Ethically? Nothing.

Socially and emotionally? It's brutal. For both the employee and society in general.

Spending almost half their waking hours not caring is not good for people.

There's a difference between caring about your personal work product (and reputation), your colleagues on a personal and professional level, and your employer as an entity.

I expect my employees to show up to work and put forth a solid effort on a regular basis. Note that this doesn't mean a constant death march towards some unreasonable objective, or anything even close to it. Just apply yourself using the skills we agree you have for the pay we also agreed upon for 8 hours a day on average. In my field, this means you have pay that is well above the norm for an average software developer, and the working conditions are good or better.

A shocking number of people are incapable of this, and generally are also the same people who would claim that "they didn't start this".

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AnimalMuppet 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So is it not good for people to care and yet be blocked from being able to do good work.

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Noaidi 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Then pay people so they have a reason to care their work. This is like a wife beating husband wondering why his wife to care more about him.

every company in the united states could become a co-op and nothing would change for the business and everything would change for the workers. And everyone would be much happier at work and you would have the caring people you want.

It is the system that is the problem, not the people.

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watwut 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Frankly, people for whom the work is "just a paycheck" I know in real life are simultaneously happy and simultaneously frequently produce actually good reliable work.

Work being "just a paycheck" does not mean you hate it or half ass it. But, it means you do go home to get rest, you do socialize outside of work instead of irrationally pushing it and then using meetings for socialization. It means you do not have ego tied to it so much you throw temper tantrum when things are imperfect (which is not the same as being able to change things for the better).

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zwnow 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Give us a reason to care. It's that simple.

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rmah 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I believe that seeking external validation, inspiration and/or reason is not robust and a path to unhappiness. IMO, it's better if the reasons for you to care come from within.

	▲	zwnow an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I dont pay my bills from reasons within.

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bpt3 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The reasons to care are personal pride in the quality of your work, understanding that your lack of effort has a negative impact on your colleagues, and your continued employment.

And if you hate your job, but are completely unable to find alternative employment (which is what you should do if you hate your job), you probably should reconsider how much you hate your job.

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nkrisc 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Got any recipes for delicious meals I can make with my pride?

I take pride in the stuff I enjoy doing. A job is just a paycheck because I need it.

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GaryBluto 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

He wasn't asking you to work for free.

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bpt3 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I find it hard to believe you actually read my comment before demonstrating you are probably one of the people I'm talking about at the end of it.

At no point did I state or imply that workers should be working solely or even primarily for anything other than money.

But if you can't be bothered to take pride in the work you're being paid to do, you shouldn't be paid to do it for long.

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nkrisc 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I will do my job as well as necessary to keep it in order to keep receiving money. If I could find a job that pays well and made me happier I would.

	▲	bpt3 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		If you can't find a better job, you should probably appreciate the one you have and not try to skate by with the bare minimum, if for no other reason than you're likely to miscalculate at some point.

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zwnow 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

People have a working contract and all you have to do is work according to the contract.

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Noaidi 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ah, noble poverty! Be grateful to tha masta' for providing you the scraps he can provide! Your paycheck is the beautiful work you produce for tha masta'!

Seriously, pay people what they are worth and they will care. It is not that hard.

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zwnow 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Pride in the quality of my work is a phrase to make one feel bad about themselves. I take pride in my hobbies and in my hobby projects. I take pride in my family and friends. I do not take pride in being exploited for my work so some higher up can buy a new car every year.

	▲	bpt3 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		And again, someone comes and makes a comment that proves my point. Unless you are working in very unusual (and illegal in the developed world) circumstances, you are not being exploited in any real sense.