Category: Editorial

Ghostworking is pretending to be busy at work. According to this article, it’s on the rise with a number of people looking for other remote opportunities at other organizations. Some employees might be just wasting time at the office, though I suspect there is a minority that are actually working at another (second) job. Maybe they are growing a side hustle or maybe they’ve even accepted another job, and they’re spending part of there day on those tasks.

This might be part of the reason that many managers want to get people back into the office. I think that’s flawed as a)  most managers aren’t great at their jobs and b) people still ghost work in the office. I’ve had numerous “clipboard carriers” alongside me in my career who spend an inordinate amount of time at the water cooler, coffee machine, or walking from place to place and are happy to engage in hallway chats. I’ve seen plenty of managers also not know how to hold people accountable for their work (or lack thereof). Especially technical people who find many reasons why problems are hard to solve.

I wonder sometimes if we’ve created a culture of looking busy. Many employees schedule lots of meetings, often with managers, to provide updates or create discussions about what to do or how to do it. Often the meetings seem reasonable. However, a lot of those meetings, updates, or decisions could be cut short, and more actual work could be finished. The number of people engaged in meetings all day is crazy. That happens to me when I come to Redgate offices, but I am there for meetings, and I try to have substantive discussions. I also know I can’t do have that many meetings every week because I do need to actually get something done that helps the company.

This quote in the article is disturbing: “The workforce is currently under immense pressure to appear productive, even when it’s counterintuitive to actual productivity…”. I wonder how many people feel this way in the modern world, and if this is a reaction to concerns about layoffs/AI replacement/something else or is it just slacking off?

My career has been successful in part because I’ve always worked hard. I might not be a good example for many of you, as I likely work too hard, but I can say that being efficient and effective, getting tasks done on time or sooner, and not just agreeing to more work to please others has helped me. I agree to timelines that I can meet, and I work hard to get things done on time. I would say that constantly learning, finding better ways (and quicker ones) to do your job, will help ensure you have a good career. Especially if you work on things that the organization finds important, rather than those you want to tackle.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

I mean, you can ask for a raise. It’s always an option, but is now the time to ask for a raise in this economic climate, where businesses can be unsettled and there are a lot of tech workers looking for jobs. I even saw a piece that noted many computer science graduates are struggling to get hired at the top tech firms. While that’s not where most people work, it seems that often other CIOs/CTOs look to the big tech firms for guidance, and they may choose to hire fewer new staffers as well.

This is on my mind at work after reading an article on asking for a raise that I added to the newsletter. It’s a response in the advice column where a reader asks how to go about asking for a raise when they think they deserve one. It is unclear in which industry or level this person works, so I am not sure if I think the advice is good.

The gist of the response is that anyone wanting a raise needs to make a business case about why they deserve more money. I agree with that, but the piece goes on to talk about cost of replacement and loss of knowledge. To me, those start to delve into the area of a stick over a carrot approach to asking for a raise. I have used those techniques, but only when I am truly ready to look for another job if they don’t agree. While you might think you know your manager, you never know when they (or their boss/HR) might take offense to you bringing up the losses from you leaving.

I’d also say that if you are successful with this, it might be a one-time thing, and it might affect future bonus/raise amounts as the company thinks you’ve already gotten extra compensation.

That’s not to say that you can’t ask for a raise. I’ve been successful making a business case that’s based on my salary compared to peers doing similar work. Experience matters a bit, but the job I do and my responsibilities matter more. Of course, if I’m near the top of a range, then I’m really asking for a promotion and a raise. That might make sense, or it might not. Ask yourself as you build a case if you’d respond well if you owned the company and this was presented to you.

Maybe the most important thing to evaluate is the situation in which your business finds itself right now. Is it doing well? Sales/revenue/profits increasing? Are they lean on staff and need to hire more? Or is that not the case? Does your management seem to value experience and the work you do or are most of the staff pressed to do more work over time, with your coworkers in similar situations?

Maybe most importantly, do you trust your manager?

If you don’t feel confident in positive answers to these questions, proceed cautiously. Asking for a raise is something I’d be very careful of, at least in the US in mid-2025, as it seems to be the hope of executives to use more AI to replace people. Couple that with the large number of people looking for jobs and this environment might cause a reasonable request to be denied or could create lingering ill will. That might not be worth a short-term raise.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.