RE: Plays well with others

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Someone -- was it, perhaps bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com? -- continued 
the thread with:
 
> On the other hand, recognizing that chronic behavior often has a
> reason may help you to act. In the end, it's more useful. You may
> still want to grind your teeth in frustration, but you might
> actually be able to solve the problem short of firing the problem
> employee.

I can honestly say I've never been grumpy/nasty directly 
to the face of anyone where I work, though I have been 
known to curse up a blue streak when the tools pick 
deadline-time to * -at- #%! up... but we needn't go into that...

However, less than a year ago, a certain director took me 
aside and told me that I had a political/attitude problem. 
Personally, he was more than pleased with my work and 
generally very amused with my... um... ascerbic (yes, that's 
the word we settled on) style.  The point, however, was that 
certain humorless # -at- %&*!s had moved into influential positions 
and apparently had it in for me, based entirely upon a 
communication style that I had retained from the days when 
we were a 35-person company.

I am still working for the same company, today, and I credit 
that man's calm and forthright approach. Without his intervention, 
I would likely have dug myself in deeper, all unknowing, and 
found myself becoming one with the recent wave of layoffs 
(we just chopped 10% today).  
It was a simple, almost effortless adjustment on my part (taking 
a different tone in my public e-mails), coupled with a one-time 
nudge on his part, saying "See how much Kevin has improved on 
this point in just two months" (or whatever). 

So, the message is re-inforced that, if there's anything 
worth saving in the employee, then it's certainly worth 
letting them know that shortcomings or irritatants are 
perceived.  After all, behaviors that work or don't matter 
in one context might unintentionally spill into other 
settings, and it's really, really difficult to address/
fix/improve something if you are simply unaware of it.

The other, equally-important message is that if your 
employee's ... er... qualities have elicited concern 
outside your immediate group, but the employee 
corrects her/his approach, it is essential to make 
the change known to the outside parties. If you don't, 
they will continue to harbor their previous impression, 
which will color all transactions unfairly. You see 
what you are accustomed to seeing, especially if the 
change is a subtraction, rather than an addition to a 
routine stimulus set.

I intend to keep those lessons close to my heart if the 
company ever revives the plan to get me fresh, new, 
shiny junior writer.

/kevin

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