Resting and Vesting: What, Why, and How

A guide to coasting in the corporate world

What is Resting and Vesting?

Resting and vesting is a term we in the tech world use when someone is doing the bare minimum while biding their time and cashing their checks.

The “vesting” part is letting stock vest. It’s common in the tech world for a large part of someone’s compensation to come in the form of stock, which vests over a period of several years.

It quite purposefully vests over several years in order to incentivize the worker to stay with them longer instead of hopping over to the next employer that offers a bit more pay.

This sounds lazy, right?

Well it is.

Why you might want to rest and vest

Until recently, lazy was the worst kind of insult I could imagine casting at someone.

Now, I’m a recovering overachiever.

Equal parts hard-won cynicism and open-hearted hippie Buddhist meditation results lead me to beat the drum on this message:

Life is so much richer when we detach our personal identities from our achievements — especially our career achievements.

Now that I’m all wise and zen and whatnot, I understand that resting is not a bad word.

When we are resting, we are also busy.

• Busy integrating information we’ve already taken in
• Busy appreciating this precious world we have so little time on
• Busy regulating our nervous systems to rejuvenate our internal resources
• Busy letting go of unimportant information so we can make space for new ideas

So if resting is a valuable activity, how much time should we spend actively working on work?

Think of your energy as a resource, like money. You have a limited supply so you must invest it wisely.

Make the shrewd decision about whether your current employer is worth your investment of energy.

Don’t give it away freely to unworthy causes because you’ve been brought up to believe that hard work just for the sake of hard work is a virtue.

Possessing a strong work ethic is a virtue. But I’ve learned that being strategic about where to direct that work ethic makes all the difference in life outcomes.

Your employer may not be the best place to invest all your creative energy.

Perhaps you’ve climbed as high as you can on your corporate ladder, so more effort would just be wasted.

Perhaps you are going through dark personal times that require most of your energy.

Perhaps you simply have more interesting hobbies to focus on.

There’s no obligation that you feel inspired and in love with your job at all times. It’s required that you honestly fulfil your job duties. And if you’re a chronic overachieve like yours truly, you can do that with one hand tied behind your back.

Surely you know by now, that your employer is not your friend. They hold no obligation to you beyond their contractual obligations, and that goes both ways.

If there’s no stock to wait on, why not quit?

There are all kinds of reasons someone may stay at an employer even after their light has gone out. Waiting for some valuable stock to vest is just one.

• Waiting on a job search to come to fruition
• Waiting on a side hustle to mature enough to pay the bills
• Waiting on a reorganization to shake out and see if things get better and more interesting
• Waiting on an odious manager to leave to see if team dynamics improve
• Waiting to cross the finish line to retirement
• Waiting on an expensive medical procedure to happen before they upend the apple cart on their health insurance situation (my non-US readers are furrowing their eyebrows in confusion right now)
• Not waiting at all — some may simply be happy to coast indefinitely. Let the job be a job, and invest their energy in real life. These happy, wise souls will likely live a decade longer than the rest of us.

How to rest and vest

Tip #1: The first and most important part of resting and vesting is to do your required duties, and be visible doing so.

If you have a physical office you go to, be smart about going on the days when your bosses are there.

If you work entirely remotely, be visible through things like commenting in slide decks, Slack groups, emails, and weekly updates. Make sure your comments are thoughtful and helpful, and make sure the right people see them.

Tip #2: Maximize your productivity so you can minimize your time

Use Bard and ChatGPT to make your work go faster, in whatever way that translates for your job.

Create templates for any repeat work you find yourself doing.

Do not overthink deliverables.

Build on other people’s work (with credit), instead of producing original work. This has the added bonus of reinforcing a network of allies.

Tip #3: Make sure your calendar looks full

One great way to do this is to schedule blocks of time for heads-down work. For example, if you need to review a slide deck and you estimate it will take 45 minutes, block out 90 minutes.

Do not label it “heads down time.” People will schedule over that nonsense. Label it something like “Workplace strategy benchmarks” or whatever the subject of the deck is.

If the task ends up taking longer than you thought, you’ve got the time to finish it properly without rushing to the next thing. If you end up with extra time during that window, it’s yours to do with as you will. See the next tip.

Tip #4: There’s no such thing as “business hours” in a corporate setting

In blue collar jobs, your job is limited to the confines of a specific time of day. You do your shift from 9am to 5pm, for instance, and then you go home.

In the corporate world, you could be looking at email on your phone throughout the evenings. You could be attending a meeting that spans time zones, resulting in an 8pm or 6am meeting time for you.

So if you’re expected to punctuate the hours outside the traditional workday with occasional work, then it’s fair game to punctuate the workday hours with occasional personal pursuits.

Tip #5: Take full advantage of perks and benefits

Use some of your newly found free time to research all financial benefits, corporate discounts, and perks that you may not realise you have access to.

If your workplace offers perks like a fitness space, use it.

Free courses? Look into them.

Reimbursement for outside education? Time to book that watercolor class you keep thinking about.

Time off to volunteer? Why not.

And remember, all of these activities need time so block them on your calendar with cryptic names.

Not only does this enrich your life, but it has the added bonus of making you seem busier because people will assume you’re in meetings when you leave your desk or see that you’re calendar is stuffed.

Tip #6: Remember that connections are the most valuable thing you gain from an employer

While spending your time churning out more slide decks may not yield a good return on investment for your energy, nurturing genuine relationships will. Always.

So make sure the limited work output you do produce makes other people look good, and therefore feel good about you. Make sure it genuinely helps your coworkers.

Ironically, resting and vesting may actually make it easier to genuinely bond with your coworkers. Why?

By slowing down you’ll be less stressed and happier.

That makes you more likeable.

It also gives you more head space to be curious about other people, which is the number one key to connecting.

Lunches and coffee breaks with people you feel a connection with is a great use of that extra time you freed up.

Having a strong band of allies will help elevate your profile at work and insulate you from any suspicion that you’re not contributing enough.

Plus there’s the cold hard truth that most job leads come from your connections, of course — that’s just Adulting 101. But even if you don’t need your connections for job hunting, genuine human connection has been shown to make you healthier and happier and live longer.

After all, living a healthier and happier life is the whole point of resting and vesting.

Got any hot tips to help the corporate coasters? Do tell.

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