Give Credit Where Credit is Due

I'm shooting myself in the foot at work. I've basically checked out completely, and stopped caring if I get caught. I still get my work done, I just visibly don't care.

Why not? It's pretty simple. My work doesn't count and it's been made abundantly clear to me. One of my coworkers (who has seniority) basically works part time and gets paid for full time. There's slack to be picked up, which falls to me. My boss asked me how long it would take for me to get up to speed on a particular software package to cover her lazy butt. I wasn't sure; I'm quick on the uptake, but this was a graphics program I'd never even heard of. I dutifully came in on my day to teach myself the program. Turns out to be spectacularly easy to use. I turned out a nice looking presentation after about three hours. The boss loved it, and was effusive in thanking me for my efforts.

Sounds like this story should have a happy ending, no? It doesn't. The presentation was part of a proposal we were doing for a prospective client. Said proposal also required us to do a lot of extra work to determine exactly what needed to be included in the project. Guess who did all that work? Yep. Me. Fine. It was a new task for me, which was interesting because it was novel. We had a meeting to plan the rest of the project, and I was assigned about 60% of the actual work on the contract if we win it. Okay. I have no problem with that.

Then the proposal came across my desk for editing before it went to the prospect. There was a section detailing the biographies of all the team members who would work on the project. My name did not appear anywhere.

80% of the work on the proposal was mine, and I'll be doing 60% of the work on the project. Invisibly and anonymously.

Screw that. It was a slap in the face. All the credit for the work I'm doing will be going to the jackass who doesn't show up half the time and leaves early when she does. So why should I bother putting in the effort to make it good?

Don't give me the argument that my boss will notice my work and give me a raise or a promotion or whatever. That doesn't happen in reality. At least not to me. All I wanted was for someone to acknowledge the fact that I was contributing.

Too bad, so sad. Guess I'll have to start looking for a new job.