Being right doesn’t matter if you can’t convince others.

Don’t touch liquid nitrogen with your bare hands.

Don’t touch glowing metal with your bare hands.

Don’t touch exposed wire with your bare hands.

Star Trek lied to us about the competency levels of our co-workers.

No matter what, under no circumstances should you ever believe the company or place you work for will back you up.

If a company was placed in a situation where they can get rid of you for any reason, they will and they will do it as fast as possible.

Even if you believe you are irreplaceable, a company will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get you out of the equation.

Even if you have been with the company for 20+ years, if the company sees a way to save a hundred bucks by getting rid of you, they will.

Even if you and your boss and their bosses are buddy buddy and they are the godparent to your child and if you donated them a kidney, they will replace you.

Even if you show that you work the most, bring in the most sales, work the longest, get paid the least, and do work so everyone can slack off, they will replace you.

Also HR is never there for you. It is there to protect the company first and foremost. If you go to them for any reason, you are on a list to be the first to go.

Going "above and beyond" is pointless and will at best just get you more work for the same pay

Hard skills are important for doing the underlying job, but soft skills matter more if you want to progress in the career as well as financially.

You could be the smartest person alive, but if you don't communicate effectively and play nice with others you're almost useless.

Validate your backups regularly.

Also, make backups.

Everybody has a test environment.

Some are lucky enough to also have a production environment.

Cover Your Ass

You can't go in and give 100% every day. You will burn out. Give 70% regularly. Only give 100% when shit really hits the fan. People will think you are a miracle worker.

Keep notes on your work.

1. Its proof of the work you have done
2. A lot of people forget things, including yourself.
3. It helps you reflect back. Helps with projects that are spaced apart as well.

It usually doesn’t need to be perfect, good enough is often good enough and can be a lot faster where trying for perfection might not get finished in time.

HR protects and represents the company, not you as an employee.

Just because someone was made a supervisor it doesn't mean they know what they are doing.

At my first internship, they made me go through an entire bookshelf of safety training manuals that felt like they were written by the local staff. They were all full of things like "don't put a pipe on the end of a wrench to give you the leverage you need to do your job" and "don't forget to clock out at lunch or we'll have to assume you were gone for exactly one hour". Took me a moment to realize they were in fact telling me exactly what to do, but in a way that would also cover their asses. Always thought that was clever.

People are really fucking stupid. I work in IT. I'm a helpdesk tech at an MSP, and I see profound idiocy all day every day. People have no critical thinking skill and seem proud of the fact they don't know shit about anything. People young and old say they're tech illiterate like it's a good thing.

Yes, the meeting might result in the same plan you made forever ago. But now everyone knows what, how, and why. The meeting wasn't called because your idea was shit, it was to bring everyone up to speed.

Do NOT let people walk over you. Especially collegues. Especially collegues who have a history

Join a union the first chance you get, they exist to fight against HR, and to fuck over the company if they try to fuck you over

Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups. Always verify to make sure you(and others) got all the necessary information.

You might worry that you’ll come across as inexperienced or unprepared, but people usually appreciate the effort. And it will save you so much headache down the line.

You can get away with a LOT if you keep people up to date with what you're doing

You’re not family

You’re not their friend

They don’t want anything to change.

Always take a long lunch. They are.

You’re not a problem solver, you’re a back massager.

You’re definitely going to get laid off these days, and it doesn’t matter what your performance was like.

Your one-up is probably not coming in to work at all, which is why their help isn’t ever helpful.

You should scrape all their data and source code to see if there’s anything useful you can sell when you get laid off.

Be sure to document everything and save it on your own device. Always check “use Gemini notes” for zoom calls. Screenshot chats where you ask direct questions and never get answers.

Get two jobs, do the minimum at both. Made double money, fuck them.

for me:

Your

Your

Your

You're represented by your words. It can cost you opportunities.

That's a great question and there are so many good answers in this thread.

Don't expect your superiors to ever back you up. I got burned so many times. I knew I was right, but they didn't have a backbone and only thought about the budget, their reputation, and the work they'd have to put in for damage control. I wanted to shut restaurants for their filthiness, but "Oh noes, what will the community think". Well, if someone dies, then it's on your head. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

Even if a conversation or direction was made verbally, always follow up with an email to say "Just to confirm our conversation today, you have directed me to...." Even if it's about holidays. My old boss was such a prick. Him and all upper management are the reason I am suspicious of everyone and everything.

99% of people don't wash their hands properly.

People (customers and coworkers alike) are generally not very bright, putting it politely. No matter how foolproof you design a system, the human race is out there absolutely cranking out bigger fools than you even imagined.

I'm not obliged to do anything I'm not directly paid for. People put all sorts of massive tasks on me and I now ignore the task. If it is important enough to come back to me from 2 or 3 sources then I might look at it. All core tasks I get paid for come before these "extras".

Always cover your ass. Take notes of everything, send emails out with important details of who was supposed to do what. It'll help you avoid trouble when something goes wrong and fingers start being pointed.

If you're aloof in the office and your campus has several buildings to work at, you can work remote without anyone ever noticing.

Reward for being even slightly competent and having work ethic is more work. To the point where you are doing everything until you break.

If you do something that needed to be done out of curtesy it'll become your responsibility.

If you want to find someone who understand something about the corporation, look at the basement.

It can take them up to a year to realize that I totally lied on my resume and am incompetent, by which time I am no longer so incompetent.

You gotta speak to people where they're at, in words they're willing to hear, and make them feel like you give a shit about what's happening to them.

When you see an opportunity to help without hindering your ability to do your duties, offer. If someone asks for help, try to find a way or apologize that you can't.

Your professional instincts don't impact policy unless you can prove that they're correct.

A good leader takes the blame for their followers and passes the credit forward.

Maintain a nice professional barrier. Your coworkers don't need to know everything about your life. And when people start engaging in shop talk the only white collar person there should be acutely aware of the fact that we're held to higher professional standards of general conduct.