You hear people say "work smarter" all the time, but here it’s just talk. We pile on meetings, spin our wheels with redundant reviews, and then act surprised when things fall behind. The culture rewards effort over impact. I wish someone would actually rethink how we operate instead of telling us to hustle harder.
11 replies (most recent on top)
yeah @fe quit so STS can hire another H1B who can do the basics approximately more brilliantly
@fe Dang. You gunna make it? That’s lots of space in your head rent free. Put that same effort in a resume and perhaps go somewhere you’ll be happier.
"Do the basics brilliantly" is one of the worst things I've heard said at Schwab (I know!). Anyone paying attention saw a decline after that platitude showed up in STS.
You mean like “ brilliant basics”… there’s so many basic things that need to be fixed in the area that I work in and none of it’s getting done. People leadership like to feel like they’re doing things so they’ll throw out a tagline or a Kumbaya and then expect the direct reports to pretend like their participating in some type of pretend work initiative.
@fe Quite correct. The term working smarter usually does not apply to rearkissing. Your recommendations are wonderful for the individual contributor to survive or thrive their management but the company as a whole suffers.
Respectfully, I disagree. Working smarter at Schwab just means feeding overpaid leadership’s overly inflated egos. Here are some tips and tricks:
• Complimenting the selfies and group photos they post on LinkedIn from conferences and “offsites” (ideally the ones they flew to on Schwab’s dime, conveniently adding on a weekend mountain getaway and some days off).
• Telling them their new, heavily AI-filtered headshot on the Schweb looks just like them, and reassuring them that of course no one is LOLing at it.
• Parroting whatever they say in meetings to help them feel brilliant because ultimately, it’s all about synergy, breaking down silos, feedback is a robust gift that will foster a collaborative culture and help you to increase your visibility so SENIOR leadership knows how much of the bonus pool they think you should be gifted by them!
• Volunteering to bring a dish to the team potluck. Sadly, there’s no food budget (they had to cover their flights, hotels, and fancy steakhouse dinners). Just bring in a nice seven-layer dip so you can team-build together over the tortilla chips that Shannon signed up to bring in!
• Avoid asking a legitimate question or raising a valid concern. It’s too risky. You might make them feel d-mb or worse make them feel like you’re challenging their authority! Either way, you lose.
This is my 6th Corporate Job and My past 5 companies were technically very challenging and I had fun solving hard problems. Here its a sh-t show. Lot of bureaucracy and the work culture is not great. I am speaking of STS Teams not sure about other teams. I am very glad to be leaving next month.
Wow! Glad I'm not the only one to have experienced this. So much better off at my new company!
If someone tells you to work smarter just tell em to bend over.
omg yes. never suggest things could be better or changed. it's always perfect already.
No smart person should work harder here. True corporate wide, but especially STS. We don't reward hard work. Efficiency. Cost savings. Those who try are managed or stressed out. We reward rearkissing. Bare minimum efforts. Saying yes. Failures are redefined. Process is a product.