“I Just Wanted To Do A Good Job”: Autistic Worker Struggles With “Time Theft” Investigation
Interview With Author
Being a good employee is more than doing your job well. It also requires effective workload management so that you can be productive and maintain a healthy balance between your professional and personal lives.
Reddit user Transasaurus-Hex had successfully exemplified this, becoming the top performer at their office. Part of what allowed them to excel was taking short breaks; however, when the higher-ups learned that their subordinate was browsing the internet, they took issue with it — even though the Redditor was well ahead of schedule.
This worker got in trouble with the company’s HR
Image credits: Christina Morillo / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Even though they were the top performer in the office
Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Transasaurus-Hex
Image credits: Engin Akyurt / Pexels (not the actual photo)
So far, the worker is still waiting for the meeting to take place
To find out more about the whole ordeal, we contacted Transasaurus-Hex and they were kind enough to have a chat with us about what happened and the potential aftermath.
“This particular incident aside, working at the company has been okay, for the most part,” the Redditor told Bored Panda. “It’s my first time in an office after a significant time in the industry, so it’s different from what I’m used to.”
So far, it’s still unclear which direction management is going to take this. “I haven’t had the HR meeting yet,” Transasaurus-Hex said.
But they believe it will have a big impact. “I think all of this will significantly affect both my approach to work and my future at the company. Why should I do a good job if I get penalized for it?”
Dr. Nika White, who is an award-winning management and leadership consultant with over 20 years of experience, says the notion that employees need to be workhorses at the expense of their physical, mental, and financial well-being is harmful not only to them, but also to colleagues, leadership, and the workplace as a whole.
“As time passes, these workers grow weary of their work time encroaching so insidiously on their personal time. They become less willing to go the extra mile for leadership, who they may now view as unconcerned and compassionate,” she explains. “They lose their desire to shine and they focus on self-preservation instead. Suddenly, an excellent employee the company could count on becomes disenchanted; someone who feels overburdened and underappreciated – because they are.”
To put it simply, by pushing these workers more, management ends up getting less.
Because of this, Dr. White says managers who are worried about being victims of time theft can actually be the perpetrators. According to her, leadership should, first and foremost, look at what each employee brings to the organization. And in Transasaurus-Hex’s case, it’s a lot. So much so that them scrolling through the internet every now and then is probably a non-problem.
After reading the story, people had a lot of strong reactions and suggestions for anyone in a similar situation
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I got asked how I am the only person never claiming overtime... "because I work smart, not hard" - I also put so many templates in place and that has literally saved me hours of work. These are available to other people but seems they prefer to look like they are working ever so hard... I also have a work/life balance, thanks.
Or, they're just taking it slow so that they can rack up overtime hours. It actually sounds like you might work harder to get everything done in the time you have while they're working smarter by pacing themselves and getting paid more...
Load More Replies...
Obviously should be on Reddit on your personal devices & not on company/employer devices. Not a smart move since they monitor those type of activities.
I have NEVER used my workplace computer to browse, unless it's directly related to searching something for the job. My private life and interests are not the business of anyone at the company. Just safer that way.
I'm kinda curious as to what op does. Since it's either the easiest job in the world, or very very specific for her to be months ahead. A week maybe 2-3 weeks ahead I can get depending on the job, but if you're several months ahead something is wrong somewhere.
Load More Replies...
You need to start working smarter, not harder. Never browse the internet on your company’s equipment or WiFi - you must be doing it a lot for it to be noticed. Make sure you are the top performer on your team but don’t be months ahead. Btw, the folks who tell you to slow down and do things exactly on time are wrong. You always want to have a cushion of being ahead in case something goes wrong and you always want to be ahead of your teammates (it’s like being chased by a bear, you just have to run faster than the person you are with). Find out what is important to your boss and focus on that. But don’t burn yourself out.
Sometimes, after finishing a task way ahead of time, I will go back to the finished result and delete a punctuation, then replace it and save the document again. Now it has a more recent time stamp and looks like I've only just completed it.
My wife is like this (not autistic just extremely efficient). She'll knock out the work of three people in half the time and then ask for more out of sheer boredom. Fortunately she works from home so if she wants to watch Netflix while she's working there's no one to say boo about it. Even more fortunately she works for a company that's smart enough to leave her the F alone and throw regular pay raises and bonuses at her. OP's company might wanna take notes.
It makes me so sad to hear that you all are working in such an inhumane environment. I've worked with some American companies myself, and I know that they treat their professionals like shyt. The "do whatever we say, or there's always someone else to take your place " mentality is horrible. I hope this is gonna change, but I doubt it. When people get taught to be selfish and take whatever they can, it creates another generation of egoists. When they are put in charge of others, this is what it leads to.
wow the comments are crazy...telling them to work slower?!? If they are a reasonable organization just explain.
If they're accusing OP of time theft despite being months ahead of production, what makes you think that they're a reasonable organization?
Load More Replies...
The people telling him to stop working so hard are kinda missing the point. He's saying that he's ahead because that's just how he operates as a person. It doesn't sound like he's killing himself with work over it, he's just very efficient.
It's still the only advice to give... companies don't like that and will punish him untill he stops.
Load More Replies...
This happened to me several years ago. I worked at a used book store, and one task we had was researching and pricing the books we bought from people. I'd spend about 10-15 mins on each book, so about 4-5 an hour. I also worked the cash register and front of the store while doing this. The other person worked the back room of the store, and would take close to 30-40 mins for each book bc he would flip through every book and read parts of it as he was researching it to price it. I got so sick of being the one to do 90% of the work, that the week I broke up w my boyfriend I said F*ck it and spent my time browing the internet. That week less than 30 books were added to the inventory (where before it was closer to 150), and our manager looked to see who had done what that week. When she saw I had spent the time online, I was fired. I won't lie, it gave me great pleasure to see the other person fired a month later when she realized he did nothin.
I personally wouldn't bring a smartphone to work. Leave it elsewhere, like home. Work is that - work. I'm autistic as well. Once I get my stride, there's no stopping me till it's done. Some companies are friendly to autistics, most aren't....at least with my experience. Only thing I've asked permission for is music from yt. Put on my headphones and away I go. If it's done months ahead of time, do be it. Means I get a bonus and I can go on to the next project.
Work smarter not harder does NOT mean "do the bare minimum requested" actually that LEADS to working harder cause work load builds up. Using my job for example. You can either knock out the dirty dishes early/over the day or just chill n let them stack up THEN do them all at once. The later is harder work than using the most of your time to get ahead of the load. Thats what OP is doing. Using their work time to get as much work knocked out to have less to worry about down the line
Why would someone's workload build up if they're doing the minimum? Also, the scenario you described isn't about the amount of work one does but the timing of one's work.
Load More Replies...
I used to work in the restaurant industry. I'm in my mid 40's now. 4 years ago at the beginning of the pandemic I was working in the restaurant/bar of a high end retirement home while I went back to school. I'd been there a few years at this point. I loved the job but we had high turn over because young people are lazy. I could dance circles around people half my age while I was at work. I always picked up extra shifts if I could and covered for others if I could. When the pandemic hit my department (the bar) became unnecessary so they decided to get rid of me but in order to do that and not lose their covid monies I had to have done something wrong. So they fired me for something I didn't do but it was their word against mine and I couldn't prove otherwise. Just goes to show to shouldn't trust anyone. I loved that job and I loved the residents. I hosted wine tasting parties and other fun evenings like casino nights. I worked with our activities director to come up with things!
They are taking advantage of you, nothing else. Do a good job for a company that appreciates it, not a no-loyalty company like the place you are working now.
Never use company internet/wifi for personal fun EVER! even if ahead of the game. Personally i dont think anyone should be dickin off on the internet while working (unfair to your team members who are busting their a*s to get work done for the day) but thats just me
If my coworker is assigned x,y, and z while I'm also assigned my own x y and z, why should I care if he goofs off after finishing his tasks while I finish mine? If he takes on more work, not only will his expected work load increase when management realizes he can do more in the time alloted, they might require more of me as well even though I was just comfortably keeping up with the previously reasonable demands.
Load More Replies...
Another "I'm the greatest worker so I deserve special treatment" post. I have one of those right now and he's only the greatest in his own mind.
Sounds like you aren’t doing the best job communicating with this person
Load More Replies... I got asked how I am the only person never claiming overtime... "because I work smart, not hard" - I also put so many templates in place and that has literally saved me hours of work. These are available to other people but seems they prefer to look like they are working ever so hard... I also have a work/life balance, thanks.
Or, they're just taking it slow so that they can rack up overtime hours. It actually sounds like you might work harder to get everything done in the time you have while they're working smarter by pacing themselves and getting paid more...
Load More Replies... Obviously should be on Reddit on your personal devices & not on company/employer devices. Not a smart move since they monitor those type of activities.
I have NEVER used my workplace computer to browse, unless it's directly related to searching something for the job. My private life and interests are not the business of anyone at the company. Just safer that way.
I'm kinda curious as to what op does. Since it's either the easiest job in the world, or very very specific for her to be months ahead. A week maybe 2-3 weeks ahead I can get depending on the job, but if you're several months ahead something is wrong somewhere.
Load More Replies... You need to start working smarter, not harder. Never browse the internet on your company’s equipment or WiFi - you must be doing it a lot for it to be noticed. Make sure you are the top performer on your team but don’t be months ahead. Btw, the folks who tell you to slow down and do things exactly on time are wrong. You always want to have a cushion of being ahead in case something goes wrong and you always want to be ahead of your teammates (it’s like being chased by a bear, you just have to run faster than the person you are with). Find out what is important to your boss and focus on that. But don’t burn yourself out.
Sometimes, after finishing a task way ahead of time, I will go back to the finished result and delete a punctuation, then replace it and save the document again. Now it has a more recent time stamp and looks like I've only just completed it.
My wife is like this (not autistic just extremely efficient). She'll knock out the work of three people in half the time and then ask for more out of sheer boredom. Fortunately she works from home so if she wants to watch Netflix while she's working there's no one to say boo about it. Even more fortunately she works for a company that's smart enough to leave her the F alone and throw regular pay raises and bonuses at her. OP's company might wanna take notes.
It makes me so sad to hear that you all are working in such an inhumane environment. I've worked with some American companies myself, and I know that they treat their professionals like shyt. The "do whatever we say, or there's always someone else to take your place " mentality is horrible. I hope this is gonna change, but I doubt it. When people get taught to be selfish and take whatever they can, it creates another generation of egoists. When they are put in charge of others, this is what it leads to.
wow the comments are crazy...telling them to work slower?!? If they are a reasonable organization just explain.
If they're accusing OP of time theft despite being months ahead of production, what makes you think that they're a reasonable organization?
Load More Replies... The people telling him to stop working so hard are kinda missing the point. He's saying that he's ahead because that's just how he operates as a person. It doesn't sound like he's killing himself with work over it, he's just very efficient.
It's still the only advice to give... companies don't like that and will punish him untill he stops.
Load More Replies... This happened to me several years ago. I worked at a used book store, and one task we had was researching and pricing the books we bought from people. I'd spend about 10-15 mins on each book, so about 4-5 an hour. I also worked the cash register and front of the store while doing this. The other person worked the back room of the store, and would take close to 30-40 mins for each book bc he would flip through every book and read parts of it as he was researching it to price it. I got so sick of being the one to do 90% of the work, that the week I broke up w my boyfriend I said F*ck it and spent my time browing the internet. That week less than 30 books were added to the inventory (where before it was closer to 150), and our manager looked to see who had done what that week. When she saw I had spent the time online, I was fired. I won't lie, it gave me great pleasure to see the other person fired a month later when she realized he did nothin.
I personally wouldn't bring a smartphone to work. Leave it elsewhere, like home. Work is that - work. I'm autistic as well. Once I get my stride, there's no stopping me till it's done. Some companies are friendly to autistics, most aren't....at least with my experience. Only thing I've asked permission for is music from yt. Put on my headphones and away I go. If it's done months ahead of time, do be it. Means I get a bonus and I can go on to the next project.
Work smarter not harder does NOT mean "do the bare minimum requested" actually that LEADS to working harder cause work load builds up. Using my job for example. You can either knock out the dirty dishes early/over the day or just chill n let them stack up THEN do them all at once. The later is harder work than using the most of your time to get ahead of the load. Thats what OP is doing. Using their work time to get as much work knocked out to have less to worry about down the line
Why would someone's workload build up if they're doing the minimum? Also, the scenario you described isn't about the amount of work one does but the timing of one's work.
Load More Replies... I used to work in the restaurant industry. I'm in my mid 40's now. 4 years ago at the beginning of the pandemic I was working in the restaurant/bar of a high end retirement home while I went back to school. I'd been there a few years at this point. I loved the job but we had high turn over because young people are lazy. I could dance circles around people half my age while I was at work. I always picked up extra shifts if I could and covered for others if I could. When the pandemic hit my department (the bar) became unnecessary so they decided to get rid of me but in order to do that and not lose their covid monies I had to have done something wrong. So they fired me for something I didn't do but it was their word against mine and I couldn't prove otherwise. Just goes to show to shouldn't trust anyone. I loved that job and I loved the residents. I hosted wine tasting parties and other fun evenings like casino nights. I worked with our activities director to come up with things!
They are taking advantage of you, nothing else. Do a good job for a company that appreciates it, not a no-loyalty company like the place you are working now.
Never use company internet/wifi for personal fun EVER! even if ahead of the game. Personally i dont think anyone should be dickin off on the internet while working (unfair to your team members who are busting their a*s to get work done for the day) but thats just me
If my coworker is assigned x,y, and z while I'm also assigned my own x y and z, why should I care if he goofs off after finishing his tasks while I finish mine? If he takes on more work, not only will his expected work load increase when management realizes he can do more in the time alloted, they might require more of me as well even though I was just comfortably keeping up with the previously reasonable demands.
Load More Replies... Another "I'm the greatest worker so I deserve special treatment" post. I have one of those right now and he's only the greatest in his own mind.
Sounds like you aren’t doing the best job communicating with this person
Load More Replies...
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