The age old advice of work hard and move up in the world is good in some cases, but for many people, it just doesn’t work out that well.

What would you do if you were trying to move up in your career, but it seemed like you just got made to work harder without any extra pay?

That is what happened to the PhD in this story, so he started doing as little work as possible and then got more money than ever.

I aim to earn as much as possible by doing as little as possible

I have a PhD and spent my early 20s thinking if I worked hard, I’d get places.

Sometimes, working hard doesn’t pay off in the end.

What utter nonsense.

Since finishing my PhD, I’ve had three jobs.

Finding the right job can be a challenge.

Left first one because it didn’t pay enough. The second job was better paid but I was expected to work a lot.

To quote my manager: you’ve done a lot of work and you will do much more. No thank you.

Maximizing earnings while minimizing work makes sense to me.

I left for an even better paid job. Now I talk about value and returns and product design.

Long and tedious tasks? Those don’t bring value so I don’t do them, instead I’m the ideas person.

This seems like a good way to get your work done to me.

I propose new ideas and make plans. If someone wants me to do any tedious tasks, I do them as soon as possible using chat gpt.

I do not feel guilty.

The cost of living today is making things hard for everyone.

I earn a decent wage (way above median) yet I cannot afford to buy a house or buy luxuries.

Let’s not forget that hard work doesn’t get you anywhere.

This can be very true.

But you know what does? People liking you.

You know the company you work for is trying to pay as little as possible to get as much work done as they can, so it only makes sense for the employees to try to do the opposite.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

He found a great job, that’s for sure.

Companies seem to love to waste money on the wrong things.

Sometimes this is true.

I’m curious as well.

Wow, this guy is doing really well.

Do what you have to do to win at life.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.