Yeah, I can't imagine how it looks now. Back when I was doing the night watch/human scarecrow gig, I was literally topping the charts as some employee of the month shit 14 times consecutively, because I came to work punctual, properly dressed, sober, and followed procedures. There was no benefit for it. The 50-something entitled bitch that was supposed to come after me was routinely late and reeked of booze two times out of three, but there was no penalty for making me wait 30-120 minutes. Unwanted overtime isn't a benefit. The supervisor went through some five stages of death shit when I resigned, and good riddance. Hopefully, I'll never again need to bother with that bullshit. Positive (group) incentives don't require (individual) competition. Positive incentive isn't lessening the penalties. Both are trivial realization for anyone who doesn't do management or HR.
Between quitting the shittiest job I had out of college and starting the least-shittiest job I had out of college I spent five months unemployed while Boeing was on strike. One of the jobs I interviewed for was being headhunted by a temp agency. So I came into the temp agency and interviewed. Then they made me do their office assistant evaluations. I looked at them - this is an engineering gig? Requires calculus? No fux given, nobody comes in for a job without being assessed on filing, alphabetization, typing and 10-key. So, okay, I'm here, whatever. They called me to offer me office assistant gigs for another six years. Apparently I was the fastest typist they'd ever tested. They assured me they could place me any day of the week if I wanted to be an administrative assistant. When I was a cashier doing graveyard shift at a 7-11? My boss wrote me up for reading a magazine at 3am. The fact that the person who relieved me was never sober didn't come into the equation. That was the last time I worked retail, however.
Just in case I fucked it up: I meant it like "as overqualified for junior work as veen would be for kid mazes." However killer they were, you wouldn't need a tenth of that delta, for sure. I bet that with your SQL skills, you'd probably automate 90% of one in a week-to-month.
My manager has started a DBA, which frightens me as she seems to be a walking, talking testament to poor management techniques. But is also exactly what the higher ups want in their managers. To her, we're numbers. So when I don't treat my team as numbers, she's confused and her solutions to my problems don't mesh.
Oh for sure - I'm the outlier as far as she's concerned. But the trouble is, she hired me knowing my personality. Knowing I cared about people and had the respect of the wider organization (like, 5000 staff overall). They genuinely created this role I'm in, with me in mind. I was basically strong armed into applying, and I was pleased to do it! I occasionally wind up in committees and usually someone there goes "Oh it's you! I've heard all about you! You did this thing, wow I thought you were a woman..". That last part happens a lot. Not a lot of men in our area. Anway, I'm well thought of and I thought that would carry over. Yet when I insist on continuing being the positive, affable person she hired - she's all no no no these people need an iron fist to rule them. It's my fault for not conforming to what she needs, but I really don't want to change myself. So I change the job! And the hunt continues. That's not to say I don't know how to manage people, I just don't subscribe to her methods. Which so far have encouraged people to leave out area at a phenomenally rapid rate, and we can't backfill so the remaining staff pick up the slack, get tired, and the cycle continues as the big cheese continues her power trip.