3 ms·

Why should nothing ever feel bad?

csours 9y ago
Why should everything be terrible forever? The article is talking about people who are systematically bad for organizations, not people who have a bad day sometimes.
- kingkawn 9y ago
  Amen! what’s wrong with confronting them directly without the careful parsing demanded by our self-limiting ideas of being well behaved.
  - spenczar5 9y ago
    It usually doesn't work. They usually don't get better. It's usually better to just not have hired them in the first place. You waste a lot of time. That's my experience.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    There's usually far better ways to do it, and in my experience, "confronting them directly" is usually code speak for "get to yell and browbeat someone".
- alexashka 9y ago
  Things can be terrible because some people don't know how to act. Things can also be terrible because some people don't know how to do the job properly. It is a lot easier to find a yes-man/woman than a brilliant anyone. Companies are ruined by mediocrity far more than they're ruined by 'brilliant jerks' bullying the company into non-existence. Who'd you rather have as your surgeon - a brilliant jerk the nurses have to put up with, or a nice guy/lady who screws up sometimes but will feel really bad about it afterwards and will write you a hand-written apology. I'll take the jerk every time.
  - csours 9y ago
    > "a brilliant jerk the nurses have to put up with, or a nice guy/lady who screws up sometimes but will feel really bad about it afterwards and will write you a hand-written apology." The brilliant jerk will have set a precedent in the operating room that leads to people not questioning their decisions, even when they are wrong, leading to uncaught mistakes. The most brilliant jerk will sometimes slip up. [0] See also Crew Resource Management: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management 0. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-glossary-of-human-computer-interaction/human-error-slips-and-mistakes https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-gloss...
    - alexashka 9y ago
      Great, we agree to hire people who are good at their job, and then train them to be effective at communication with others. I didn't see that in the article. All I saw was a witch hunt. A witch hunt (aka don't hire them witches) because the witches are disturbing the health of the village. It's stone-age thinking - I've heard of a story about a brilliant jerk, his name was Jesus Christ. The irony of a Christian nation calling for excommunication of those most resembling their savior is really something.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    False dichotomy.
0xfeba 9y ago
I have to say, a similar thought crossed my mind. This is the result of political correctness: No one should ever feel wrong or bad. But then again, it depends entirely on the author's definition of "selfish" and "bad team player". Having worked at a small startup with 10 people, who would... not berate, but explain bluntly, you if you did something wrong, and a big corporation where you have to always read between the lines to get to the point of any conversation, I see vast differences in productivity. But my sample size is so small, so I shall sit and ponder some more, and only talk about it on online forums...
s73ver_ 9y ago
Why should coming to work suck more than it has to?

Why should everything be terrible forever? The article is talking about people who are systematically bad for organizations, not people who have a bad day sometimes.

kingkawn 9y ago
Amen! what’s wrong with confronting them directly without the careful parsing demanded by our self-limiting ideas of being well behaved.
- spenczar5 9y ago
  It usually doesn't work. They usually don't get better. It's usually better to just not have hired them in the first place. You waste a lot of time. That's my experience.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  There's usually far better ways to do it, and in my experience, "confronting them directly" is usually code speak for "get to yell and browbeat someone".
alexashka 9y ago
Things can be terrible because some people don't know how to act. Things can also be terrible because some people don't know how to do the job properly. It is a lot easier to find a yes-man/woman than a brilliant anyone. Companies are ruined by mediocrity far more than they're ruined by 'brilliant jerks' bullying the company into non-existence. Who'd you rather have as your surgeon - a brilliant jerk the nurses have to put up with, or a nice guy/lady who screws up sometimes but will feel really bad about it afterwards and will write you a hand-written apology. I'll take the jerk every time.
- csours 9y ago
  > "a brilliant jerk the nurses have to put up with, or a nice guy/lady who screws up sometimes but will feel really bad about it afterwards and will write you a hand-written apology." The brilliant jerk will have set a precedent in the operating room that leads to people not questioning their decisions, even when they are wrong, leading to uncaught mistakes. The most brilliant jerk will sometimes slip up. [0] See also Crew Resource Management: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management 0. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-glossary-of-human-computer-interaction/human-error-slips-and-mistakes https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-gloss...
  - alexashka 9y ago
    Great, we agree to hire people who are good at their job, and then train them to be effective at communication with others. I didn't see that in the article. All I saw was a witch hunt. A witch hunt (aka don't hire them witches) because the witches are disturbing the health of the village. It's stone-age thinking - I've heard of a story about a brilliant jerk, his name was Jesus Christ. The irony of a Christian nation calling for excommunication of those most resembling their savior is really something.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  False dichotomy.

0xfeba 9y ago

I have to say, a similar thought crossed my mind. This is the result of political correctness: No one should ever feel wrong or bad. But then again, it depends entirely on the author's definition of "selfish" and "bad team player". Having worked at a small startup with 10 people, who would... not berate, but explain bluntly, you if you did something wrong, and a big corporation where you have to always read between the lines to get to the point of any conversation, I see vast differences in productivity. But my sample size is so small, so I shall sit and ponder some more, and only talk about it on online forums...

s73ver_ 9y ago

Why should coming to work suck more than it has to?