What I've come to realize is a lot of these type things for above-average people have become nothing more than attendance awards. I remember when I graduated high school, everyone was acting like it's a big accomplishment. I off-put several people by saying I didn't really feel accomplished at all, what I did was never optional to me. College was more so, but that came down to attendance. Attending class was not a strong suit.
Even in the workplace now. My main job is a big corporate technical job. Yeah, I've had some challenging roles over the years, but it's gotten to the point that it's really an attendance contest too. I can do my full-time, well paid, salary job in 20 hours a week easily. Lately I've been working on some databases and scripting that will at the very least cut that in half by automating a lot of the menial tasks I do. I already have more areas of responsibility than anyone on my team too. Twice the amount of some of them. Still, it's just attendance. I've considered leaving, but I get this automation in and work from home most of the time, so why bother? Let them keep paying me, I keep doing what's asked well, and go on to see how much I can ramp up small business and side projects. Could I find something more challenging? Sure. But it's not going to be a significant bump in reward (i.e. pay). So, why?
I suppose it's only going to get worse. There has to be some side effects of society in general being full of worse people performing tasks less well.
What I've come to realize is a lot of these type things for above-average people have become nothing more than attendance awards. I remember when I graduated high school, everyone was acting like it's a big accomplishment. I off-put several people by saying I didn't really feel accomplished at all, what I did was never optional to me. College was more so, but that came down to attendance. Attending class was not a strong suit.
Even in the workplace now. My main job is a big corporate technical job. Yeah, I've had some challenging roles over the years, but it's gotten to the point that it's really an attendance contest too. I can do my full-time, well paid, salary job in 20 hours a week easily. Lately I've been working on some databases and scripting that will at the very least cut that in half by automating a lot of the menial tasks I do. I already have more areas of responsibility than anyone on my team too. Twice the amount of some of them. Still, it's just attendance. I've considered leaving, but I get this automation in and work from home most of the time, so why bother? Let them keep paying me, I keep doing what's asked well, and go on to see how much I can ramp up small business and side projects. Could I find something more challenging? Sure. But it's not going to be a significant bump in reward (i.e. pay). So, why?
I suppose it's only going to get worse. There has to be some side effects of society in general being full of worse people performing tasks less well.