The Mediocre Employee Who Seems Like a Good Employee

by Chris McMediocre of AccordingToWhim.com

I’ve often felt like I’m a mediocre employee who seems indispensable because I stay busy and I start to seem better than all the other mediocre to useless employees that I work with. I find it sad how easy it is to seem like a good employee by just doing what’s actually expected of you. I work full time. I show up a few minutes late almost every day. They don’t complain though, because I stay busy the whole time I’m on the clock. I work late. I rarely ask off. I only call in sick if I’m so sick that I’m a danger to myself or others. 9 times out of 10 when I’m asked to work an extra shift, I do it. The sad part is there are employers out there right now wishing they could hire me, even though I probably just described how most employees should treat their jobs, and admitted that I have trouble getting there on time.

There are basically two spaces that you can operate in on the mediocre side of being an employee. The first is an odd open rebellion that says, “I’m not performing any tasks that I don’t want to.” It’s that weird headspace where some people believe that they have control of their life because they rebel against their boss. They later complain that the boss just hated them and turned all the other employees against them. The truth is that everybody just hates having to pick up their slack, but they won’t tell you that story. The second is doing the least that you can do while still doing your job task and doing a slight bit extra. It’s amazing that you can actually be this lazy and still look… well, amazing.

So whatever. You can draw negative attention to yourself by trying to get paid for doing nothing. Or you can do your job and seem amazing. The problem with the first option is that eventually they get rid of enough weak links that you’re suddenly the weakest link. The upside of the second option is that somehow there will always be a weaker link.

As a final thought, I do have the ability to be a good employee when I actually care about the results. When that happens, I actually engage with the job and do things that matter, not just what needs to be done. I just tend to default to mediocre. It’s still better than sometimes being mediocre and defaulting to being a weak link in the chain.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who could have written a shorter blog post, but you know what? I’m not editing if I don’t want to. And don’t you dare turn the other bloggers against me.