I used to be paid money to be “someone with actual charisma”. It’s not worth it. It’s a Catch 22 - the people you need to validate your charisma in order to buy things are exactly the kind of people you became charismatic to avoid.
Turns out it’s smarter to learn a skill that makes you indispensable, because there are only so many charismatic ways to say “fuck you” before the boss decides you’re a bad influence.
Yup, my last boss was annoyed with me because I kept asking for 2 days remote/week so I could focus. I had moved my desk across the building to avoid interruptions, and one day I left “early” (before the rest of the team, but I had already been working 10 hours and finished my work) when there was a deadline and someone was stuck in a bug. I remoted in, fixed the problem quickly, and then the next day he called me into his office and “fired” me, with an offer to switch to a full-remote contractor with a small pay increase.
So yeah, I was indispensable, otherwise he would’ve just fired me. It was a win-win because I didn’t like him or his wife (main reason I wanted to work remote) but liked the product, and he wanted to force everyone to work in the office because he and his wife were control freaks. The funny part is they “replaced” me with a full remote contractor (I was the manager until “fired”).
Now I’m in a better spot with my current company (I like my boss, I manage a good team, company is more stable). But the only reason I got that special offer was because I was indispensable, at least for 2-3 years.
I used to be paid money to be “someone with actual charisma”. It’s not worth it. It’s a Catch 22 - the people you need to validate your charisma in order to buy things are exactly the kind of people you became charismatic to avoid.
Turns out it’s smarter to learn a skill that makes you indispensable, because there are only so many charismatic ways to say “fuck you” before the boss decides you’re a bad influence.
Yup, my last boss was annoyed with me because I kept asking for 2 days remote/week so I could focus. I had moved my desk across the building to avoid interruptions, and one day I left “early” (before the rest of the team, but I had already been working 10 hours and finished my work) when there was a deadline and someone was stuck in a bug. I remoted in, fixed the problem quickly, and then the next day he called me into his office and “fired” me, with an offer to switch to a full-remote contractor with a small pay increase.
So yeah, I was indispensable, otherwise he would’ve just fired me. It was a win-win because I didn’t like him or his wife (main reason I wanted to work remote) but liked the product, and he wanted to force everyone to work in the office because he and his wife were control freaks. The funny part is they “replaced” me with a full remote contractor (I was the manager until “fired”).
Now I’m in a better spot with my current company (I like my boss, I manage a good team, company is more stable). But the only reason I got that special offer was because I was indispensable, at least for 2-3 years.