Beware the cunning minimalist in your midst

Never have so many been so worried about losing their jobs while feeling so reluctant to do them. This thought shot to mind last week as the new year was upended by worrying new strains of Covid-19, a fresh round of lockdowns and more job cuts. Close behind came another idea: there has never been a better time to study the ways of the cunning minimalist.

This is a species of worker, common to every office, who instinctively knows how to avoid the tiresome, invisible work that makes life easier for colleagues, but gains little attention or credit.

Instead, they focus on high-profile stuff. The boss’s pet project. Work that gets noticed, inside and preferably outside too, because doing it makes one more marketable and thus invincible...