The value of sucking up

[Jackalope]

If I need to suck up, I'm in the wrong job

[Pat Mustard]

If you're in a job where you need to suck up, you're working for an organisation which is faling badly.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

And it's worth remembering that worker's rights weren't achieved by sucking up. They were achieved by strikes, breaking heads, burning down factories and blowing shit up. The very antithesis of sucking up.

Boru

[brewer]

If you're in a job where you need to suck up, you're working for an organisation which is faling badly.

Not at all. At one time I worked for a large and very successful insurance company and there were plenty of people playing the corporate suck up game. That's the most common way that the peters (peter principle) got promoted.

[Pat Mustard]

If you're in a job where you need to suck up, you're working for an organisation which is faling badly.

Not at all. At one time I worked for a large and very successful insurance company and there were plenty of people playing the corporate suck up game. That's the most common way that the peters (peter principle) got promoted.

And when peters appear the company fails, unless the game is already rigged.

[brewer]

Not at all. At one time I worked for a large and very successful insurance company and there were plenty of people playing the corporate suck up game. That's the most common way that the peters (peter principle) got promoted.

And when peters appear the company fails, unless the game is already rigged.

That company has not failed yet.

[no one]

It appears value is lost on you.

A good leader does not need bootlickers grovelling to taste what they ate last night.

[Anomalocaris]

I used to work at a rental car place, and I had a boss, who was a big fat white dumbass, and I never respected him, he was actually a jerk to anyone he couldn't take advantage of, which included me, I always did the opposite of what he wanted me to do, but I never got fired, and then that guy eventually left, and was replaced by a handsome black man, who I immediately had a crush on, and I did everything he wanted me to do, and I loved his voice, he just had a strong, commanding presence, but anyway, since I was such a good little employee, I got a raise, but unfortunately, I had to leave the job soon after that, for mental health reasons. But I sucked up to that black guy pretty hard, and I don't mind that I did that, I had never sucked up to anyone before, I guess it just takes the right person to bring that out of me.

Have you ever sucked up to anyonre before? If so, what did you get out of it?

2 observations:

1.  You worked in a job in which expectation of the value that can be added by living breathing sophisticated product of 4 billion years of macro-evolution is apparently quite low. 

2.  You can’t deliver that value, maybe because you only had 6000 years of micro-evolution behind you? So you had to make up by sucking up.

[Duty]

Anybody worth sucking up to can detect fawning disingenuous flattery a mile off, so the "benefits" of sucking up are self refuting. 2c

[Spongebob]

I used to work at a rental car place, and I had a boss, who was a big fat white dumbass, and I never respected him, he was actually a jerk to anyone he couldn't take advantage of, which included me, I always did the opposite of what he wanted me to do, but I never got fired, and then that guy eventually left, and was replaced by a handsome black man, who I immediately had a crush on, and I did everything he wanted me to do, and I loved his voice, he just had a strong, commanding presence, but anyway, since I was such a good little employee, I got a raise, but unfortunately, I had to leave the job soon after that, for mental health reasons. But I sucked up to that black guy pretty hard, and I don't mind that I did that, I had never sucked up to anyone before, I guess it just takes the right person to bring that out of me.

Have you ever sucked up to anyonre before? If so, what did you get out of it?

Your experience with the second manager doesn't constitute "sucking up".  You acknowledge that you admired and were even attracted to this man, so you did everything you could to impress him.  That isn't "sucking up"; that's just being a good employee.  Sucking up implies that you don't agree with a manager's style or ideas but you pretend to agree with them anyway and perhaps even try to convince them that you are on board with them.  If you had gone out of your way to impress the first manager, that would constitute sucking up.

If you purposely disobeyed the first manager's orders only because you didn't like him, then you were a bad employee and deserved to be fired or warned in the least.  Its likely that this guy was accustomed to intimidating others through bullying, in which case you should have stood up to him and called out this bad behavior but continued to do your job.  By not doing your job properly, you likely caused some inconvenience to co-workers, clients or suppliers, which makes you an ass-hat and just as bad as your manager.  The bottom line is, if you can't make your job situation better, you should find a way to get out of it and not take out your frustration on your actual job because that just perpetuates the problem.

So to answer your question (which you never do), my answer is no, I just do my job to the best of my ability.  If anyone questions my performance, I ask what I can do to be better.  IF it is within reason and something I can do, I'm fine with it.  Sucking up might get you some favors, but doing good work and performing your best will always be of greater value to an employer and propel your career.