Employee started giving their bare minimum after company investigated their efficiency and speed

We all have been taught the value of hard work. Similarly, we try and give our best in whatever we do. However, some situations make us rethink if hard work really pays off. It was seen when a Reddit user, u/ItDawnedOnMe2, posted about how giving their best at work did not impress their bosses. They wrote about how they worked in the data entry field and they are really good at it. They also enjoy working and finding new ways to make their job more efficient.

However, after the user broke the record at work during the initial days, their supervisors became skeptical of their work ethic. In the work email, they found out they had tripled the expected speed of data entry. The user was proud of their achievement as they had only worked at this place for three months and found their way around it.

However, when they were expecting praise, some comments and skepticism came their way. They wrote in their post, "Now, here's the really fun part. Rather than getting any sort of praise (this company has felt anti-praise since I started) or being asked how I did it, I get an email from management stating my numbers are 'concerning' and that they're essentially opening up an investigation to see if I cheated somehow."

The employee also received the numbers other people had produced and then came a call from the boss. The boss told them she had checked their numbers and did not find anything suspicious and they could continue their work. The post further read, "Mind you, this 'investigation' didn't start with her, she was just asked to check my work and was reporting what she found. But it's all accurate."

They further added, "Now, I learned quickly that this isn't the type of place to be praised. There is zero incentive for anyone to go above and beyond if it’s just going to be questioned. They wrote they understood that if any doubts had come up, they would be investigated, but "to email me stating it's concerning and impossible before even checking my work is where I have the issue. I shouldn't have even needed to be told it had to be looked into. They were told my numbers were accurate, and there has been radio silence since. No apology, no praise, no "how did you do it?" in hopes I can show the rest of my team so we can get caught up one day."

Since they did not feel appreciated and were not even apologized to, they came up with a way to get back to the employers. "So with what little knowledge of Excel I had, I made a spreadsheet that tallies my accounts as I go so I can pace myself and I am now alerted as soon as I meet that goal so that I can stop working without going over. I did add just a tiny bit more wiggle room to my spreadsheet to not accidentally go under productivity to where they would have reason to use corrective action. But just ever so slightly above the bare minimum. If they're going to treat me like a bare minimum employee, they're going to get a bare minimum employee."

Editor's note: This article was originally published on September 1, 2023. It has since been updated.