I’m kind of 50/50 on this. Some days I want to work alone, not be bothered at all, do the work and go home. But sometimes I actually do want to be collaborative and offer up ideas and solutions.
However I’m also one of those people who internally groans when the company starts some new “goal” that is buzzword bullshit, wastes a bunch of time in meetings, and ends up only making processes worse.
Do you keep your head down, or do you actively engage in your workplace?
Somewhere in between. A big part of my role is making processes better. I could spend the entire year as a top tier programmer then get shitted on in my review because “what larger initiative did you lead?” So I do the stuff. When someone has an idea I get it done. When I have an idea I get it done. But people are hard so usually I just get it done
It can be frustrating at times - we just had all hands on deck response to a business emergency. 3 of 4 initiatives were things I started and worked my way through the teams to 80% done and counting, yet somehow it’s someone else’s idea and they didn’t even include me until I said “wtf?”