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“Some Tasks Shouldn’t Be Rushed”: Employee Embarrasses Boss By Doing Exactly What She Asked For
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“Some Tasks Shouldn’t Be Rushed”: Employee Embarrasses Boss By Doing Exactly What She Asked For

“Some Tasks Shouldn’t Be Rushed”: Employee Embarrasses Boss By Doing Exactly What She Asked ForManager Desperately Tries To Save Face After Her Dumb Decision Ends In A “Total Disaster”, FailsBoss Won’t Listen To Employee Who Explains His Work Is Too Important To Be Rushed, Gets A WarningManager Demands Faster Inventory Checks Despite Employee's Warning, And It Seriously Backfires“Let’s See How Fast Things Can Spiral Out Of Control”: Boss Tries To Rush Employee, It BackfiresManager Insists On Speed, Learns The Hard Way Why Accuracy MattersStore Supervisor’s Obsession With Speed Over Quality Leads To Inventory Disaster“Thousands Of Dollars In Discrepancies”: Worker Maliciously Complies With Boss Who Wanted Speed “Thousands Of Dollars In Discrepancies”: Manager Blames Staff For Chaos Caused By Her Demands“You Want It Fast? Fine, But Don’t Cry When It Blows Up In Your Face”
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Not only is the sheer number of people experiencing burnout higher than ever, but it is hitting workers at younger ages—and its effects are more debilitating.

The 2023 Stress in America survey shows that 67% of adults ages 18 to 34 feel like stress makes it difficult for them to focus, 58% describe their daily stress as “completely overwhelming,” and nearly half report that most days their stress is so bad they’re unable to function.

A recent story on the subreddit ‘Malicious Compliance‘ acts as a vivid illustration of these grim numbers. Shared by a worker who goes on the platform by the nickname 0x1337D00D, it describes what happens to the whole company when a manager is hell-bent on getting the most out of their employees, no matter the cost.

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    This person’s supervisor believed that speed and only speed was the key to their team’s success

    Image credits: StockRocketStudio (not the actual photo)

    So she sacrificed any and all quality—and it completely backfired

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    Image credits: DC_Studio (not the actual photo)

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    Image credits: YuriArcursPeopleimages (not the actual photo)

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    Image credits: 0x1337D00D

    Too many employees are being pushed to and even past their breaking point

    David Sluss, who is an associate professor of organizational behavior at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, says that organizations need to redefine the meaning of speed.

    “The U.S. Navy SEALs are known for their saying ‘Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.’ These rapid-response special forces teams are paradoxically methodical and patient in both planning and executing their time-critical missions,” Sluss writes.

    Sluss explains that these highly effective professionals “have learned over 60 years of operating in crisis situations that working at a slow and smooth pace reduces mistakes and re-dos and in the end speeds up the mission.”

    In short, they have learned that leaders shouldn’t “confuse operational speed (moving quickly) with strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). And this of course means that leaders need to clearly define what delivering value means from the start.”

    To learn more about patience at the workplace, he surveyed 578 full-time U.S. employees from a wide range of industries during the Covid-19 lockdown, when everyone was on high alert. Their average age was thirty-nine, most were college graduates, and more than half were in managerial roles themselves.

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    Sluss asked about their immediate supervisor’s leadership behaviors and level of patience and had them self-report their own levels of creativity, productivity, and collaboration. The responses revealed that patience had a powerful effect: when leaders demonstrated it (meaning their employees’ ratings put them in the highest quartile), people’s creativity and collaboration increased by an average of 16% and their productivity by 13%.

    Sometimes, asking to slow down will get you more, and hopefully, the lady from our story will eventually understand this.

    Image credits: Jonathan Borba (not the actual photo)

    As the story went viral, it received a lot of colorful reactions

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    Rokas Laurinavičius

    Rokas Laurinavičius

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

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    Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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    Rokas Laurinavičius

    Rokas Laurinavičius

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

    Justinas Keturka

    Justinas Keturka

    Author, BoredPanda staff

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    I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

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    Justinas Keturka

    Justinas Keturka

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    I'm the Visual Editor at Bored Panda, responsible for ensuring that everything our audience sees is top-notch and well-researched. What I love most about my job? Discovering new things about the world and immersing myself in exceptional photography and art.

    What do you think ?
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    Anton Swanepoel
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Am I the only one here that thinks this sounds just a little trite and a lot entirely made up?

    Bookworm
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We've gone through brief periods at my job where they tell us we're supposed to be processing boxes at x speed so we have to work faster - x speed is ludicrous if you've ever actually done the job for 10 minutes - but we're also supposed to be extra careful double checking that everything has a price on it. You get fast(er) or careful, but not both. And given the amount of glass I handle in a day, I suspect we would all prefer careful.

    Phil Vaive
    Community Member
    4 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You can have two of the following three: Fast, Good, and Cheap. If you want it fast and cheap, it won't be good. If you want it good and cheap, it won't be fast. And if you want it fast and good, it won't be cheap.

    Load More Replies...
    Tom Nagel
    Community Member
    4 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Homer: There's the right way, the wrong way and the Max Power way. Bart: Isn't that still the wrong way? Homer: Yes, but faster!

    Load More Comments
    Anton Swanepoel
    Community Member
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Am I the only one here that thinks this sounds just a little trite and a lot entirely made up?

    Bookworm
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We've gone through brief periods at my job where they tell us we're supposed to be processing boxes at x speed so we have to work faster - x speed is ludicrous if you've ever actually done the job for 10 minutes - but we're also supposed to be extra careful double checking that everything has a price on it. You get fast(er) or careful, but not both. And given the amount of glass I handle in a day, I suspect we would all prefer careful.

    Phil Vaive
    Community Member
    4 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You can have two of the following three: Fast, Good, and Cheap. If you want it fast and cheap, it won't be good. If you want it good and cheap, it won't be fast. And if you want it fast and good, it won't be cheap.

    Load More Replies...
    Tom Nagel
    Community Member
    4 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Homer: There's the right way, the wrong way and the Max Power way. Bart: Isn't that still the wrong way? Homer: Yes, but faster!

    Load More Comments
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