Thinking about OKR, taking the initiative to stand in line, and "drawing cakes" for the leaders, I became the king of the rolls in the big factory

Shenrancaijing original

Author | Li Qiuhan

Edit | Wei Jia

Now, Liu Te has become the kind of Internet person he doesn't like.

Calculate OKR, take the initiative to stand in line, record your work performance at any time, and prepare for future reports. He is nearly 35 years old, and the track that he has struggled for many years has disappeared and transformed into an Internet factory. At that time, he was full of confidence, but after joining the company, everything lost control, how to deal with the relationship with the leader, how to face the upper limit of his own ability, all tormented him until he left.

This series of workplace experiences has brought him a lot of lessons, and now that the Internet industry is shrinking, he realizes that in this job, he should "avoid risks in advance".

More and more large factories are optimizing, an Internet industry source said, "the current contraction is related to the disorderly expansion of the previous two years, there will be contraction when there is expansion, which is a natural change process." Behind this is accompanied by the phenomenon of emotional "stimulation generalization", which is a psychological concept, a psychological counselor gave an example of deep combustion, "For example, if the chicken legs that I want to eat most in the canteen today are gone, I may worry about whether the company is more depressed." ”

In such an environment, different emotions appear on social media.

Some people are still in an orderly business line, the perception of environmental changes is not large, and all changes are in a wait-and-see state; some people choose to reverse the internal volume, and even look forward to being optimized, ridiculing so that they can not think about whether to change jobs, but also get compensation; some people fall into anxiety, sick and dare not ask for leave, worried but helpless.

The environment cannot be changed, but people's actions can be changed.

There are also a group of people who choose to "roll themselves", in the changing environment, enhance their own value, and smoothly achieve promotion and salary increases; some "roll others" and find their own way to survive in the workplace. We talked to these types of professionals, and we also discussed solutions to anxiety with counselors.

Active or passive, they are "rolling"

In order to stay in the big factory, different people "roll" in different ways. Some have done superficial work that they did not like in the past, and some choose to do addition in business.

Lowe belongs to the former. From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, his large factory opened personnel optimization, in his words, many workplace self-protection methods that he did not like in the previous two years, he is trying, but will "ensure the bottom line of morality, do not lose personality."

For example, large factories can not do without collaborative work, this kind of business he will prioritize, to see which can be more reflected in OKR (enterprise target management system). "When a big project moves forward, some auxiliary branches are dispensable, and if you want to know what your contribution is in it, if it is difficult to reflect in OKR, you can do it without doing it," he said.

For each task, he would write all the work into the documentation. Although he once despised this practice, after doing it, he found that it was actually a good combing process, "taking the time to write the report well, and it did not affect the output of the work."

In dealing with the relationship with the leader, he chose to take the side. When the business he is responsible for can clearly bring contributions, choosing which group to work with means which group has achievements, and he will choose the more powerful and valued group. "The station stands, don't step on it. This is hard to say", he smiled, and said that he had set the guidelines, although you can't stand on the weak side, but don't step on the weak side after standing in line, "so that it will not be so morally uncomfortable."

The people who use this kind of method to seek a foothold in the big factory are not only Liu Te.

The seventh brother of the workplace planner told Shen Yan that since the end of last year, many people in large factories who have been beaten up for low performance will specifically consult with him on how to keep their jobs. "On average, there are more than a dozen people a month, and March was supposed to be the peak period for changing jobs, but this year is an exception, and there are more than fifty people who come to consult how to keep their jobs."

He has a suggestion that can quickly work, that is, let the consultant spend a day to write a work summary report, list his achievements and shortcomings after going to the company, and then give a work plan for more than a year, which can look sincere and can also close the relationship with the superior, but the essence is "to use a sophisticated way to draw a pie for the superior."

And how to deal with the sophistication of the workplace, there are also many people to consult, which is not difficult to teach, that is, than "who has a thick skin, the premise is not to hurt others", he said.

Li Hui belongs to the latter. Before 2020, the business she is responsible for, whether it is external launch, commercial cooperation, or internal fission activities, is very smooth, "daily life is rubbing upwards, and there are 10W+" in a single day.

But as Internet traffic peaked, a set of growth methods she thought were omnipotent began to fail, and the company cut down its investment. In the past, the company's star department was in a state of anxiety, and the questions discussed were "What to do with growth without spending money?" "Do you still do growth during the epidemic?" "Next, will the company open us".

Seeing that someone around her was indeed being laid off, she decided to find a way to prove her worth. During that time, she did one thing, to see what businesses in the company did not have a main person in charge, and picked it up to see if there was room for her to intervene. She looked through the business brochures of the big factories, learned about the new direction of the industry, looked for places that could be combined with the company's business, and at the same time, she also looked at the JD (job introduction) related to the business of the same type of company on the recruitment website to see what content she was interested in and what skills were being needed more.

After clarifying the direction, she will start to make a practical plan, and in the process, she will eliminate the solution that she thinks is not ideal, and grope for a month or two.

Wang Zhen's approach is similar to Li Hui's. He told Deep Burn that his department colleagues had been laid off, his friends in the next department had been dissuaded during the probationary period, and that the budget for his business had been cut in half. In the past, when his business was not going well, he would open the job search software to see opportunities and ease his emotions, and in the past two months, he found that when he opened the job search software, the recommended positions were still seen last month. He realized that there weren't many opportunities out there, and his work mentality had changed.

"Now I will pay more attention to my long-term planning in the team", he said, for example, looking at the business and doing planning will be more long-term, and will think more seriously about what the value of the product is, which links are to be improved, so that you can maintain a learning state.

Rolled up, does it really work?

Either way, they are showing their value to the company and the leaders, and from the results, they all stay in the company, but the psychological feelings behind this are completely different.

Low will do his job well and not be bad on the team, but he says he feels his career is going downhill. He told himself that life was easier after not thinking about promotion. But sometimes when he calms down, he will feel depressed, "I don't dare to think about my shortcomings, I don't want to admit that I am not capable enough in some aspects."

He envied a large factory leader he knew before, who had achieved financial freedom, did not have to succumb to unspoken rules in his work, did things fairly, and had no moral flaws, "If I am not bad money, I can also be flawless, and I will not suffer from gains and losses."

Relying on the way of survival in the workplace to stay in the big factory is a short-term solution, and anxiety will not dissipate.

Brother Seven told Shen Yan that according to his observation, the way he used to express his value in the company through performance overtime in the past was no longer effective. In the most typical example, one of the consultants he contacted mentioned that this year the company has adjusted his KPI assessment method to directly test whether the new business really brings value to the company. "Now a lot of work, not task-based work, not looks like a long time is enough, but effect-based work, you need to see the results."

The company is always a results-oriented place, and people who can bring value can go further.

The plan that Li Hui explored was finally adopted by the company, and the company launched a backstage, and she became the person who understood the business best in the company, and sometimes the leaders would ask her for advice. This piece of business is also placed in the PPT of the company's performance introduction. She joked that the current state of the workplace is, "I am not afraid of being expelled, because now I am too cost-effective."

Shifting his attention from changing jobs when he was not satisfied, to really solving problems at work, a series of actions, Wang Zhen felt that he was not anxious, "arm yourself, you will not be afraid of the unknown."

Another middle-level Internet factory who has recently been promoted and raised his salary told Shen Yan that the reason why he did not encounter a layoff crisis was first of all due to the systematic way of thinking, "based on the industry to think and observe the information obtained, rather than based on the company level." ”

He would learn from the people who made achievements in the company, "and even write down the logic and habits of my direct boss thinking about problems and doing things, imagining that I was in that position, how to make decisions, and pushing myself to 'learn from the model'." If you are not gifted, then copy others first, internalize them, and then develop your own way. ”

An industry insider said that judging from the results, when you have to roll in, it is more valuable to make a structured effort than a linear effort. That is, from the perspective of industry operation, company operation, and business line operation, and proposing solutions to problems for the company, it is more likely to create value than the work in a single thinking hand, only in a certain link.

What exactly is the solution?

Behind a series of inward-rolling phenomena is a deep workplace anxiety.

From the perspective of comprehensive exchanges with several consultants, professionals in the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are more likely to fall into workplace anxiety, and there are not many more anxious posts with a salary of less than 20,000 yuan for basic commissioner posts and management posts with salaries of more than 50,000 yuan. Anxiety is more concentrated in professionals with a monthly salary of between 20,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan. From the perspective of age, psychological counselor Hongsang said that students who have just graduated and stepped into society are more anxious than professionals around the age of 35.

When doing career planning, the seventh brother will draw a bottom line for the other party, "tell him that this is the worst result for you now", he said, in fact, after knowing the worst result, people's hearts began to calm down.

Psychological counselor Zhu Xiaohui told Shen Yan that at present, people are easy to enter the "tunnel vision", that is, in the limited field of vision, they think that they can only do this to obtain the resources for survival, then the inner volume is easy to occur.

Behind this inner volume, there is also the problem of age anxiety and single value dimension.

The first is age anxiety. The 35-year-old career bottleneck often mentioned in public opinion seems more like a self-suggestion in his view. "In our lives, there are many awakenings of self-awareness," he said, adding that in the theory of psychology, there was an awakening that occurred at the age of 40-50, and now, people are more concerned about how others see themselves, "but they have lost the unique power that this age gives us."

Second, what is more important is the single dimension of value. "Value can be divided into real value, feeling value and role value, real value is what car to drive, what house to live in; feel value, such as the emotional feelings brought by some entertainment programs; role value, in addition to the role of professional people, they are still children, parents, or a reliable partner." Everything is important."

In particular, the value of the role can make people realize that even if they lose a well-paid job, life will not stop because of it, "whether it is as a good father or a companion, it is also valuable."

And if people only care about real values, the inward volume and anxiety will be more serious.

In the eyes of some people, a good life is to buy luxury goods, ride a luxury car, work better than others, in fact, "if life is more colorful, such as to learn to paint, or to participate in the winter Olympics driven by the ice and snow sports, then you will find that the inner volume is not so serious," Zhu Xiaohui said.

Hongsang told Deep Burn that there is a perception in psychology that any emotion has meaning. Anxiety is a reminder to make better decisions for the future, and the first thing to accept is to accept this emotion. Secondly, he gave specific suggestions, in the case of uncontrollable external environment, you can do something that you can control, "such as the interview result is unknown, but the work and rest, diet, exercise can be controlled", with this sense of control, it is easier to calm down.

There is a plot in the movie "No Questions Asked", Tsinghua student Wu Linglan fell into a loss because of the science department, and the principal Mei Yiqi talked to him and asked him why he had to study practical subjects so well. Wu Linglan said that because the students with the best grades all learn practical subjects. Mei Yiqi told him: "People put themselves in the busy, there is a kind of numbness and steadfastness, but they lose their authenticity."

And what is real? Mei Yiqi said, "What you see, what you hear, what you do, and who you are with, there is a kind of peace and joy that overflows from the depths of the soul without remorse or shame."

Liu Te said that he has a car and a house and a home, in fact, the economic pressure is not great, but he is contradictory. After leaving the last big factory, he found that even if the person in charge went down, he did not do a good job in the business he was responsible for before, which made him feel free of his ability. While making himself more accustomed to the rules of the workplace, but unable to accept his stagnation, he listed the places where he still needed to improve, planning projects that could independently prove his ability, "I need my own work, and it is valuable to explain what I do to my son in the future." ”

In the process of action, people will find that maybe everything is not as bad as imagined.

*The caption and illustration in the text are from unsplash. At the request of the interviewees, Liu Te, Li Hui and Wang Zhen were pseudonyms in the text.