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Manager's perspective: We have Rachel on the team, she thinks she's so smart. She tells others to just 'figure it out' in a condescending manner, bringing the t
by alexashka 9y ago
Manager's perspective:
We have Rachel on the team, she thinks she's so smart. She tells others to just 'figure it out' in a condescending manner, bringing the team morale down. Nobody likes her but we keep it polite and cordial because we're professional.
She one day told me about some 'experiment' she's going to do, I don't know what she meant. We received a complaint 2 months later, it turns out it's because of Rachel. What is wrong with her?
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It can take some time for idealistic, intelligent people to understand how other people may not be into system admin, or into programming, or managing, or whatever their job is. They stumbled into it, realized they don't really like it, but don't want to uproot their life, to 'find their passion'. They just want to work, and go home.
Those people are not to be hated, despised, or complained about. They are not happy. It would be like getting angry at someone in a wheelchair for taking up so much room on the bus. They are in a wheelchair, you're not. It is up to you to accommodate and help them if you can, because you actually have that ability in you, they're just getting by.
Empathy does not come natural to everyone, and usually comes with age. I hope Rachel has moved on to better things.
- tumanian 9y agoThank you for writing this - there is so much empathy in this.
- taneq 9y agoShe told her manager precisely what was wrong, that it wasn't an issue, and that she was going to leave it to see if anyone else gave a rat's ass. If the manager was going to object to this plan, the time was then. Having a whinge about it months later while taking no responsibility and trying to make it sound like she'd just skived off? Nah.
- alexashka 9y agoThe entire point of my reply was to show that there is Rachel's side to the story, and then the manager's. You can spend your entire life thinking other people should act a certain way and say things like 'the time was then'. I understand the smug satisfaction of thinking you know better than somebody else. I also know the loneliness and frustration of living in a world of perceiving other people as being wrong, less, or better etc. It's exhausting for you, it's at best exhausting for others to deal with you, so who is winning? I know the ego-trip side of thinking you're right is feeling like it's a winner. Go see if your heart and gut agree - the gut will communicate by clenching or being relaxed, the heart by being closed or open. I know there are plenty of people walking around with a clenched gut, a closed heart and a very busy mind that's gleefully judging everything in sight and gossiping about it with other minds, posting on HackerNews etc. I just don't know anyone who's happy, engaged in that lifestyle :)
- taneq 9y agoI've taken some time to think about it and my gut says that manager was an asshole. I'm not a particularly judgemental person, but one thing that does incur my ire is managers not taking responsibility for things under their control.