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Being a team player: where I am it means listening to boring stories of the office gossip, who happens to be management’s favorite. This person has been here 20 years and is not going to leave till she retires, think another 20 years. I find her draining and don’t understand how she cannot shut up. She is like a 14 year old. Nobody ever contradicts her and her talking sessions can last 40 minutes.
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Doing my job: this would mean getting report, staying there for 3 minutes tops as a courtesy and then getting up to do my job. This would also mean I work more than them, because I start before them and go home at the same time like the rest of my coworkers.
Before you answer do consider: where I work there are usually very good ratios and I usually have a helper and that takes a considerable amount of job off my hands. Were I to work at another unit, I’d have to invariably work more.
I’m not sure I want to do my job, I don’t see what would I gain from it. The obvious choice here seems to be to become like the rest of my coworkers and pretend to pay attention to the gossip: you get away with working less.
I don’t know, maybe you see advantages waking up to do my job?
If you ever were in a situation like this, what did you do?
to state the obvious, I cannot do both, because it drains me.
Sounds like you’ve thought it through. I don’t see anything wrong with this approach if you don’t.
If there were benefits to doing otherwise, then that would be a whole different thing. Maybe if you do something impressive in the process of working and your boss sees that, you might be more likely to get a raise or promotion, for instance. But if that’s not how your particular workplace works (and it’s definitely true that at some workplaces, socializing is rewarded more than work; also, some places reward getting shit done by giving you more shit to do, which you may not appreciate), then do whatever’s best for you.
Remember: your boss/employer is not your friend. They’re always taking the most advantage of you that they can. Fuck 'em. Just try not to screw over any of your peers or anyone below you in the (management, experience, or social) hierarchy if you can help it at all. But don’t feel bad if your employer gives you no choice but to fuck over your peers or underlings.