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Even on a purely technical level every organization has unprovable things its members believe in. Challenging any of these openly is a surefire way to get told
by l0b0 8y ago
Even on a purely technical level every organization has unprovable things its members believe in. Challenging any of these openly is a surefire way to get told in office-ese to STFU noob. Quietly demonstrating that they were wrong results in at least some cognitive dissonance, with all the mental fallout that gives. Even worse, you've done this after challenging them, and everyone gets defensive. And the absolute worst, as the author experienced, is when money or ideals is at stake, and you unknowingly shift the goal posts.
I worked at a place with mostly time-limited positions as my first job, and based on what my original boss said I'm pretty sure the new boss passed over my application because of politics like these. But like the author this only strengthened my resolve to question my own and others' assumptions.
- busterarm 8y agoVery early in my working life I had the misfortune of doing data entry and cashier work where I significantly outperformed my coworkers. I was _hated_ in these jobs. What I didn't realize was that the team's performance was dictated by the top performers and that _everyone_ was intentionally slowing down their work so that they could have a relaxed, easy job. By doing my best work, management set the expectation for everyone to work 10% better than that. What I didn't understand at the time was that several of the folks in that job were lifers and they'd realized quickly that the compounding interest of always having to perform 10% better every month would break them. My eagerness to do good work was quite literally ruining their lives. My take away lesson from this was to always try to work someone with people who are more skilled and more ambitious than you are or with people who want you to help pull them forward.