Workplace Quotes

“The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work – the most you will make is 5 dollars.”
― idowu koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“Lamb said, ‘If you had issues with him, I could have spoken to HR. Arranged an intervention.’ He tapped Moody’s shoulder with his foot. ‘Breaking his neck without going through your line manager, that shit stays on your record.”
― Mick Herron, Slow Horses

“While complying can be an effective strategy
for physical survival, it's a lousy one for personal fulfillment. Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in
control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you
through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night.”
― Daniel H. Pink

“...workplace dynamics are no less complicated or unexpectedly intense than family relations, with only the added difficulty that whereas families are at least well-recognised and sanctioned loci for hysteria reminiscent of scenes from Medea, office life typically proceeds behind a mask of shallow cheerfulness, leaving workers grievously unprepared to handle the fury and sadness continually aroused by their colleagues.”
― Alain de Botton, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

“I can always tell about the health of a culture of an organization by how much gossiping is happening”
― Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage

“She had been a career woman all her life. She noted there was no such thing as a career man. She had made her choices. No regrets. But there were losses. There always were.”
― Jeanette Winterson, The Gap of Time

“The real measure of work is not what it delivers,
but what it does to the people who deliver
it.”
― Jamie Mallinder, Harm By Design: Psychosocial Risk Management at Work

“The workers who believed they were too important to get fired… always got fired.”
― Rudy Ridolfo, Job Junky

“The Clueless are the ones who lack the competence to circulate freely through the economy (unlike Sociopaths and Losers), and build up a perverse sense of loyalty to the firm, even when events make it abundantly clear that the firm is not loyal to them. To sustain themselves, they must be capable of fashioning elaborate delusions based on idealized notions of the firm -- the perfectly pathological entities we mentioned. Unless squeezed out by forces they cannot resist, they hang on as long as possible, long after both Sociopaths and Losers have left (in Douglas Adams' vicious history of our planet, humanity was founded by a spaceship full of the Clueless, sent here by scheming Sociopaths). When cast adrift in the open ocean, they are the ones most likely to be utterly destroyed.”
― Venkatesh G. Rao, The Gervais Principle: The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space

“This form of influence is portable. It travels with you from organization to organization, from role to role, from context to context.”
― Shamail Aijaz, Thick Skin or Sharp Teeth: Character is the only thing politics cannot touch

“This man was a keeper and I was indeed willing to make him mine.”
― Jessica Girke, Friendly Fire

“Life is made up of failures and successes. Be the person who encourages someone during both ends of the spectrum, as life is never perfect 100% of the time.”
― Torron-Lee Dewar

“Relevance isn’t about constantly running to stay ahead. It’s about adapting with purpose, knowing when to learn, when to lead, and when to let your strengths do the talking.”
― Janani Srikanth, Fear OFF Work: Psychological Tools To Overcome Workplace Fears

“Employers conversely view the work of their employees, and the employees themselves, as a thing that belongs to them as a personal possession. This extends beyond some notion that workers have sold their labor or their “time” to the employer. Employers in practice completely own a worker during a designated period of work, and measure this ownership according to time. This is why time is managed and not the quantity or quality of tasks completed. The manner by which time is managed is similar to inventory management. When a worker fails to offer himself up for the designated hours, even despite the possibility of circumstances outside his control, the worker is expected to “make up” the time lost, much like reparations paid to an employer for stolen goods. Employers handle “lost hours” as part of loss prevention for physical products. The worker’s skills, ignobly called “human capital,” comports to an employer’s existing technologies for this reason: workers themselves become capital, and capital supports other capital through modification.”
― J. Phillip Johnson, The Invention of Work

“… women are notoriously underpaid compared to men … Women tend to look for acceptance before compensation. A woman can be told that she’s loved, and needed, and brilliant, and wonderful, and that will be enough to hold her down. Women are hypnotised by that kind of language … Too many women … are still willing to settle for a stroke instead of a contract, a pat on the head instead of a substantial raise or bonus. Don’t do it. Dogs and children get pats on the head. Women in business get cash.”
― Judge Judy Sheindlin

“You can’t quit the team, come back and think your spot is still there unless you were the best player…. Even then, the way you quit doesn’t guarantee your spot.”
― Niedria Dionne Kenny, The Affidavit of Niedria Dionne Kenny

“Leadership becomes lonely the moment truth is no longer convenient.”
― Marc W. Redding

“We can't fix a how problem with a where solution.”
― Amanda Schneider, Work for What's Next: Why Workplace Culture is Failing and How the Next Generation Can Fix It

“Blake,” Eliana says too softly. “You’re drunk… and high.”
“So are you.”
“We’re… at work.”
“Drinking and smoking.”
Eliana smiles, she’s staring directly at Blake’s eyes. And she’s not embarrassed at all, not leaving, not complaining.
“I'm your boss,” she finally says, looking for more excuses. “I’m ten years older than you.”
“I’m already horny, I don’t need any of this foreplay.”
― daneh, Little Gay Book

“Ninety-five percent of my assets drive out the gate every evening. It’s my job to maintain a work environment that keeps those people coming back every morning.”
― Jim Goodnight

“Good work is not enough.”
― Adam Knox, Here's Where to Start: Managing Up: How to work with the people above you, without losing yourself in the process

“You have to be fake nice to powerful people even when they treat you horribly”
― Natalie Sue, I Hope This Finds You Well

“In every village, there lurks a witch; in every church, a Pharisee; and at every workplace, there is that one permanent busybody.”
― Criss Jami

“Silence is rarely framed as cowardice. It is framed as professionalism.”
― Paul Gerardi, The Cost of Being Human: Ethics, Power and Conscience in a Performative World

“Systems rarely call someone disruptive because they are ineffective. They use that word when someone begins naming patterns that were never meant to be spoken aloud.”
― Paul Gerardi, The Cost of Being Human: Ethics, Power and Conscience in a Performative World

“Most people spend their whole life looking for treasure, but don’t see the opportunities all around them. Like sifting through gold trying to find a diamond”
― Jerry Roth, What Would the Boss Do? 2.0

“The only reason you need money is to enjoy life. The problem is when you no longer enjoy life and are only focused on more money.”
― Jerry Roth, What Would the Boss Do? 2.0

“Not fitting in was not a failure, it was a signal.”
― Paul Gerardi, The Cost of Being Human: Ethics, Power and Conscience in a Performative World

“A seat at the table does not guarantee a voice—only proximity.”
― Marc W. Redding