More Awesome Than You!

I'm not exactly sure what effect "Work Hard" has, and for that matter "Take it Easy"
I don't notice my job performance increase any quicker or slower with either option, in fact it goes up easier while I'm taking it easy because I will have Fun moodlets the entire day.  Is there some other benefit to Work Hard that I'm not seeing, or is it just broken?

And no, my Sim does not have the "Professional Slacker" award, nor any award for that matter.

I have tried several of the options and I have found the "Meet all the other workers/team mates" does give you a boost.  Also when you choose "Work Hard", "Work on Special Project", you get stressed a lot quicker but also I noticed it seems you get more reward options and I got loads of raises.

So I can't be absolutley sure these caused those outcomes but it seems as though they did.

Good point.  Now that you mention that, it seems to match my observations.  I earned more raises with my professional slacker Sim, while the Sim I'm playing hasn't earned a raise in his entire young adult life (I've been taking it easy and socialize with coworkers the whole time).

Do raises "carry over" as you get promoted though?  If I earn a raise at level 1 and then get promoted, do I earn the base level 2 salary or is getting promoted just going to add a certain amount on top of my already raised value?  If it resets to base value at each promotion, I'm never going to work hard until the top of the career.  No point since the raises early on are pathetic amounts anyway, and if they don't even carry into higher levels it's a waste of time.

If you work hard for too long, then you get a negative moodlet for being too stressed.

It seems from what I have observed that these raises do indeed add to the base salary and are carried over.  I got a raise last night from the "Work Hard" of $33 an hour which is the biggest one I have gotten yet.

As far as raises carrying over, I think it might depend on when the raise actually happens. I had a raise happen in the middle of a work day for my Sim and then he got promoted at the end of the shift. The hourly wage actually dropped to match the new wage for the promotion.  :-\

There are no hard facts in this thread, so this is not Facts and Strategery. Back to the Horror section.

If you make sure your Sim has a lot of positive moodlets, then let them stress out and take care of it at home.

Certainly if they have a big one like marriage or babies keeping them happy, working hard is fine, but the point is that if all you care about is getting promoted, and money doesn't matter at all, then working hard has no purpose.  I'm okay with that, I just wish that it was more clear.

Wages and raises should be simple enough to figure out.  Have a sim get promoted without getting any raises by taking it easy every day at work and passing on all opportunities, then have a sim earn a bunch of raises by working hard and see if their numbers come up differently after any given promotion.  The incident that TheCheat described doesn't give me much hope though.