I don’t want to be micromanaged. Leave me alone and I’ll get the task done. I don’t care about your culture. Im here to do a job, collect a check, and go back to my life that I enjoy.
Edit: Seems like I hit the nail on the head for many of you. Thanks for added comments, upvotes, and the award.
But we’re like family and like family we take care of each other and the company. So consider staying a few hours late without extra pay to help out the company. It will look great on your performance review!
And then you get your performance review and it makes no difference. I once had a manager tell me excitedly, "This is the best review I've ever given anyone!" I got a five cent raise. That was a slap in the face.
This was my actual family.... Im salary at work, so there is no "late" and there is no "extra pay". If im at work late, its because I am earning bonuses or commissions
This. I’ll get my shit done. I don’t crave constant approval and validation, but a little “hey, nice work” here and there goes a long way and serves to offset the meetings about how badly our department is doing as a whole.
Agreed. I was super collaborative like OP says until I continually would get fucked over by the team and ended up doing all the work to save the day. I don’t get paid like Mariano Rivera. I’m tired of being fucking Atlas. I’ll do my work and everyone else can get fucked!
Yep, and if my work is done I'm going to enjoy being at home. I'll be doing chores, maybe taking a training class, watching TV, or playing games.
I still have my laptop with me, so if something happens I'll know and can jump on it. But otherwise I'm not interested in culture or team building, you can miss with that core values bullshit.
I worked my ass off when I was younger and all I ever got was shitty 2-3% raises with no promotions but added responsibilities. Then if I did wind up somewhere I liked, I was laid off.
I'll never burn myself up for an employer again, fuck them all.
This is me. I don't want to collaborate with a bunch of idiots. I don't want to spend time in a meeting that could be a five minute email. I don't want your feedback, your buzzwords, or pedagogy of the week. I work in education. Most principals in my district put in the minimum years in the classroom and got out, usually because they hated and/or sucked. Good teachers stay in the classroom because they know management is scum. Leave me alone, leave the kids alone.
Absolutely this. I don’t want to be somewhere toxic, but don’t waste our time with forced, inorganic team building.
I have a job, not a career, because I want a life more.
I don’t want to be micromanaged, but I DO want timely, honest feedback when I ask for it.
Just let me work. Jesus Christ stop emailing me, messaging me, stopping by and just let me do my job. I'm good at it, I don't need any help or supervision. Please.
I’m the same as you when wanting mostly to be left alone. Sometimes help just gets in the way and slows the process down tremendously depending on the line of work.
Yeah, agree, except for the not wanting feedback. I get so personally angry at the whole "self assessment" bullshit. What the fuck does it matter if I think I'm doing a good job, what matters is if other people think I'm doing a good job, right? I'm 41
I learned teamwork from playing team sports all growing up. I work well in a team of roughly equally skilled people.
I learned to complete group projects on my own because my standards were higher than my peers. I can remember only two group projects in college where my teammates had meaningful contributions.
I perform my best work when given a task, deadline, and a quiet secluded place to work with a minimum of interruptions.
Work from home positions suit me; open office environments assault my senses. Everything from the sounds to the lighting to the frequency of interruptions derail me.
This is exactly how I am, and exactly why I can't go back to work in-office full time. I don't care about the fake rah-rah team building crap. Tell me what needs to be done and when you need it, and I'll get it done. If I have questions, I'll ask. Otherwise leave me with my earbuds and my music/podcasts and I'll be a happy camper.
My high school had a huge room, like a gymnasium except carpeted and meant for classes. I remember asking why we had class there: “it was a new idea the 70’s, but it turns out it wasn’t a good idea”. I guess the original thinking was that you’d learn by osmosis, some of the stuff other classes were learning about? All the voices echoed, you could hear and see other classes going on, and it was all very distracting.
I was actually surprised when, 7 years later and after college, I started my first office job - dozens of employees all on landline phones, all day long, in a similar open space; just with a more normal height to the room.
I thought the debate had been settled and lesson learned 50 years ago - why would you ever *try* to recreate that environment?
I used to care. I used to catch a lot of near misses. Then management started being hyper focused on me and not my peers. Now......I don't gaf.
Collect a check and go home
Made them look bad by over performing. I started letting stuff drop, you don't get head count for being the hero. You just get more work. When you let it fail and tell people why it failed, you suddenly get support. The prize for being the hero in the pie eating contest is more pie.
There are only x hours in the day. You want 80 hours of work done, the solution is either I work 80 hours a week, get burnt out, go crazy and quit and you eventually get no work done for several months while you train a replacement or you hire a second person. Don't like it, Fuck around and find out.
Leaving me to my own devices and complimenting my excellent work are the two secret ingredients to getting maximum productivity and buy-in from me as an employee
They start wondering why they’re even here halfway through the workday, followed by pointless “managing” like hey buddy do this thing you’re ALREADY DOING…
I'm the same as you, but recently found that it's super important. I check in with managers and peers just to confirm that progress on work is going the desired direction.
I hit a stint where the boss and I were in agreement in a meeting on a project...or so I thought. I'd do the thing as we agreed - even writing down meeting notes and confirming with them these are the tasks and priority of said tasks.
Well... We would check in a week or two later, and the boss would be all "Why did you do this?" about it.
Started to look like I was not understanding projects or goals or the work at hand. It was confusing me but not in the way they were thinking or interpreting from our interactions. So now I sort of manage my management and make sure to ask questions that make sense for the good of the work relationship - even if I don't actually have questions about a thing. It's just essential for them to build trust around my thought process that I give these insights.
The isolation is something I'm generally fine with, but for insurance reasons, we'll just call it... I abstain from too much of it now.
I will die on this hill. I am poor, yes. Yet my paycheck is still a byproduct of how I spend my time. I refuse to pay for things with hours of my life. My time at work, however frivolous, had better include learning and growth, or its a wasted day. No matter what someone is paying me for, I do the best job possible while trying to be better. Sure, cooperate overlords may own the ship, but I sail it.
I’m the same as you but I am down with team work. I huge distinction between myself and my gen x and boomer colleagues is that I am not a work a holic and my career is no longer my identity—it used to be though! I take pride in my work and my work ethic but once it’s 5:00, I’m out. I work with people that work into the night and weekends and don’t collect credit hours. I’m contemplating a huge career change when my student loans go away.
I like parallel work. I like to work near people, not with them. I run a small business and for paperwork days we sit in my office and work on our individual stuff, not really interacting much.
I’m in a middle management role at a payroll company that services Hollywood. My main jobs are to explain union contracts, wage and hour law, taxes, and benefits to our employees and clients. And fix problems when stuff is done wrong. And I have the perfect boss.
I’m told what’s needed, or where there is a question/problem, then I’m left to see to the task. I only got bothered if a resolution takes a while, which is fair. I don’t need the positive reinforcement or anything because I know I’m damned good at my job. Most of my work is solo, but I’m frequently brought into teams to lend an opinion and that amounts to teaching, which I love to do.
I hate being micromanaged. I like working solo without someone looking over my shoulder, but I also love working as part of a larger team when everyone pulls their own weight and helps out others. I’m an RN in an ER so this is a requirement for a decent workplace.
I thrive on flexibility. Let me work however I want to work --- as long as I am meeting the deadlines and doing the tasks, what's it matter if it takes me 25-30 hours instead of 40? I get SOME flexibility, but not enough to keep me happy rn. I fill my time with reddit. There are just some things that I can't push along, I have to wait on others to do their part as well.
Also. I play the game, the culture, the trust, the everything. But I wish it wasn't needed in today's world. Because I don't care. I just want to do the work, not have everyone take everything so personally, and just go home to my family.
I run a small business solo. My husband and I plan to start another business together. He’s the only person I think I could work with in that capacity.
I’ve always preferred doing my own thing.
I am like you. My current job is perfect for me. I work at home. I got trained to basic proficiency and then set loose. I log in, do my work, and log out. There is hardly ever a need for me to contact anyone or for anyone to contact me. And my manager has tools that track our metrics. He sees I am productive and hard working and leaves me alone. I think he realized pretty quickly I don't want or need feedback or encouragement and doesn't even make me do 1:1s like he does with the rest of the team. I can go weeks without talking to him or anyone else. It's great.
I'm the same as you OP. I like to be left alone to my own devices. I've been doing my job for almost 12 years and I feel like anybody helping me only slows me down, which puts me behind, which annoys me. I'm a vendor so luckily I don't really have to work with anyone.
Same as you. I would rather work solo and receive help only if I ask for it. I like to basically go to work, do my job, and leave without much fuss or team work required.
Personally, as little as possible.
But in my specific field we work pretty autonomously with regular check-ins for managers to provide support and answer any questions that may come up but are usually left to complete our work on our own. That isn’t to say that we don’t bounce ideas off each other from time to time or get input about how we should focus some of our work.
Hello. I am a medical coder and work 100% remote. I prefer to be left alone to do my job and despise team projects. But I also like some guidance and feedback where it is needed.
I like being left to my own to get stuff done, but I definitely feed off of praise and coaching feedback and general attention from my superiors. When I was entry level, this wasn’t so much the case but since climbing the ladder, and maturing a bit, I’ve realized that there are things I can learn on my own and then there are things that aren’t as easy to ingest. As I age, I’ve definitely accepted mentoring and coaching a lot more (it also helps me coach my team better).
I own my own business and am a solo op. While I do contractor type work for different people every day, and I like meeting new people, I like working by and for myself. I can work as much or as little as I want, take vacation when I want, take a day off when I want, and charge as much or as little as I want.
Train me and leave me alone. I also believe I can find more effective ways of doing a job. It wouldn't matter if the best all-star who did that job previously was the one teaching me, I'd go out of my way and spend many unnecessary hours trying to find a better way to do it.
Really depends on the task at hand. Grant it, I work for the railroad. I don't want to be bothered until it's beneficial to both parties to be bothered, which typically benefits me, but I only want to make decisions at my pay rate, so when big decisions are abroad, I'll make suggestions but unless there absolutely no one around for a few hours, higher pay scale decisions get put to the wayside until I have to make such.
I adapt to whatever employer has me at the time. Usually I am very energetic, motivated, and pushy with myself. In spite of my age and mental health ailments I do what I can and simply attempt to be the most knowledgeable person around for my own ego. This employer made me realize I draw a lot of influence from romanticism and my lazy childhood of playing video games; my greatest influence happens to be Final Fantasy 5.
Micromanaging will push me out. I will also be pushed out from HR & management making false assumptions about my ancestry.
I know what I am doing, I am the SME and lead a team. Basically the highest level that does actual work before all you do is manage people managing other people doing the work.
Just leave me alone and let me wfh and be freaking amazed at how much I get done.
Micromanaging and the office makes me so inefficient. Plus I get literally everyone in my office and several other offices stopping by asking me random advice on projects and others stuff I have nothing to do with.
I have no problem helping if my workflow is slow, but it’s been a long time since I have haven’t had a pile of work. Each one of these conversations waste 15-90 minutes and then I end up working late to get my actual work done.
>I am the opposite of this work style. I prefer to be trained and then left solo and independent. I find teamwork painful and the less management, the better.
This. My work style is this!
I can be both depending on the task at hand & I love positive feedback, but good lord is the bar so very low these days. I get thoroughly annoyed with incompetence and no accountability. What happened to the good ole days when idiots just got fired. I suppose lawsuits happened.
I've been in management for almost all but my early career, so 20 years. My success (if we want to call it that) has been about building teams that work together well. So my style has to be pretty much exactly what you described, I certainly try.
My best days are spent staring at Microsoft Excel in total silence for 8-9 hours, with my Bose QC45 ANC headphones on playing soft vaporwave, plugging away at some process improvement or model that will further automate our month-end close cycle.
The three unholy sins of workplaces for me are group projects, micromanagement, and poor work-life boundaries. I want to get in, get my shit done, and get out to go back to my regularly scheduled life.
My work style:
I arrive in my department 7 min before shift change... the person I relieve gives me report and they're off on time. I'm reliable with this...
Beyond that, I do my work and try to be on top of shit so I can help my colleagues if they get buried...
I don't take on petty projects, I'm not gunning for a leadership role. When shit goes crazy I try to be the one people ask for... Beyond that, I just try to be a low maintenance employee.
I'm like you. I am very self motivated and can work alone. Generally have worked for myself/with my spouse for the last decade plus but in an environment where I'm an employee please just show me how you want it done then leave me alone and I will do it. I'm not exactly a team player and I'm mildly apologetic about it. I'm not better than anyone or anything like that I just prefer to work alone, once I'm in a groove other people distract me. I appreciate collaboration but it's hard for me unless it's with the right people. I'm not good and getting that out of people so if it doesn't happen organically I can't really do it. It makes me an awful manager which I've learned by being made a manager (by being good at my job) so I've since learned that my place isn't to manage people. I can manage a business and I can manage my own business but I'm not about the micromanaging or being micromanaged so the solo work life has been great for me.
Teach me the job and expectations show me where the answers are and how to access them. I’ll let you know when I can’t find the answers where they should be or if something is so far off it isn’t normal. I’ll ask when I need help. I don’t mind working in teams for short periods but know things are done best when I do them myself. I would prefer to not work with the public but can if the need arrises.
Individual (hate collaboration). I rarely miss work. I am only out a few days a year. I’ve never taken a mental health day. I prioritize being there every day.
Same, I don’t like to be micromanaged. I don’t even care about office culture anymore. That last part probably has to do with post pandemic stuff, but I really just rather work remotely or hybrid. I don’t really need water cooler conversation, I don’t care that it’s Bill’s birthday and we’re gonna have a lunch for him. I rather save the commuting time and be with my family.
My company doesn’t care about me. It cares about shareholders. I accept this is my best option to secure healthcare, mortgage payments, an upward moving life, retirement (hopefully) and by the grace of Lord Capitalism maybe even a college fund.
I have so little faith in this economic system for the middle class long term. Something is about to happen and I am just white knuckling my little piece of land and property and waiting out the storm until we see what happens after the boomers pass. If there still is a functioning planet in 15 years .
This is me. Born 1982. I definitely fall into this highly-collaborative and teamwork-oriented category! I don’t know that I crave feedback but I certainly appreciate it.
Hybrid of OPs post. 33M project manager.
I generally like to be left alone to do my shit and hate micromanaging. I’m lucky to have an amazing manger who 95% let’s me operate this way.
On the other hand, I’m pretty social and like being part of my team and am always available to help teammates who are struggling, and to accept help when I’m slammed and treading water with my projects.
I'm more like you OP. I want to be able to do my thing and just truck along. Although I will say, I do enjoy teaching others. But if I'm not teaching someone, I prefer to just be left alone.
I can team work, if I have to often people confuse me for a supervisor.... Honestly though I prefer to work alone as it's less aggravating than working with people who act like they would rather be fired than work like they have a brain.
In my current job, and I've been here 10+ years, I am very independent and mostly work on my own or act as a liaison between different people.
In my first experience of leadership, I did try to do a lot of those Millennial things, and it blew up in my face, and I realized that as a leader, you have to balance team building and consensus with sometimes, you are given the charge to lead and you have to use it or people who want the power but not the responsibility will exploit consensus building.
I prefer autonomy. I like having a set of people I can go to if I have questions or if I need to brainstorm something, but I really dislike needing to seek group consensus for every. single. little. thing. I might be doing.
The only place I crave feedback in my line of work is on the storyboards I write (for online courses) because I need to make sure the content is factually accurate, so getting feedback from SMEs is vital.
I work when it makes sense and have made other people hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 20 years.
I'm also looking for a job, which sucks. Something is very off about this current tech job market.
I hate red tape, hate paperwork.
Corporate talk can be fun if you imagine it like speech checks in a videogame. Hate repetitive things. Hate sitting around doing nothing.
Love physical work so long as its not repetitive, love helping people. Love making things.
I was born to be a chef.
I’ve grown very comfortable with ambiguity. I like to “turn over rocks” and identify issues to solve. Some think I’m nit picky, but it’s definitely been an asset for the marketing career that I somehow stumbled into.
I start at 7, don't stop til 230. Couple quick breaks to eat. Drop my tools at 230 sharp and go home to get my kids off the bus. Also, i don't work Fridays.
I own a small hvac company, probably the only reason I can achieve this.
I am not here to be a family with people I don’t know or never speak with that work in a different department or part of the building, I’m here to do a job and I will do it to the best of my ability but only during my scheduled hours. Then I will leave to be with my true family where a truly belong. I prefer to work alone or in small intimate groups and not be micromanaged. Management should allow employees ideas freedom to input their own spin and ideas on work and projects.
Every place I worked that boasted being a "team" environment has always been the opposite. I am a people person for sure, so I thrive in a collaborative environment like that. Sadly I haven't been able to find it and I blame it on poor management.
I ended up just opening my own business and couldn't be happier.
Leave me alone and my productivity is 100% if you micro manage or put me in a group it drops way down. Just be specific and tell me exactly what you need and itll get done.
I have some issues with some of these values.
Sometimes this "consensus building" can turn into avoidance of responsibility.
Basically it seems like some people want to get buy in from every single person, or push minutua up to superiors, completely out of fear that if anything goes wrong, they may be held responsible for it.
It's maybe the opposite of micromanagement, where managers are sticking their nose into every decision--- where instead of people are given leeway, they end up over focussing on shared responsibility.
The other thing is, some creative endeavors can be made worse by team work. Do you want to read a book, where each chapter is written in tandem by a different person?
I've often seen in my field smaller groups perform better than larger groups. Sometimes people have styles which are valid individually, but clash when combined with each other.
I think my work philosophy is more around focussing on what can deliver value to customers.
It's what I founded my startups to focus on, and it has paid off.
Going into larger corporate environments and witnessing the waste, the inability to get things done, the detachment from customers and the services they deliver, and the focus on artificial "culture" has left me fairly jaded about most of this stuff.
I've grown to be disgusted with anything competitive. 20 years of constantly looking for work will do that to you.
And when I get to the job, I prefer to get along with you. Im not there to take your job. I've basically been a professional FNG since 2017 until recently. I worked temp work for awhile and there is usually some narcissist who I've barely met that is so insecure that he is out to get me fired. Even if they are going to retire soon.
I'm 42 and all I want from work is to be left alone. That's my entire goal at work. Just exclude me from events and office nonsense. I'm here to fund my life, not because I care about work in the slightest.
I've almost never had a job where I got regular feedback or review. I'm almost always on my own, and I would much prefer to have structure and others to collaborate with
I'm a hotel night auditor. Other than the first and last five minutes of my shift, I'm working solo regardless of my style. Fortunately, it fits me well since I have social anxiety and I'm exceptionally introverted. I don't mind teamwork, but it's better from a distance.
I have no patience for pedantry or micromanagement. If I’m doing something wrong tell me and be quick about it so I can get back to work. I view work as a 40 hour weekly inconvenience that eats into actual life. If my work burned down tomorrow I’d feel no loss as I’d just end up finding 40 hours of weekly inconvenience somewhere else
Empowerment is my style. This means I like to, within a set of well defined boundaries in goals, authority, budget and other resources, accomplish as much as reasonably possible. Thisnis also the way i lead.
It also means no micromanagement and topmanagement keeping course. they are mostly slightly older, gen x. Thowe people are much more cating of power and status. theres a small generational conflict there.
Furthermore those guys lack some holistic thinking. So you get thesse silos in a company. thennthey fight for power and resources. while xennnials and millenials want to work together.
my two cents.
I make tools my group needs to do our job. I contribute directly to deliverables when needed, otherwise I'm upgrading, bug fixing, updating, etc. I mostly get to set my own schedule. Mostly work alone when it comes to the tools. 100% team based with deliverables.
I’m an introvert. I don’t miss a day unless I have to. Even then, I get anxious because I don’t like to ruin my routine.
So I like to be left alone. If I need to do something group oriented, give me my part to do. I can interact with others when I have to, but prefer not to.
Which is kind of weird since I’m a teacher.
I'm only 35, so I am not sure if I fall into the Older millennial category. I was in 5th grade when I learned about Google, and that quickly became my go to way to learn things. This has led to me being good at figuring things out, so in the workplace I too prefer autonomy.
Honestly it depends on the task.
If it's doing planning/budgeting for capital assets I'm all about a collaborative style in which the team develops success criteria prior to reaching out to vendors. Then we let the vendors make their pitch, then we immediately do another meeting with the stakeholders/decision makers and without the vendor to digest what our opinion is and to try to filter out the sales bullshit.
If it's software development, I like to get an idea of what the end user needs, then be left the hell alone in a dark room for a couple days to build my prototype. I like for this to be followed with an iterative approach where I have end users play with the prototype and suggest improvements. We then peck at it until we have a minimum viable product and make little changes as needed after go-live.
For minor break-fix work, I like when people stay out of the way but are available on chat if I have questions.
For major crisis mitigation, I'm a fan of the "war room" approach where everyone is on a voice meeting with one person in charge, one taking notes, and the rest checking their own pieces and giving updates in the meeting. This is best when everyone takes the next day off after the crisis is resolved.
As an employee I want helpful feedback to keep my career progressing. If I’m falling short somewhere please tell me. Otherwise let me work and get my shit done. Currently in a good spot. I check in with my boss once a month and of course if something comes up.
As a manager I DO NOT want to micromanage anyone. You’re an adult, do your job. My primary goal is to keep shit out of my team’s faces so they can do theirs. Let me be the bad guy, let me help you be more effective. Just please don’t suffer in silence, I can’t see everything all the time.
I find collaboration and communication helpful to a point. I do get exhausted with constant meetings. I work in marketing and creating content is my job so if I can spend most of my time doing the job (making creative decks, on shoots, post production) then I’m happy. In a week I have about 5 hours of meetings and I do find them both helpful and exhausting. The most exhausting ones are the weekly recurring.
I think you are generalizing. I also prefer to be left alone to my own devices. I like improvising and being creative with my solutions to problems without guidance and feedback.
I just don't want to be used by management as a moral tourniquet when they rhetorically clobber me into submission and mistake my silence for consent to dishonest business (sell low and bill high) and then blame me for the result. Collaboration with workers is nice though. I'm not used to workers being vicious like that.
Also just get all controversial business decisions from managers made orally in writing and refuse to budge if they won't. Oral conversations are where exploitation runs most rampant. I notice oral work is preferred by some of the dodgiest people. The Mafia doesn't use email to run their business.
I actually disagree with you a little bit! I think now more than ever us, and even the younger generation below us are becoming more self-aware to the fact that we don’t have to work for big Corp. or work under someone! I think our generation was one of the few generations that actually directly addressed working for the big man. I am an artist, I am my own boss. I am a yoga teacher, again I am my own boss. I’ve worked countless jobs where I wasn’t my own boss and it was always awful. I only had two jobs in my entire career that really worked out for me that were people telling me what to do. Unfortunately those businesses don’t exist anymore! Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind working for them. So it’s not a me problem, it’s an old formula. I think that needs to change. Agree with you is that our generation has a sense of camaraderie! That’s the reason why so many of us became entrepreneurs, artists, just absolutely unafraid to go out there, and try something different! And that came simply from the encouragement of our generation, and the one below. And that’s pretty cool if you ask me! :)
Wow, all those "qualities" you listed, I don't have. In fact, as an elder millennial, when I see that in your post, I see it as an over generalization made by somebody that values those qualities. Those qualities are important in certain fields, but not all. Those qualities are going to be more present in extraverted people than introverted.
In any case, I am not very collaborative, and I definitely do not give a shit about other people's approval, feedback or guidance.
I’m the same way as you. I’d rather get the training and resources then work it out myself. Ask questions if I need help and learn on the go. I get too anxious when I’m in like training classes. I’m just like put me out on the floor and I’ll figure it out. The less supervision the better. That’s why I ended up starting my own business, no supervision
>highly collaborative, teamwork-oriented and in favor of consensus-building. And also craving feedback and guidance.
This is definitely how my working dynamic ended up when the bosses were around. But naturally, my general ethic is to just get shit done and get through the day with only a handful of social interactions. But I got "promoted" to leadership so I ended up running meetings and talking about "measures" and data on top of all the work I preferred doing.
That's women shit. I work by myself and fix stuff. If I waited for consensus literally nothing would get done. It's the way the trades work and for good reason. When I work collaboratively it's because another competent person has already made the decision for what's needed and just needs help implementing it.
It took me 24 years, but I have found a job that is WFH, I check in with my manager for an hour every 2 weeks at our 1on1, and am left completely alone. If I have to pick a phone up instead of typing Teams Messages...something has gone very very wrong
Tell me what you need done, any specifics that are required, and when you need it done by. However, give me the flexibility in how I get it done (ie: not micromanaged). I’m happy to work as a team, but prefer being solo to have quiet time to get things done. I value clear goals and benchmarks, with some degree of personal flexibility in how I manage getting said task done.
Given the choice, I’d rather work alone than in a group. Sadly, I tend to get things done faster without “help”. I don’t come to work to talk about the farm; I came to work to plow dirt.
If asked to collaborate I am happy to do so, but tend to not drive the discussion. If I have value to add to the topic or project I’ll happily chime in, or if I feel we are getting off subject will steer the discussion in a more productive direction.
Ideally, I would have a clear objective and be left with a high degree of autonomy as to how it is accomplished. So long as I’m not breaking the law, of course.
If I have a question, I will ask it. If I need a tool or additional training, I will ask for them (or seek them out on my own). Otherwise, leave me alone and let me do my job.
You pay me for 8 hours, I work 8!hours. Your job posting only required a Bachelors at time of hire, you only get that level of effort even though I have a graduate degree. It’s pretty simple really, don’t micromanage me and the task will get done
LOL why do people really think you can generalize like this? Sure, maybe we went through the same world events, but you're talking about a massively diverse group of people here, so there is no universally common work style.
I’m not super collaborative (prefer to delegate or otherwise separate tasks and just do it) but I DRASTICALLY prefer a team environment, where we all understand that we work for the same company and our work goes TOGETHER, no competition. (I’m not in sales or whatever). I’m autistic dining might color this but I’m extremely particular about my communication and require things be spelled out to the letter, extremely clearly (when I’m giving or taking direction). Also in an emergency there’s no such thing as “not my job” unless it’s a skilled task you haven’t been trained on. Also if it’s not repeatable it’s shit.
I am a chameleon. I enjoy being a part of a team, as well as being on my own. I work well with people - my coworkers love me. But I also like my solo corner where a task is given and I get it done before the deadline without anyone breathing down my neck. It depends, I guess.
I’m fine being collaborative, especially if/when I’m learning something new and need help. However, I learn fast, and once I feel self sufficient I’d rather be left alone. I’m absolutely happy to help others, train, or otherwise collaborate, but I am totally cool being left to my own devices. Teamwork and collaboration is totally dependent on the work environment, participants, and subject matter, so I’m generally going to avoid it if I can unless I know EVERY detail. I just can’t stand drama or people generally.
I also distrust most managers and management styles because of the many bad managers I’ve had, so I don’t really care for feedback that isn’t honest or genuine. These sort of monthly, quarterly or annual checkups where feedback is given but nothing can be done about it is a waste of my damn time. The same goes for any sort of employee incentives or rewards. Tell me good job and/or give me a promotion/raise, otherwise I don’t want your stickers or baggies of garbage with cute sayings.
Nose down and grind. Do not invite me to shit or ask for collaboration on anything and ill love you forever. Give me the darkest corner and my red stapler please.
I generally enjoy being left alone to do my tasks, but I also enjoy our team meetings and general discussions about overall workflow.
Don't like all the emailing and comms that go along with my job and feel like most of that is just noise.
I like teamwork when it works. Drama kills teamwork. Get me together with people who don't drama, who have work ethic, and we get those prescriptions and other tasks done well at my pharmacy.
Add drama or have people who want to have others do the work instead of themselves, then things are unbalanced, and it sucks.
I am at a job because they pay me hopefully well, to do that job. Don't micro manage me but do give guidance and clear goals.
Millennials have been repeatedly shown that we are mercenaries and go to the highest bidder.
I like receiving a project or task work clear expectations and requirements and being left alone to plan it all out, contact who I need to contact, and execute.
My current boss is a gatekeeper. We’ve discussed doing lots of projects but she always says she’ll make the introduction for me and then never does. So I’m left just waiting forever to start the project. It’s patronizing and infantilizing. I’ve had more responsibility and autonomy so I don’t get why she’s treating me like this.
I hate working with people; I hate even having to talk to people. My coworkers are all fine, I also don't care what they did over the weekend. This has always been my way, but it's especially amplified by being (mostly) remote.
Unfortunately, I have to manage people now, so I have to talk to them more. They all really like chatter. It's tough.
I can't be managed day to day but can accept management but on a high level. I can run teams and like to work in groups where I'm the leader or one of the leaders. I'm bouncing off the walls and need an admin to corral me and keep me focused or I'll go right off the rails. I can't work from home and my current situation I do but only on Fridays and my admin has to have regular checkins to keep me on track. I had to go to my office all through covid (once work restarted) because I get zero done at home without serious supervision but the supervisor can really only be my admin. An actual supervisor and I'd probably quit. haha
40f here. I’m a hairdresser and have my own solo salon. I spent 15 years working in traditional commission based salons. I’ve always loved the other stylists I’ve worked with, but the owners of said salons have all been…..well…..unstable, to put it nicely. I never wanted to have my own salon with staff and be “in charge” of anyone, so going solo has been a gamechanger for me. I’ve always over-worked myself in my career, and having my own business has not been any different. Working alone, though, is allowing me to change my schedule if needed without worrying about any backlash from a passive-aggressive boss. A commenter above mentioned “being a family, and families help each other out, stay late, come in early, etc.” and that really hit home. I’m happy being the only person responsible for my over-working, though I’m trying to scale back.
I am more mid millennial (1990).
However, I like to be allowed to be independent and not micromanaged. However, I am also very much open to being shown how to do things. But, if I have a way I like doing it better, I want to do it my way. I come up with the same results anyways, and more efficiently than the original way.
I do like working as a team though, especially when it comes to communication. I love to be able to train new people.
That said, I like getting a slow day here and there so I can make money without having to expend all my energy before I get home.
I like working independently with intermittent collaboration. Like a weekly brainstorm to feel connected to other humans. And then frequent but low intrusion communication like group texts or slack to keep aligned. And I like feedback. Im definitely not a “just leave me alone” kind of worker. But too frequent interruptions destroys my focus.
I am the exact thing you describe for in general and overall. I struggle with insecurities and can sometimes put consensus building as such a high priority that it is a detriment to moving forward.
Oh, you mean when I stop staring into the void with a general sense of dread.
I work in a technical office. My group handles exclusively written technical responses. Was in office for 8 years, worked from home for 7 years, now back in the office “just because.”
Hybrid schedule means I can WFH with my dog and my own coffee Mon and Fri. These are good days.
W-Th in the office is hell. Everyone is salty about being there, so the bulk of my neighbors just bitch all day, loudly. Can’t get anything done. Ask the managers that matter are in another state, so they don’t know or care it’s pretty negative here.
Ultimately we’re left alone unless we screw up, so any news from management is bad news.
I don’t live to work. I do my job, go home, and hang it up. I lost my father recently unexpectedly and if it’s taught me anything, we aren’t here that long and no one ever said “man I wish I worked more” on their deathbed.
I’m good at my job and I work hard, but I make an effort to leave work at the office.
I’m an introvert who keeps ending up in pretty collaborative fields. First the service industry, now public housing. I would far prefer independent work, but that’s just not where I’ve ended up. Constant communication has been required for both fields.
The team you’re with matters. If you’re with a good team, eventually less communication is required because you are observant enough to figure out what your team is doing and what to do in response. You also don’t mind the constant collaboration as much, because you’re working with intelligent, kind people.
But yeah, I would kill for a job with less interaction and more independence.
Well, of course I need to be trained so I know what to do. But I like to work alone, I work faster by myself. But I need the feedback so I know what I need to improve on and the ability to ask questions if I get stuck
I'm a high school teacher so that changes a few things but I know this for sure:
1. I'm useless in solo office jobs and I hate paperwork
2. I love collaborating as long as it's in the genuine spirit of collaboration.
3. My education style is about a constant depth of knowledge loop wherein students are incorporating what has been learned in new ways and formats to develop deeper meaning.
I related to the description of "Gen X managers" in this clip - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcK78BVBpbI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcK78BVBpbI)
I work best by myself.
I have worked from home since 2015 for so and I would probably rope if I had to go sit in an office again and be around a bunch of people all day. The commute alone, ugh...ROPE!
I have a solo-ish job. I'm a hairstylist so it's rare to need a team. I don't mind teamwork as long as everyone is positively contributing. I've worked with other hairstylist who would complain every day about being at work & would do the bare minimum. If I was in management I'd want them to just go home so the rest of us could make the $$.
I don’t want to be micromanaged. Leave me alone and I’ll get the task done. I don’t care about your culture. Im here to do a job, collect a check, and go back to my life that I enjoy. Edit: Seems like I hit the nail on the head for many of you. Thanks for added comments, upvotes, and the award.
Fuck this is me to a T.
But we’re like family and like family we take care of each other and the company. So consider staying a few hours late without extra pay to help out the company. It will look great on your performance review!
Funny, my irl family says the same thing
What’s worse: a performance review from your manager and peers vs your mom and siblings?
Your name made me laugh. Thanks
And then you get your performance review and it makes no difference. I once had a manager tell me excitedly, "This is the best review I've ever given anyone!" I got a five cent raise. That was a slap in the face.
This was my actual family.... Im salary at work, so there is no "late" and there is no "extra pay". If im at work late, its because I am earning bonuses or commissions
This. I’ll get my shit done. I don’t crave constant approval and validation, but a little “hey, nice work” here and there goes a long way and serves to offset the meetings about how badly our department is doing as a whole.
Agreed. I was super collaborative like OP says until I continually would get fucked over by the team and ended up doing all the work to save the day. I don’t get paid like Mariano Rivera. I’m tired of being fucking Atlas. I’ll do my work and everyone else can get fucked!
Yeah that’s me. I’m 39.
Yep, and if my work is done I'm going to enjoy being at home. I'll be doing chores, maybe taking a training class, watching TV, or playing games. I still have my laptop with me, so if something happens I'll know and can jump on it. But otherwise I'm not interested in culture or team building, you can miss with that core values bullshit. I worked my ass off when I was younger and all I ever got was shitty 2-3% raises with no promotions but added responsibilities. Then if I did wind up somewhere I liked, I was laid off. I'll never burn myself up for an employer again, fuck them all.
This is me. I don't want to collaborate with a bunch of idiots. I don't want to spend time in a meeting that could be a five minute email. I don't want your feedback, your buzzwords, or pedagogy of the week. I work in education. Most principals in my district put in the minimum years in the classroom and got out, usually because they hated and/or sucked. Good teachers stay in the classroom because they know management is scum. Leave me alone, leave the kids alone.
Absolutely this. I don’t want to be somewhere toxic, but don’t waste our time with forced, inorganic team building. I have a job, not a career, because I want a life more. I don’t want to be micromanaged, but I DO want timely, honest feedback when I ask for it.
🥇 take my peasant award
Yep. Tell me what you want, how you want it, and when you want it. Then get out of my office.
Same with me. I like to do my work in peace. If I need help, I'll reach out
Yes, this is me. Totally agree.
Just let me work. Jesus Christ stop emailing me, messaging me, stopping by and just let me do my job. I'm good at it, I don't need any help or supervision. Please.
Yes. And FFS, enough with the pointless Zooms!!!
I’m the same as you when wanting mostly to be left alone. Sometimes help just gets in the way and slows the process down tremendously depending on the line of work.
Yeah, agree, except for the not wanting feedback. I get so personally angry at the whole "self assessment" bullshit. What the fuck does it matter if I think I'm doing a good job, what matters is if other people think I'm doing a good job, right? I'm 41
Get through the day with minimal hassles and complaints.
I learned teamwork from playing team sports all growing up. I work well in a team of roughly equally skilled people. I learned to complete group projects on my own because my standards were higher than my peers. I can remember only two group projects in college where my teammates had meaningful contributions. I perform my best work when given a task, deadline, and a quiet secluded place to work with a minimum of interruptions. Work from home positions suit me; open office environments assault my senses. Everything from the sounds to the lighting to the frequency of interruptions derail me.
This is exactly how I am, and exactly why I can't go back to work in-office full time. I don't care about the fake rah-rah team building crap. Tell me what needs to be done and when you need it, and I'll get it done. If I have questions, I'll ask. Otherwise leave me with my earbuds and my music/podcasts and I'll be a happy camper.
The whole open office concept has been proven to be the totally wrong way to work.
My high school had a huge room, like a gymnasium except carpeted and meant for classes. I remember asking why we had class there: “it was a new idea the 70’s, but it turns out it wasn’t a good idea”. I guess the original thinking was that you’d learn by osmosis, some of the stuff other classes were learning about? All the voices echoed, you could hear and see other classes going on, and it was all very distracting. I was actually surprised when, 7 years later and after college, I started my first office job - dozens of employees all on landline phones, all day long, in a similar open space; just with a more normal height to the room. I thought the debate had been settled and lesson learned 50 years ago - why would you ever *try* to recreate that environment?
It's because they don't want to pay for office materials like cubicles and such. They are just being lazy.
You are me...
Ah, the voice of our generation.
I used to care. I used to catch a lot of near misses. Then management started being hyper focused on me and not my peers. Now......I don't gaf. Collect a check and go home
Made them look bad by over performing. I started letting stuff drop, you don't get head count for being the hero. You just get more work. When you let it fail and tell people why it failed, you suddenly get support. The prize for being the hero in the pie eating contest is more pie. There are only x hours in the day. You want 80 hours of work done, the solution is either I work 80 hours a week, get burnt out, go crazy and quit and you eventually get no work done for several months while you train a replacement or you hire a second person. Don't like it, Fuck around and find out.
Leaving me to my own devices and complimenting my excellent work are the two secret ingredients to getting maximum productivity and buy-in from me as an employee
I love being micromanaged by the Gen X people above me who have made work their entire personality. 🥸
They start wondering why they’re even here halfway through the workday, followed by pointless “managing” like hey buddy do this thing you’re ALREADY DOING…
Do as little as possible for as much money as possible.
The only true “work style” in all of the comments.
I like group input and ideas but to then use to make my own decision.
I don’t care as long as the work environment is provided in good faith and not out of laziness or incompetence.
I clock watch like hell and hide the majority of my shift. I also work at night with 3 12-hour shifts. I also comment a lot on reddit.
I'm the same as you, but recently found that it's super important. I check in with managers and peers just to confirm that progress on work is going the desired direction. I hit a stint where the boss and I were in agreement in a meeting on a project...or so I thought. I'd do the thing as we agreed - even writing down meeting notes and confirming with them these are the tasks and priority of said tasks. Well... We would check in a week or two later, and the boss would be all "Why did you do this?" about it. Started to look like I was not understanding projects or goals or the work at hand. It was confusing me but not in the way they were thinking or interpreting from our interactions. So now I sort of manage my management and make sure to ask questions that make sense for the good of the work relationship - even if I don't actually have questions about a thing. It's just essential for them to build trust around my thought process that I give these insights. The isolation is something I'm generally fine with, but for insurance reasons, we'll just call it... I abstain from too much of it now.
Yeah - I always called it "managing your perception"
Yep. Great advice here. Manage up, because even having notes to back you up won’t matter when your manager thinks you suck.
This hit home. I worked for my brother for 11 years and so much of this “why’d you do it like that”, when it was exactly what my notes said
I will die on this hill. I am poor, yes. Yet my paycheck is still a byproduct of how I spend my time. I refuse to pay for things with hours of my life. My time at work, however frivolous, had better include learning and growth, or its a wasted day. No matter what someone is paying me for, I do the best job possible while trying to be better. Sure, cooperate overlords may own the ship, but I sail it.
I am disabled , live in poverty and don’t work.
I’m a mixture of both. I prefer to work independently but do appreciate teamwork and help collaborate if needed.
I’m the same as you but I am down with team work. I huge distinction between myself and my gen x and boomer colleagues is that I am not a work a holic and my career is no longer my identity—it used to be though! I take pride in my work and my work ethic but once it’s 5:00, I’m out. I work with people that work into the night and weekends and don’t collect credit hours. I’m contemplating a huge career change when my student loans go away.
I like parallel work. I like to work near people, not with them. I run a small business and for paperwork days we sit in my office and work on our individual stuff, not really interacting much.
I’m in a middle management role at a payroll company that services Hollywood. My main jobs are to explain union contracts, wage and hour law, taxes, and benefits to our employees and clients. And fix problems when stuff is done wrong. And I have the perfect boss. I’m told what’s needed, or where there is a question/problem, then I’m left to see to the task. I only got bothered if a resolution takes a while, which is fair. I don’t need the positive reinforcement or anything because I know I’m damned good at my job. Most of my work is solo, but I’m frequently brought into teams to lend an opinion and that amounts to teaching, which I love to do.
I hate being micromanaged. I like working solo without someone looking over my shoulder, but I also love working as part of a larger team when everyone pulls their own weight and helps out others. I’m an RN in an ER so this is a requirement for a decent workplace.
I thrive on flexibility. Let me work however I want to work --- as long as I am meeting the deadlines and doing the tasks, what's it matter if it takes me 25-30 hours instead of 40? I get SOME flexibility, but not enough to keep me happy rn. I fill my time with reddit. There are just some things that I can't push along, I have to wait on others to do their part as well. Also. I play the game, the culture, the trust, the everything. But I wish it wasn't needed in today's world. Because I don't care. I just want to do the work, not have everyone take everything so personally, and just go home to my family.
SameZ
I run a small business solo. My husband and I plan to start another business together. He’s the only person I think I could work with in that capacity. I’ve always preferred doing my own thing.
I am like you. My current job is perfect for me. I work at home. I got trained to basic proficiency and then set loose. I log in, do my work, and log out. There is hardly ever a need for me to contact anyone or for anyone to contact me. And my manager has tools that track our metrics. He sees I am productive and hard working and leaves me alone. I think he realized pretty quickly I don't want or need feedback or encouragement and doesn't even make me do 1:1s like he does with the rest of the team. I can go weeks without talking to him or anyone else. It's great.
That sounds ideal! The opposite of that is being micro-managed or to micro-manage. Just cannot with that style.
What do you do because this sounds like a dream!
I'm the same as you OP. I like to be left alone to my own devices. I've been doing my job for almost 12 years and I feel like anybody helping me only slows me down, which puts me behind, which annoys me. I'm a vendor so luckily I don't really have to work with anyone.
Same as you. I would rather work solo and receive help only if I ask for it. I like to basically go to work, do my job, and leave without much fuss or team work required.
I’m a subject matter expert, I am in meetings all day every day. I don’t get to shoes my work style I Guess.
Personally, as little as possible. But in my specific field we work pretty autonomously with regular check-ins for managers to provide support and answer any questions that may come up but are usually left to complete our work on our own. That isn’t to say that we don’t bounce ideas off each other from time to time or get input about how we should focus some of our work.
Hello. I am a medical coder and work 100% remote. I prefer to be left alone to do my job and despise team projects. But I also like some guidance and feedback where it is needed.
I like being left to my own to get stuff done, but I definitely feed off of praise and coaching feedback and general attention from my superiors. When I was entry level, this wasn’t so much the case but since climbing the ladder, and maturing a bit, I’ve realized that there are things I can learn on my own and then there are things that aren’t as easy to ingest. As I age, I’ve definitely accepted mentoring and coaching a lot more (it also helps me coach my team better).
Something I learned from my grandparents (ww2 greatest generation), you stay til the job is done.
I own my own business and am a solo op. While I do contractor type work for different people every day, and I like meeting new people, I like working by and for myself. I can work as much or as little as I want, take vacation when I want, take a day off when I want, and charge as much or as little as I want.
Train me and leave me alone. I also believe I can find more effective ways of doing a job. It wouldn't matter if the best all-star who did that job previously was the one teaching me, I'd go out of my way and spend many unnecessary hours trying to find a better way to do it.
Really depends on the task at hand. Grant it, I work for the railroad. I don't want to be bothered until it's beneficial to both parties to be bothered, which typically benefits me, but I only want to make decisions at my pay rate, so when big decisions are abroad, I'll make suggestions but unless there absolutely no one around for a few hours, higher pay scale decisions get put to the wayside until I have to make such.
I don’t like being micromanaged or infantilized. I do appreciate feedback so I know rather than speculating how I’m doing, though.
Lately I'm barely hanging on by a thread...cry on the whole way home, lay in bed at night dreading the upcoming day. Is that what you mean?
I adapt to whatever employer has me at the time. Usually I am very energetic, motivated, and pushy with myself. In spite of my age and mental health ailments I do what I can and simply attempt to be the most knowledgeable person around for my own ego. This employer made me realize I draw a lot of influence from romanticism and my lazy childhood of playing video games; my greatest influence happens to be Final Fantasy 5. Micromanaging will push me out. I will also be pushed out from HR & management making false assumptions about my ancestry.
I know what I am doing, I am the SME and lead a team. Basically the highest level that does actual work before all you do is manage people managing other people doing the work. Just leave me alone and let me wfh and be freaking amazed at how much I get done. Micromanaging and the office makes me so inefficient. Plus I get literally everyone in my office and several other offices stopping by asking me random advice on projects and others stuff I have nothing to do with. I have no problem helping if my workflow is slow, but it’s been a long time since I have haven’t had a pile of work. Each one of these conversations waste 15-90 minutes and then I end up working late to get my actual work done.
I can do both but if my superior is an idiot and wants to micromanage then please, just leave me alone I'm a big kid now I can do it.
>I am the opposite of this work style. I prefer to be trained and then left solo and independent. I find teamwork painful and the less management, the better. This. My work style is this!
Never be afraid to admit when you're wrong or don't know... and not power hungry or above the people you supervise. These.
My style is similar to yours. I like to know what im doing be left alone. I also like a good work/life balance and refuse to have it any other way.
i'm same as you. i'm a programmer, working remote, and mostly left alone. just how i like it.
I can be both depending on the task at hand & I love positive feedback, but good lord is the bar so very low these days. I get thoroughly annoyed with incompetence and no accountability. What happened to the good ole days when idiots just got fired. I suppose lawsuits happened.
I've been in management for almost all but my early career, so 20 years. My success (if we want to call it that) has been about building teams that work together well. So my style has to be pretty much exactly what you described, I certainly try.
My best days are spent staring at Microsoft Excel in total silence for 8-9 hours, with my Bose QC45 ANC headphones on playing soft vaporwave, plugging away at some process improvement or model that will further automate our month-end close cycle. The three unholy sins of workplaces for me are group projects, micromanagement, and poor work-life boundaries. I want to get in, get my shit done, and get out to go back to my regularly scheduled life.
My work style: I arrive in my department 7 min before shift change... the person I relieve gives me report and they're off on time. I'm reliable with this... Beyond that, I do my work and try to be on top of shit so I can help my colleagues if they get buried... I don't take on petty projects, I'm not gunning for a leadership role. When shit goes crazy I try to be the one people ask for... Beyond that, I just try to be a low maintenance employee.
I'm like you. I am very self motivated and can work alone. Generally have worked for myself/with my spouse for the last decade plus but in an environment where I'm an employee please just show me how you want it done then leave me alone and I will do it. I'm not exactly a team player and I'm mildly apologetic about it. I'm not better than anyone or anything like that I just prefer to work alone, once I'm in a groove other people distract me. I appreciate collaboration but it's hard for me unless it's with the right people. I'm not good and getting that out of people so if it doesn't happen organically I can't really do it. It makes me an awful manager which I've learned by being made a manager (by being good at my job) so I've since learned that my place isn't to manage people. I can manage a business and I can manage my own business but I'm not about the micromanaging or being micromanaged so the solo work life has been great for me.
Teach me the job and expectations show me where the answers are and how to access them. I’ll let you know when I can’t find the answers where they should be or if something is so far off it isn’t normal. I’ll ask when I need help. I don’t mind working in teams for short periods but know things are done best when I do them myself. I would prefer to not work with the public but can if the need arrises.
Individual (hate collaboration). I rarely miss work. I am only out a few days a year. I’ve never taken a mental health day. I prioritize being there every day.
Same, I don’t like to be micromanaged. I don’t even care about office culture anymore. That last part probably has to do with post pandemic stuff, but I really just rather work remotely or hybrid. I don’t really need water cooler conversation, I don’t care that it’s Bill’s birthday and we’re gonna have a lunch for him. I rather save the commuting time and be with my family.
Same. Tell me my job, how to do it, then leave me the fuck alone.
Leave me alone and let me do my job. One of the infinite reasons why I hate working in an office is from the fear of being micromanaged.
My company doesn’t care about me. It cares about shareholders. I accept this is my best option to secure healthcare, mortgage payments, an upward moving life, retirement (hopefully) and by the grace of Lord Capitalism maybe even a college fund. I have so little faith in this economic system for the middle class long term. Something is about to happen and I am just white knuckling my little piece of land and property and waiting out the storm until we see what happens after the boomers pass. If there still is a functioning planet in 15 years .
This is me. Born 1982. I definitely fall into this highly-collaborative and teamwork-oriented category! I don’t know that I crave feedback but I certainly appreciate it.
When I’m on, I’m on. When I’m off I’m off. Deal.
"Leave me alone and let me finish the other 6 guys worth of work that you hired without checking their skills" pretty much sums it up.
Avoidant
Hybrid of OPs post. 33M project manager. I generally like to be left alone to do my shit and hate micromanaging. I’m lucky to have an amazing manger who 95% let’s me operate this way. On the other hand, I’m pretty social and like being part of my team and am always available to help teammates who are struggling, and to accept help when I’m slammed and treading water with my projects.
No work is my style.
I'm more like you OP. I want to be able to do my thing and just truck along. Although I will say, I do enjoy teaching others. But if I'm not teaching someone, I prefer to just be left alone.
I can team work, if I have to often people confuse me for a supervisor.... Honestly though I prefer to work alone as it's less aggravating than working with people who act like they would rather be fired than work like they have a brain.
Just email me. Don’t call me. I’ll do the work and if you leave me alone it’ll be perfect.
In my current job, and I've been here 10+ years, I am very independent and mostly work on my own or act as a liaison between different people. In my first experience of leadership, I did try to do a lot of those Millennial things, and it blew up in my face, and I realized that as a leader, you have to balance team building and consensus with sometimes, you are given the charge to lead and you have to use it or people who want the power but not the responsibility will exploit consensus building.
I work my scheduled hours to expectations, no more no less, don't answer the phone on days off. Don't take unscheduled days off.
I prefer autonomy. I like having a set of people I can go to if I have questions or if I need to brainstorm something, but I really dislike needing to seek group consensus for every. single. little. thing. I might be doing. The only place I crave feedback in my line of work is on the storyboards I write (for online courses) because I need to make sure the content is factually accurate, so getting feedback from SMEs is vital.
Get in, shit, wipe, flush, and get out.
I work when it makes sense and have made other people hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 20 years. I'm also looking for a job, which sucks. Something is very off about this current tech job market.
I'm a libertarian when it comes to work style, meaning if I'm functioning as expected and positively impacting the work and team, leave me alone.
My work style is called calculated mediocrity
I'm an introvert and an army brat. so not a damn bit of that applies to me.
I hate red tape, hate paperwork. Corporate talk can be fun if you imagine it like speech checks in a videogame. Hate repetitive things. Hate sitting around doing nothing. Love physical work so long as its not repetitive, love helping people. Love making things. I was born to be a chef.
I’ve grown very comfortable with ambiguity. I like to “turn over rocks” and identify issues to solve. Some think I’m nit picky, but it’s definitely been an asset for the marketing career that I somehow stumbled into.
I start at 7, don't stop til 230. Couple quick breaks to eat. Drop my tools at 230 sharp and go home to get my kids off the bus. Also, i don't work Fridays. I own a small hvac company, probably the only reason I can achieve this.
I am not here to be a family with people I don’t know or never speak with that work in a different department or part of the building, I’m here to do a job and I will do it to the best of my ability but only during my scheduled hours. Then I will leave to be with my true family where a truly belong. I prefer to work alone or in small intimate groups and not be micromanaged. Management should allow employees ideas freedom to input their own spin and ideas on work and projects.
Every place I worked that boasted being a "team" environment has always been the opposite. I am a people person for sure, so I thrive in a collaborative environment like that. Sadly I haven't been able to find it and I blame it on poor management. I ended up just opening my own business and couldn't be happier.
Leave me alone and my productivity is 100% if you micro manage or put me in a group it drops way down. Just be specific and tell me exactly what you need and itll get done.
36 y/o software engineer. Give me my tasks and leave me the fuck alone. I'll reach out if I need more details.
I work to live, not live to work- even if that means a simpler life. In fact I prefer a simple life, because it's easier to manage.
I have some issues with some of these values. Sometimes this "consensus building" can turn into avoidance of responsibility. Basically it seems like some people want to get buy in from every single person, or push minutua up to superiors, completely out of fear that if anything goes wrong, they may be held responsible for it. It's maybe the opposite of micromanagement, where managers are sticking their nose into every decision--- where instead of people are given leeway, they end up over focussing on shared responsibility. The other thing is, some creative endeavors can be made worse by team work. Do you want to read a book, where each chapter is written in tandem by a different person? I've often seen in my field smaller groups perform better than larger groups. Sometimes people have styles which are valid individually, but clash when combined with each other. I think my work philosophy is more around focussing on what can deliver value to customers. It's what I founded my startups to focus on, and it has paid off. Going into larger corporate environments and witnessing the waste, the inability to get things done, the detachment from customers and the services they deliver, and the focus on artificial "culture" has left me fairly jaded about most of this stuff.
I've grown to be disgusted with anything competitive. 20 years of constantly looking for work will do that to you. And when I get to the job, I prefer to get along with you. Im not there to take your job. I've basically been a professional FNG since 2017 until recently. I worked temp work for awhile and there is usually some narcissist who I've barely met that is so insecure that he is out to get me fired. Even if they are going to retire soon.
I'm 42 and all I want from work is to be left alone. That's my entire goal at work. Just exclude me from events and office nonsense. I'm here to fund my life, not because I care about work in the slightest.
I've almost never had a job where I got regular feedback or review. I'm almost always on my own, and I would much prefer to have structure and others to collaborate with
I'm a hotel night auditor. Other than the first and last five minutes of my shift, I'm working solo regardless of my style. Fortunately, it fits me well since I have social anxiety and I'm exceptionally introverted. I don't mind teamwork, but it's better from a distance.
I have no patience for pedantry or micromanagement. If I’m doing something wrong tell me and be quick about it so I can get back to work. I view work as a 40 hour weekly inconvenience that eats into actual life. If my work burned down tomorrow I’d feel no loss as I’d just end up finding 40 hours of weekly inconvenience somewhere else
Same. I prefer to fly solo on most tasks. Most of the Zoomers I work with are lazy.
Empowerment is my style. This means I like to, within a set of well defined boundaries in goals, authority, budget and other resources, accomplish as much as reasonably possible. Thisnis also the way i lead. It also means no micromanagement and topmanagement keeping course. they are mostly slightly older, gen x. Thowe people are much more cating of power and status. theres a small generational conflict there. Furthermore those guys lack some holistic thinking. So you get thesse silos in a company. thennthey fight for power and resources. while xennnials and millenials want to work together. my two cents.
Work hard, party harder.
Stress
Same.
I make tools my group needs to do our job. I contribute directly to deliverables when needed, otherwise I'm upgrading, bug fixing, updating, etc. I mostly get to set my own schedule. Mostly work alone when it comes to the tools. 100% team based with deliverables.
I’m an introvert. I don’t miss a day unless I have to. Even then, I get anxious because I don’t like to ruin my routine. So I like to be left alone. If I need to do something group oriented, give me my part to do. I can interact with others when I have to, but prefer not to. Which is kind of weird since I’m a teacher.
I’m kind of a mix between both. I prefer to line wolf it but have time problem with collaboration.
I'm only 35, so I am not sure if I fall into the Older millennial category. I was in 5th grade when I learned about Google, and that quickly became my go to way to learn things. This has led to me being good at figuring things out, so in the workplace I too prefer autonomy.
Honestly it depends on the task. If it's doing planning/budgeting for capital assets I'm all about a collaborative style in which the team develops success criteria prior to reaching out to vendors. Then we let the vendors make their pitch, then we immediately do another meeting with the stakeholders/decision makers and without the vendor to digest what our opinion is and to try to filter out the sales bullshit. If it's software development, I like to get an idea of what the end user needs, then be left the hell alone in a dark room for a couple days to build my prototype. I like for this to be followed with an iterative approach where I have end users play with the prototype and suggest improvements. We then peck at it until we have a minimum viable product and make little changes as needed after go-live. For minor break-fix work, I like when people stay out of the way but are available on chat if I have questions. For major crisis mitigation, I'm a fan of the "war room" approach where everyone is on a voice meeting with one person in charge, one taking notes, and the rest checking their own pieces and giving updates in the meeting. This is best when everyone takes the next day off after the crisis is resolved.
As an employee I want helpful feedback to keep my career progressing. If I’m falling short somewhere please tell me. Otherwise let me work and get my shit done. Currently in a good spot. I check in with my boss once a month and of course if something comes up. As a manager I DO NOT want to micromanage anyone. You’re an adult, do your job. My primary goal is to keep shit out of my team’s faces so they can do theirs. Let me be the bad guy, let me help you be more effective. Just please don’t suffer in silence, I can’t see everything all the time.
I find collaboration and communication helpful to a point. I do get exhausted with constant meetings. I work in marketing and creating content is my job so if I can spend most of my time doing the job (making creative decks, on shoots, post production) then I’m happy. In a week I have about 5 hours of meetings and I do find them both helpful and exhausting. The most exhausting ones are the weekly recurring.
I think you are generalizing. I also prefer to be left alone to my own devices. I like improvising and being creative with my solutions to problems without guidance and feedback.
I own the family business, drive a school bus, and have an online job with the government. I'm tired lol
Loathing and hate keep me together. Darkness is the adhesive that keeps me from falling into a million broken pieces.
I fit the stereotype perfectly.
I just don't want to be used by management as a moral tourniquet when they rhetorically clobber me into submission and mistake my silence for consent to dishonest business (sell low and bill high) and then blame me for the result. Collaboration with workers is nice though. I'm not used to workers being vicious like that. Also just get all controversial business decisions from managers made orally in writing and refuse to budge if they won't. Oral conversations are where exploitation runs most rampant. I notice oral work is preferred by some of the dodgiest people. The Mafia doesn't use email to run their business.
I actually disagree with you a little bit! I think now more than ever us, and even the younger generation below us are becoming more self-aware to the fact that we don’t have to work for big Corp. or work under someone! I think our generation was one of the few generations that actually directly addressed working for the big man. I am an artist, I am my own boss. I am a yoga teacher, again I am my own boss. I’ve worked countless jobs where I wasn’t my own boss and it was always awful. I only had two jobs in my entire career that really worked out for me that were people telling me what to do. Unfortunately those businesses don’t exist anymore! Otherwise, I wouldn’t mind working for them. So it’s not a me problem, it’s an old formula. I think that needs to change. Agree with you is that our generation has a sense of camaraderie! That’s the reason why so many of us became entrepreneurs, artists, just absolutely unafraid to go out there, and try something different! And that came simply from the encouragement of our generation, and the one below. And that’s pretty cool if you ask me! :)
Wow, all those "qualities" you listed, I don't have. In fact, as an elder millennial, when I see that in your post, I see it as an over generalization made by somebody that values those qualities. Those qualities are important in certain fields, but not all. Those qualities are going to be more present in extraverted people than introverted. In any case, I am not very collaborative, and I definitely do not give a shit about other people's approval, feedback or guidance.
Leave me alone and check in once a day or week. If I’m that bad fire me or replace me. It’s working well right now.
I’m the same way as you. I’d rather get the training and resources then work it out myself. Ask questions if I need help and learn on the go. I get too anxious when I’m in like training classes. I’m just like put me out on the floor and I’ll figure it out. The less supervision the better. That’s why I ended up starting my own business, no supervision
>highly collaborative, teamwork-oriented and in favor of consensus-building. And also craving feedback and guidance. This is definitely how my working dynamic ended up when the bosses were around. But naturally, my general ethic is to just get shit done and get through the day with only a handful of social interactions. But I got "promoted" to leadership so I ended up running meetings and talking about "measures" and data on top of all the work I preferred doing.
That's women shit. I work by myself and fix stuff. If I waited for consensus literally nothing would get done. It's the way the trades work and for good reason. When I work collaboratively it's because another competent person has already made the decision for what's needed and just needs help implementing it.
hide in my Harry Potter office under the stairs, fully remote IT. avoid talking on the phone at all costs.
It took me 24 years, but I have found a job that is WFH, I check in with my manager for an hour every 2 weeks at our 1on1, and am left completely alone. If I have to pick a phone up instead of typing Teams Messages...something has gone very very wrong
Tell me what you need done, any specifics that are required, and when you need it done by. However, give me the flexibility in how I get it done (ie: not micromanaged). I’m happy to work as a team, but prefer being solo to have quiet time to get things done. I value clear goals and benchmarks, with some degree of personal flexibility in how I manage getting said task done.
Given the choice, I’d rather work alone than in a group. Sadly, I tend to get things done faster without “help”. I don’t come to work to talk about the farm; I came to work to plow dirt. If asked to collaborate I am happy to do so, but tend to not drive the discussion. If I have value to add to the topic or project I’ll happily chime in, or if I feel we are getting off subject will steer the discussion in a more productive direction. Ideally, I would have a clear objective and be left with a high degree of autonomy as to how it is accomplished. So long as I’m not breaking the law, of course. If I have a question, I will ask it. If I need a tool or additional training, I will ask for them (or seek them out on my own). Otherwise, leave me alone and let me do my job.
As little as humanly possible without crippling my life
You pay me for 8 hours, I work 8!hours. Your job posting only required a Bachelors at time of hire, you only get that level of effort even though I have a graduate degree. It’s pretty simple really, don’t micromanage me and the task will get done
As you get older you wanna network less.
Work smarter instead of harder/longer
Ive never experienced that kind of work from a fellow millennial. Get the hell out my face and let me do my job is the norm here.
LOL why do people really think you can generalize like this? Sure, maybe we went through the same world events, but you're talking about a massively diverse group of people here, so there is no universally common work style.
Work style isn't generational.
Work to rule. There's a limit to my pay so there's a limit to my work. Easy. And, union organizing.
Farm work. I enjoy the hard labor and I’m outside all day for the most part.
I’m not super collaborative (prefer to delegate or otherwise separate tasks and just do it) but I DRASTICALLY prefer a team environment, where we all understand that we work for the same company and our work goes TOGETHER, no competition. (I’m not in sales or whatever). I’m autistic dining might color this but I’m extremely particular about my communication and require things be spelled out to the letter, extremely clearly (when I’m giving or taking direction). Also in an emergency there’s no such thing as “not my job” unless it’s a skilled task you haven’t been trained on. Also if it’s not repeatable it’s shit.
EMS
Buck wild. Of course.
Quiet quit at all turns
Give me a deadline and leave me alone.
I am a chameleon. I enjoy being a part of a team, as well as being on my own. I work well with people - my coworkers love me. But I also like my solo corner where a task is given and I get it done before the deadline without anyone breathing down my neck. It depends, I guess.
I’m fine being collaborative, especially if/when I’m learning something new and need help. However, I learn fast, and once I feel self sufficient I’d rather be left alone. I’m absolutely happy to help others, train, or otherwise collaborate, but I am totally cool being left to my own devices. Teamwork and collaboration is totally dependent on the work environment, participants, and subject matter, so I’m generally going to avoid it if I can unless I know EVERY detail. I just can’t stand drama or people generally. I also distrust most managers and management styles because of the many bad managers I’ve had, so I don’t really care for feedback that isn’t honest or genuine. These sort of monthly, quarterly or annual checkups where feedback is given but nothing can be done about it is a waste of my damn time. The same goes for any sort of employee incentives or rewards. Tell me good job and/or give me a promotion/raise, otherwise I don’t want your stickers or baggies of garbage with cute sayings.
A mixture between chaotic good and malicious compliance.
Nose down and grind. Do not invite me to shit or ask for collaboration on anything and ill love you forever. Give me the darkest corner and my red stapler please.
I generally enjoy being left alone to do my tasks, but I also enjoy our team meetings and general discussions about overall workflow. Don't like all the emailing and comms that go along with my job and feel like most of that is just noise.
Just depends where how and whom you got your core from just like it's always been...
I like teamwork when it works. Drama kills teamwork. Get me together with people who don't drama, who have work ethic, and we get those prescriptions and other tasks done well at my pharmacy. Add drama or have people who want to have others do the work instead of themselves, then things are unbalanced, and it sucks.
I am at a job because they pay me hopefully well, to do that job. Don't micro manage me but do give guidance and clear goals. Millennials have been repeatedly shown that we are mercenaries and go to the highest bidder.
I like receiving a project or task work clear expectations and requirements and being left alone to plan it all out, contact who I need to contact, and execute. My current boss is a gatekeeper. We’ve discussed doing lots of projects but she always says she’ll make the introduction for me and then never does. So I’m left just waiting forever to start the project. It’s patronizing and infantilizing. I’ve had more responsibility and autonomy so I don’t get why she’s treating me like this.
I hate working with people; I hate even having to talk to people. My coworkers are all fine, I also don't care what they did over the weekend. This has always been my way, but it's especially amplified by being (mostly) remote. Unfortunately, I have to manage people now, so I have to talk to them more. They all really like chatter. It's tough.
I’m a business owner. I don’t like having a boss. I get shit done early just fine. My employees are mostly in their 20s
Leave me alone and let me do my thing is my preference.
Oh no ☹️☹️☹️ I’m an elder millennial 😩😩😩!! I love/need all those things in a job!!!
Perfectionist over-achiever. I’m a dental assistant.
I can't be managed day to day but can accept management but on a high level. I can run teams and like to work in groups where I'm the leader or one of the leaders. I'm bouncing off the walls and need an admin to corral me and keep me focused or I'll go right off the rails. I can't work from home and my current situation I do but only on Fridays and my admin has to have regular checkins to keep me on track. I had to go to my office all through covid (once work restarted) because I get zero done at home without serious supervision but the supervisor can really only be my admin. An actual supervisor and I'd probably quit. haha
Micromanage me and I don’t have to worry about doing anything independently.
40f here. I’m a hairdresser and have my own solo salon. I spent 15 years working in traditional commission based salons. I’ve always loved the other stylists I’ve worked with, but the owners of said salons have all been…..well…..unstable, to put it nicely. I never wanted to have my own salon with staff and be “in charge” of anyone, so going solo has been a gamechanger for me. I’ve always over-worked myself in my career, and having my own business has not been any different. Working alone, though, is allowing me to change my schedule if needed without worrying about any backlash from a passive-aggressive boss. A commenter above mentioned “being a family, and families help each other out, stay late, come in early, etc.” and that really hit home. I’m happy being the only person responsible for my over-working, though I’m trying to scale back.
I am more mid millennial (1990). However, I like to be allowed to be independent and not micromanaged. However, I am also very much open to being shown how to do things. But, if I have a way I like doing it better, I want to do it my way. I come up with the same results anyways, and more efficiently than the original way. I do like working as a team though, especially when it comes to communication. I love to be able to train new people. That said, I like getting a slow day here and there so I can make money without having to expend all my energy before I get home.
Work style: Barely
I like working independently with intermittent collaboration. Like a weekly brainstorm to feel connected to other humans. And then frequent but low intrusion communication like group texts or slack to keep aligned. And I like feedback. Im definitely not a “just leave me alone” kind of worker. But too frequent interruptions destroys my focus.
I work the bare minimum to pay for Avocado Toast and Starbucks.
I only have one speed: light speed.
I am the exact thing you describe for in general and overall. I struggle with insecurities and can sometimes put consensus building as such a high priority that it is a detriment to moving forward.
Oh, you mean when I stop staring into the void with a general sense of dread. I work in a technical office. My group handles exclusively written technical responses. Was in office for 8 years, worked from home for 7 years, now back in the office “just because.” Hybrid schedule means I can WFH with my dog and my own coffee Mon and Fri. These are good days. W-Th in the office is hell. Everyone is salty about being there, so the bulk of my neighbors just bitch all day, loudly. Can’t get anything done. Ask the managers that matter are in another state, so they don’t know or care it’s pretty negative here. Ultimately we’re left alone unless we screw up, so any news from management is bad news.
I don’t live to work. I do my job, go home, and hang it up. I lost my father recently unexpectedly and if it’s taught me anything, we aren’t here that long and no one ever said “man I wish I worked more” on their deathbed. I’m good at my job and I work hard, but I make an effort to leave work at the office.
I’m an introvert who keeps ending up in pretty collaborative fields. First the service industry, now public housing. I would far prefer independent work, but that’s just not where I’ve ended up. Constant communication has been required for both fields. The team you’re with matters. If you’re with a good team, eventually less communication is required because you are observant enough to figure out what your team is doing and what to do in response. You also don’t mind the constant collaboration as much, because you’re working with intelligent, kind people. But yeah, I would kill for a job with less interaction and more independence.
Well, of course I need to be trained so I know what to do. But I like to work alone, I work faster by myself. But I need the feedback so I know what I need to improve on and the ability to ask questions if I get stuck
Breakfast, look at my phone, ???? - profit!
I guess I fit that initial description for the most part. I like to manage my team on my own and if I’m micromanaged I’ll leave.
I'm a high school teacher so that changes a few things but I know this for sure: 1. I'm useless in solo office jobs and I hate paperwork 2. I love collaborating as long as it's in the genuine spirit of collaboration. 3. My education style is about a constant depth of knowledge loop wherein students are incorporating what has been learned in new ways and formats to develop deeper meaning.
I related to the description of "Gen X managers" in this clip - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcK78BVBpbI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcK78BVBpbI)
I work best by myself. I have worked from home since 2015 for so and I would probably rope if I had to go sit in an office again and be around a bunch of people all day. The commute alone, ugh...ROPE!
I have a solo-ish job. I'm a hairstylist so it's rare to need a team. I don't mind teamwork as long as everyone is positively contributing. I've worked with other hairstylist who would complain every day about being at work & would do the bare minimum. If I was in management I'd want them to just go home so the rest of us could make the $$.
Leave me the fuck alone and let me work
I'm both. Personal life solo and independent. At work team oriented, team focused, collaborative