Stayed with a company for 4 years just waiting for that promotion.... don't be like me, kids

Healthy detachment and not letting your job be all consuming is excellent advice

20 years into my career as someone who “opts out” of office politics, I can only confirm what you are saying. I never got any raises or promotions despite being hyper productive, nice and smart.
You can’t opt out.

"I'm an eldest daughter and a scorpio, so I am not burdened by that." 😂🤣

You are right on with the “please” and “thank yous”! I work in Tech and a server engineer did me a BIG solid! I used our corporate thank-you card system (we’re remote). And it’s visible to management, so his manager got a copy. He’s my BUDDY now! It’s a nice gesture to just say thanks!

My partner was hyper productive and loved by her coworkers and connected staff. She kept an entire department running by herself and did the job of three people.
One day, her boss calls her in to talk to her. She assumed it was a raise or other good news. He asked her for concrete evidence of what she did at the company. She couldn't articulate (AuDHD) and froze up. He fired her then and there.
Her coworkers and staff were devastated but NOBODY, no matter how good buddies they were, objected to the firing.
Nobody stood up for her.
She came home absolutely baffled that the boss didn't know anything.
She coasted off a decent severance, but the psychological damage has been nearly a decade.
The "email the boss" bit is also a paper trail for employment insurance and covering your own ass.

That point about sending a weekly summary email to your boss because nobody is actively tracking your wins is absolute gold. People really lose trust either when you don’t deliver or simply because they have zero visibility into what you’re doing

Tread lightly on the honesty advice. Honesty doesn’t work on every supervisor. This is something you need to test them out by really small issues first. Some of them will weaponize it and if they want someone else to take your place then you just made it easier to justify demoting you.

Office politics is bullshit.

Dang this world is terrible to live in

I'll stay in my position, keep my head down, and keep quiet before I EVER play office politics.  I am kind, friendly with boundaries, easy to work with, and do my job reasonably well.  Getting a promotion often comes with more office politics and more responsibility that could have you burning out --- the money isn't always worth it.  In the past, I got the career knowledge I needed, stayed with a company, then quit after two years and got a promotion somewhere else.  As I look back on this (I'm 53 now), none of the promotions and the little bit of extra money I received for them were worth it.  Nope.  I never did what this lady did and am not about to start ... BUT... if getting a promotion is what you dream and salivate over, then do it because she knows what she's talking about.

As a woman, I love "make people earn your friendly". I started a new job bubbly with everyone and they thought I was too nice and perceived me as a doormat and tried to disrespect me often.

Saying I don't know is only useful if the ecosystem is designed to accept that.

If you have enough shallow people in the leadership then this would look like an inability rather than honesty which backfires on the person.

As a late diagnosed autistic / ADHDthis hurts me so much. I have been the one with long winded speech all my life and I still can’t solve the issue. I worked harder than everyone else and produced better work everytime, had terrible burnouts and ended up being rude. I called out people on their bullshit because I cannot play the game and I lost jobs for it. Not being myself physically makes me sick. In my mid 40s, I still have little work experience with lots of job hopping and a lot of unemployment because I cannot survive in environments with normal people. 😢

This sounds exhausting... i think one thing im trying to learn is to over communicate and not care about trying to look independent. Its hard for me due to my own anxieties but im gonna tell myself that this is just part of jobs.

This is probably the most useful and most positive workplace video I've watched in a while. All the others in the same space seem to be so negative and take me to such a place of hopelessness and despair.

There was NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, mean about this video at all! I had old school manners, vivacious outlook and a sharp mind- but I had to learn EVERYTHING else the hard way, including making people EARN my friendliness! Thank you!

As someone who is shy and socially awkward, I hate that you have to be bubbly, fake and small talk people to get a job and for people to like you, it's so annoying!! People should just like people who actually get the job done and aren't flapping their yappers the entire day.

Thank you for that call-out at the end. "I don't wanna play games" is a childish response when faced with rules and their consequences, and a complete lack of discernment when it comes to your surroundings. Not playing by the rules that DO exist and that others abide by just sidelines you. If you can't play nice with a coworker, how can you be trusted with being more client-facing, more involved in commercial activity, more responsibilities like a promotion and management? It's ALL theatre, and if you can't demonstrate enough acting talent for amateur hour in the asscrack of nowhere, you can't ask to be put on Broadway!

Appreciating someone should go farther than just when they did you personally a solid though. I send colleagues a personal card whenever they've achieved something big. I've sent cards to colleagues for getting their PhDs or getting a master's for instance, or if they got promoted. Nothing big or fancy about a card, but if you can include something personal about them which made them succeed, then it's very appreciated.

The incident tracker “KEEP THE RECORD” by Meghan Reeves saved my case! I had everything documented neatly and my attorney loved it. The case was a slam dunk. Got it on amazon for $9!!! ❤❤