", do you also feel a little pity on each other?

I heard a lot of similar complaints, not only Xiaohong, but also many friends complained to me: I feel that the leadership is unfair, and I am very obedient, cooperative, and even work very seriously, but I am not appreciated by the leadership. .

Figure | "Ode to Joy"

Haven't you been taught since you were a child: "No pain, no gain"? Obviously we paid, but we did not get an equal return. At this time, I felt aggrieved, and it was natural. However, after listening to Xiaohong's complaint, I had to say: this situation is not only "common", but also "very normal", why is this?

In fact, there is a problem with this idea itself. Whether the leader appreciates or not depends on: what value you can bring to the leader, not whether you are obedient or not. Therefore, because "I am very obedient", I think "I should be appreciated". To put it more bluntly, it is wishful thinking, and the result will be "very hurt", which is inevitable.

First, it is normal that "obedience" cannot be exchanged for appreciation, because it is cheap.

It may be a bit inhuman to say this, but after listening to the inner monologue of the supervisor below, I believe you can understand why the leader does not appreciate a person for being "obedient".

Linna is a personnel supervisor. She also happens to have two subordinates. The situation is very similar to what Xiaohong said. The subordinate, Xiao A, is a good girl. She is very obedient in everything and can complete the assigned work. Yes, I work overtime silently and never complain. However, in my heart, Linna, the supervisor, prefers little B.

"Once, there was a labor dispute at the project site, and Xiao B took the initiative to talk with me. All things, needless to say, were properly prepared; many suggestions were put forward, which also played a very good role in our specific conversation. role." Linna said, "In contrast, Xiao A's work was completed, and it didn't bother me, but the work she did was the same for someone else. This is her own job."

**Yes, doing what the leader requires is the job responsibility of the workplace itself, and it is the most basic job requirement.**We have done this, and the final result is also in line with the quality of the work, then we can only get this evaluation: This person is a qualified employee.

Therefore, for such a qualified employee, the leader may not embarrass you. After all, such an employee is a stable force in the team and has a practical role. Note that the cheapness here does not mean that there is no value. There is definitely value in completing your own work in a down-to-earth manner; but this value is still far away from being appreciated, expected, and given opportunities to cultivate. From this point of view, just being obedient is cheap, and there is no competitiveness to win the appreciation of leaders.

Figure | "Ode to Joy"

Second, "just being obedient" will not only have bottlenecks, but will also face more crises.

If you are a newcomer in the workplace, in the first year of employment, "being obedient and easy to use" is still an advantage; but if you have been employed for more than 3 years, there is no value other than obedience. The bottleneck of development is facing the crisis of being abolished, which is what the Internet often calls the "newbie crisis".

For example, Zhou Hongyi once said publicly: "The company's department leaders and human resources department must regularly clean up the novice rabbit employees, otherwise there will be a Dead Sea effect: the company develops to a certain stage, and capable employees are easy to leave, because they are stupid in the company. Their tolerance for behavior is not high, and they are easy to find good jobs. Employees with poor abilities tend to stay and do not leave. They are not very good at finding jobs. After a long time, they will become middle and high-level. This phenomenon is called "" Dead Sea effect”; good workers evaporate like water in the Dead Sea, and then the Dead Sea becomes so salinity that normal organisms can’t survive.”

In the company's rapid development environment, novice rabbit-shaped employees can still have their own place, and the crisis is not so obvious; but with the changes in the economic situation, once the company's growth slows down, it is necessary to further optimize internal management. At times, employees who are just obedient and have no more added value are more likely to face job adjustments, salary cuts, or even layoffs.

Figure | "Ode to Joy"

Since "obedient" will not only not be appreciated by the leaders, but also may face more crises in the long run, then, is there any way to change this state? Of course there is!

Let me give you two small examples around me, let's feel it first:

>>> Intern who exceeds expectations

Once, when I was planning to organize a salon, I recruited an intern temporarily, and I put her in charge of buying fruit, snacks, preparing equipment and taking pictures. I thought that after the layout was finished, the intern would just do it, but I didn't expect this new intern to think about it and tell me: You said there were 30 people at the scene, but I think the room will be crowded with 30 people, maybe a lot People can't reach the table. You just said to buy watermelon. I'm worried that the venue is not easy to put on. I think it's better to buy some small packaged food.

Wow, great idea! I didn't expect it at all, and immediately decided to look at her with admiration!

>>> One question and three unknown attendees

When I was in the original company, I formed a review team with the finance department and the communication department to review the work of the project site. At the first joint meeting, as the review team leader, I invited my colleagues from the finance department to present the financial review highlights. As a result, she said: "The leader just asked me to come and join this group. I don't know the rest. There is a form here, just fill it out according to the time."

"Is this here for a meeting?!" I rolled my eyes at that time, how could I possibly have an appreciation for her? She claimed that she was very obedient, but she was just passively covering up her lack of thinking and fear of taking responsibility, right?

From the above two examples, it is not difficult to see that it is not that the leader does not like to appreciate obedient employees, but the "obedient" here is not simply "what you say I do will only be obedient", but "obedient + able to speak" . It includes the following 4 aspects:

1. Have action: Conscientiously implement the task requirements of the leader, and complete the task on time and according to quality. As I just said, although this is not a reason to be appreciated, it is the most basic and most basic.

2. Thinking: Understand the mission and goals of the leader, not the leader to say a word or move. This is manifested in the initiative to carry out the work, but also in the ability to discuss key issues and difficulties with leaders, and put forward reasonable suggestions. Don't underestimate this, it will let leaders see your potential. Leaders are not all-knowing and omnipotent. If you help them find faults and fill gaps, it will naturally be easier for them to impress you.

3. Report: Track the status of task execution, and report in time if there are problems or difficulties. Don't wait until something really happened before telling the leader: I did everything you said. Not only will this not be appreciated, but on the contrary, this is a rhythm of hatred. At the same time, in addition to reporting problems in a timely manner, taking the initiative to undertake some copywriting work is also very easy to make yourself stand out. Therefore, don't say "let me do the work, don't let me write materials, the most afraid of writing". In other words, undertake the follow-up work of sorting, summarizing, and editing reports, and you can reap more "benefits" than you think.

4. Innovative: In the framework of mission objectives and requirements, further improve the implementation details. Innovation doesn’t need to be thought of as high-level, especially for ordinary newcomers in the workplace. It is difficult to have high-tech and high-level innovation, but summarizing the experience and lessons of one’s own implementation of the operation process, and constantly improving the implementation details are good innovations. the road.

For example, I used to have an employee who was in charge of answering telephone summaries. She kept summarizing the rules of incoming call information (including lessons from her own bad handling of being scolded), and sorted out a 9-page set of details for switchboard telephone answering. . Not only does it help me to do the job well, but these experiences can also help other colleagues to do some more complicated and difficult call information according to the same standard. This approach is also innovative. If you are her leader, would you like such a subordinate very much?

Going back to the beginning of the article, for Xiaohong, instead of being aggrieved because the leaders don’t pay attention, it is better to study this problem as a topic that he wants to overcome. With specific actions, thinking, reporting and innovation, they become employees who are "obedient + able to speak" and have scarce value.