My dad worked alone. He was responsible
for the signals working properly on a section of railroad track – his
“district” – about 30 miles. He was a
“signal maintainer” – or, in more general terms, an electromechanical
technician. He didn’t go to an
office. His boss came around about
every three months. There were no
discussions around the dining table about any obstreperous colleagues or
personality conflicts.
I had no role model when I wound
up in an office in my professional life and I did very poorly at office
politics. If I didn’t like someone, I
let it show. I had friends at work, of
course, and they were no problem. One
generally doesn’t get to choose with whom you work. If you don’t like someone
(perhaps through your own fault) and you show it, it’s hard to work together
and it affects the way management looks at you. It adversely affects the assignments you get.
Looking back, I made some
terrible choices and I’ve learned the following lesson way too late in life to
be useful.
Part of any job is to get along
with the people you have to work with.
Getting along with people in a workplace where bad behavior is tolerated is the pits. For the last three years at work I was there only for the money and the benefits. That felt bad.
ReplyDeleteI must say, it has been my experience that women are much more difficult to get along with in the workplace. They (we) have a way of being friendly and cooperative on the surface and yet controlling and undermining in the background. Men at least are upfront and obvious about disagreements or dislikes. I am now retired but find the same goes for volunteer jobs.
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