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Once a PM and I were working on something and we came to a task where we needed to spend an hour or two repeatedly clicking through some boilerplate webforms in

Once a PM and I were working on something and we came to a task where we needed to spend an hour or two repeatedly clicking through some boilerplate webforms in our own product, for an incredibly stupid reason, at the behest of a significant customer. I shrugged and told the PM I would do it, and I was kind of looking forward to listening to a podcast and mindlessly clicking. She told me that I had a valuable skill set and it wasn't a good use of my time and that she would do it instead. I really wanted to ask, but thought better of it, "Don't you have a valuable skill set?" I guess the charitable interpretation is that she wanted to listen to a podcast (or equivalent). The less charitable interpretation is that she didn't value her own contributions.

jamesmishra 6y ago
I cannot know what your colleague truly meant, but there are many more explanations than the two that you mentioned. She may simply have offered to do the task out of kindness to you--not out of a belief in her own inferiority. Alternatively, perhaps she thinks you wouldn't pay attention to the task and she would.
discordance 6y ago
Could also be a case of low ego or imposter syndrome
ZephyrBlu 6y ago
This kind of sounds like what a PM should be doing though. Remove distractions and let you focus on your work.
smsm42 6y ago
Maybe she had a free hour. That happens. I usually have a bunch of things being worked on, but from time to time the stars align in a weird way and I'm waiting for some inputs or for some long-term process to finish and may have a couple of hours where I don't have anything specific to do. I won't start anything major because I'd have to drop it soon then, but I may go read some articles, or listen to a talk, or update docs, or clean up some minor tech debt. Or maybe do some stupid stuff that needs to be done and can be done by anybody, but this time it's me. Maybe that was such a moment for her, nothing to do with skills. Even very skilled people sometimes have to do some boring work.

jamesmishra 6y ago

I cannot know what your colleague truly meant, but there are many more explanations than the two that you mentioned. She may simply have offered to do the task out of kindness to you--not out of a belief in her own inferiority. Alternatively, perhaps she thinks you wouldn't pay attention to the task and she would.

discordance 6y ago

Could also be a case of low ego or imposter syndrome

ZephyrBlu 6y ago

This kind of sounds like what a PM should be doing though. Remove distractions and let you focus on your work.

smsm42 6y ago

Maybe she had a free hour. That happens. I usually have a bunch of things being worked on, but from time to time the stars align in a weird way and I'm waiting for some inputs or for some long-term process to finish and may have a couple of hours where I don't have anything specific to do. I won't start anything major because I'd have to drop it soon then, but I may go read some articles, or listen to a talk, or update docs, or clean up some minor tech debt. Or maybe do some stupid stuff that needs to be done and can be done by anybody, but this time it's me. Maybe that was such a moment for her, nothing to do with skills. Even very skilled people sometimes have to do some boring work.