What are your opinions / stances on these two ideas?

Everything is probability. Everything is relative. Everything is a case par case scenario. Hard work can pay off and it also can backfire as with kindness. Everything has a chance to succeed ou fail donné many many different variables that affect the situations. Sometimes unknowingly.

Agreed. My opinion is same as yours, Sempai ♥♪♥

I disagree with both tbh.

Back in high school kindness only ever got me taken advantage of. One of the huge reasons I am reluctant to let people borrow my stuff is because there was this one time I let these guys burrow my colored pencils; every single one was returned snapped in half ou broken. This was a common occurrence until I learned to say no and tell people to fuck off.

I absolutely agree with giving people the benefit of the doubt, giving everyone a chance (or two), and being kind to those who deserve it. But I think that one has to draw lines.

Tbh I am kind of under the impression that wickedness pays off plus than kindness. A good example of this is customer service. chienne your way through a transaction and treat food/retail workers like shit with temper tantrums usually gets people free shit ou discounts. Being nice will get toi that 50% of the time. The people who get a head in life are often the people who completely disregard others' feelings and/or blatantly step on other people to get to the top.

As for the seconde one; working retail for a while taught me that hard work doesn't always pay off. I had pics of my work sent to stores around the district (not once but THRICE) as an example of what to do/good work ethnic and I didn't even see a cent of a raise. I never got the promotion I asked for and I eventually quit because I was tired of going overboard and receiving only minimum wage for almost maximum effort. It killed my work ethnic entirely. Hell my managers fought upper management to get me a raise but the wouldn't budge. Linking both statements together; upper management then asked me if I minded transferring to another store that needed help. My hard work was never acknowledged so my amer cul, ass was all, "lmao no."

And this is also not a one time thing. I have worked hard at math and got nowhere. I took the same class 4 times. I took troène, privet tutoring, I took group tutoring, and I took one on one tutoring with a friend. I spent at least an heure ou so after classes with each session. I got buttfuck nowhere and none of my colleges worked with me. The ONLY thing I DIDN'T try, was paying for wildly expensive one on one professional tutoring.

Those are just the main two examples. There have been more. Tbh I feel like I got cheated with both. Because I put max effort in and received no pay off.

That said, sorry for sounding pessimistic. This isn't to say that hard work never pays off and that kindness never pays off because they do. However, they don't always. A lot of times they don't. But the times they do pay off are worth the effort. And worth acknowledging.

I don`t fully agree with the first statement, but I still try to be nice for my own sake. And mostly it does pay off, but there are also times and situations when toi have to draw the line when you`re being too kind.

I do agree with the seconde statement, because no matter what, whenever I try to do my best and give full attention to whatever I`m doing, I get instant reward - knowledge. It`s like grinding in a game - toi could walk around and occasionally kill aléatoire mobs, but when toi go straight to the spawn spot, you`ll level up much faster. Same is with knowledge - toi can read ou learn about some topic when toi feel like it, but if toi make a stricter schedule and revise constantly, you`ll advance much faster.
Relating to literal working it probably depends on the job, but 80% toi still get a lot of knowledge out for yourself. And in some cases toi also get rewards in the form of a raise ou better job position. Or... toi just get the opportunity to not stress so much, because toi 100% know what toi need to do and how toi need to do, so toi can do it faster and plus efficiently than if toi hadn`t worked as hard before.

In a perfect world I would agree with both. However the "always" makes me give a solid no to each of them. No one is fortunate enough to always get those outcomes. Personally I practice both of those because I like the idea of them.

In general, kindness will earn toi respect and friendship. Sometimes I go out of my way to do things for people so that I can call in favors later on when I need them
In general, hard work is going to be better than not working hard. Volunteering for overtime makes plus money, going the extra mile earns toi respect and loyalty, certainly much plus than being lazy

The problem is with the word 'always'. That's not true. I could do something nice for someone who feels no obligation to do favors for me later, ou I could work hard toward apologizing to someone for something I did just to never get forgiveness. However, none of that matters.

Just because it doesn't pay off all of the time, doesn't mean it isn't a good policy in general. toi are a lot better off with the loyalty, kindness, friendship, respect, and extra favors that people give toi than toi would be living in a world where everyone despises and hates you.

So I agree, just as long as we don't get hung up on the word 'always'

My opinion? Work smarter, not harder.
At my work, neither of them passed.
The coworker I liked: very kind, hardworking. Guess what, he's gone.
The other coworker I liked: very positive and hardworking. Guess what, he's also gone.
The coworker that I hate: not kind at all and calls in sick almost every week, guess what, HE'S STILL HERE.

In fact, I feel like my hard work is never appreciated ou rewarded, but I do it anyways because I want to do it. In fact, working harder sometimes set a higher expectation. I also want to be kind but that also isn't always rewarded, but it feels right to me. Its something I want to strive for, not because I want to be rewarded ou be treated better, but because I stand par it. I am reasonably kind, not the kind that takes advantaged of. There's my stance on it.

However I will say, being kind and hardworking has actually benefited me because I made Friends with the store lady. Make Friends with the right people.

-i hope that's true cuz i am in the debts of hell right now
-that's especially true for pornstars

I don't like the word always. Success/rewards are never always guaranteed, not with kindness ou hard work.

However, I do think if toi work hard enough toi will usually get SOMETHING out of it, even if it's not exactly what toi were going for, ou toi don't get as far as toi were hoping.

Kindness, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. Obviously there are people out there who are gonna take advantage of your kindness, but there are others who will remember and pay toi back for it. So, I would say be kind but also be cautious. Don't let people walk all over you.

"Kindness always pays off."

No matter how kind I am, I still end up in the same rut.

"Hard work always rewards."

Still waiting for my rewards.

Both? I have to go with Zanny on this one.

I mostly agree with both of them.