> The real problem isn't that you do this, per se, but that you're not incentivized to improve the business
But I'm not. It's not my business.
I have almost never worked at a place where there were incentives to go above and beyond; few places reward that behavior with anything except more work and a cost of living raise.
Having said that, I've definitely been incentivized by the relationships I've built with people: I've jumped in to fix a problem for another team because we're friendly with each other, and I've prioritized fixing some bugs because they were impacting users (and given my employer, I like our users as a class of people and want to do right by them).
But I've never once thought to myself, "This nameless group of people working seven states away that I've never met or spoken to asks something of us, I should definitely prioritize it!"
A company is nothing more than the people that compose it. If the people in the company who want you to do work don't build a relationship with you, they have failed to run the company successfully.
But I'm not. It's not my business.
I have almost never worked at a place where there were incentives to go above and beyond; few places reward that behavior with anything except more work and a cost of living raise.
Having said that, I've definitely been incentivized by the relationships I've built with people: I've jumped in to fix a problem for another team because we're friendly with each other, and I've prioritized fixing some bugs because they were impacting users (and given my employer, I like our users as a class of people and want to do right by them).
But I've never once thought to myself, "This nameless group of people working seven states away that I've never met or spoken to asks something of us, I should definitely prioritize it!"