The unwritten rule of looking miserable
First year at my last project I used to finish my sprint tasks by Thursday. Friday was just for chilling, reading docs, packing up at 5:30. Appraisal time comes and my manager hands me an average rating. Told me I lack hustle and urgency.
Meanwhile we had this senior dev who was always visibly stressed. He would literally jog to the coffee machine. Always sighing loudly on Zoom calls. Always dropping the "yaar bandwidth bilkul nahi hai" line when anyone asked him anything.
One evening I walked past his desk from behind. The guy was trading options on Zerodha for two hours straight.
I figured out the unwritten rule right there. Next quarter I started speed-walking to the washroom. Started rubbing my temples during standups like I was carrying the entire backend on my shoulders. If someone asked for a simple API key I'd tell them I'll check my calendar and revert by EOD.
I actually cut my real work output in half but cranked up my complaining. Got top band in the next cycle. Manager literally told me he appreciates my dedication.
Bhai is this AI slop or a real story?
Isn't your work visible directly to your manager, overall? Can't they easily catch a fake overwork?
100% real story bhai. You'd be surprised, a lot of managers just look at optics and late night Slack messages. If you leave at 5:30, they just assume you don't have enough work.
