Naysayers…
I find in the tech industry there are a lot of naysayers. Seems like they are always trying to put a negative tone on everything. My favorites are the drop outs. My definition of a dropout is someone that leaves a company or is fired from the company and goes off to tell the world how bad the company is.
Granted there are a lot of bad companies out there. Mine has its ups and downs, but I have the power of change. I know that I can make a difference where I work so that my work life stays out of my real life. I guess I need to explain. How many times have you said “I hate my job because of ” Now, I guess the more pertinent question is how often have you tried to truly make a difference in that particular aspect you dislike? Needless to say, I don’t get my way every time. Although I would love to, I learned about the power of shifting.
Shifting:
Ever seen the Nissan commercial where they flash the SHIFT_life, SHIFT_thinking, etc. across the screen? Truthfully, that is all you need. I have found that if I am not reaching someone here at work, I need to shift the way I am communicating with them. You don’t ram a roadblock… you go around it. My communication with someone will not always jive with there perception of a situation. Therefore I need to try in as many ways as it takes to get the message across… hence “shifting”. If one method doesn’t work, I try another… I am always sincere, never fake and most definitely never beat around the bush. Get to the point… just in a way the other person understands where you are coming from.
I’ll get fired!
Honestly… if you work at a place that would fire you for your opinion or for trying to make your environment a better place, do you really want to be there? I will never be a slave to my job. I can’t be because I know I have the power to make a difference and to make things better for my team and for my company. The result is a much better working environment along with a better outlook on my day. I don’t notice time anymore… errr… I have my bad days of course (inner nerd).
Naysayers:
Ever heard: “Things have always been like that here.” “That will always be the same.” “Get use to it.” “That’s ’s culture.”? All naysayers! I was told that when I came to my new company. Things were bad… very bad. I was actually dragging for the first 4-6 months because I really felt I had made a bad choice. I actually became a naysayer. Funny thing is, I was consumed by it. I would bring it home, I would talk about it at lunch and I would have days that seemed like weeks. I lost all motivation. I finally decided I needed to shift. I ended up getting away from the bad… I would avoid negative conversations about my job and instead give feedback to my peers and my managers. I was pleasantly surprised.
I learned something a long time ago. If you go into a meeting with someone with an idea of how they will react, 9 times out of 10 they will. I think it is just in the way we communicate with one another. Body language is something that can be much more powerful than words… think of your first kiss. I go into a meeting thinking the person I am talking about is going to listen and really hear what I have to say… it really does work. Naysayers are shaking there heads, so you might want to sit out this round and come back when you are ready. Try it… you will be surprised at how much energy you save being positive vs. negative. I feel I have really made a difference in an area where people have said it can’t be done. That is a true accomplishment.
Blogger Naysayers:
If you worked at my company and have nothing better to do than ponder the idea of how to bag on it… I really want you to think hard and see if you had really truly given your heart to make a change here. If you haven’t then get out of my house. Seriously, there’s the door.
Word,
Matt
on April 5, 2006 at 5:28 pm
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As you say, the key to making a difference is all in your attitude. I survived at “your company” for a long time because I recognize that chaos is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to improve things, and an opportunity to be instrumental in the improvement process. On the other hand, I think it is important to understand the limitations of the culture and the roadblocks that exist. You can’t go around an obstacle that you can’t see.
The concept of “shifting” is a good one, mainly because it reduces exhaustion. It is exhausting to keep crashing into the same barriers. It also becomes a drag to have to keep doding the same barriers, but that takes longer to get to you. I managed to last a little over three years.
No job is perfect anyway, so it is cool if you can make the best of the one you have. If you reach a time when all this “energy” is used up, you can always make the big “shift” and try again.
on November 29, 2006 at 6:07 pm
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I can’t believe I missed the comment here Remetep… As I have said before I need to keep this going or I need to pull down the site.
I totally get your point and I of course know what you are talking about. It has been 10 months since I have written this article and I have seen monumental changes here and mostly for the good.
To your last point… I can resonate. Keep in mind I when I wrote this I was on my way to being the only developer here… with no manager. I was sick of hearing the stories day in and day out about how unhappy people were and yet they were telling me. Nothing could be done with that and the ones that needed to know where only being informed by a handful. Some just didn’t know how to listen. I must say that has changed quite a bit now. Those who weren’t listening to the team where being shunned by it and it made a difference… a very large one. I think you saw that in your last days here too.
The only true happiness is when those unforseens you speak of are caused by yourself. That is the true happiness of being self employed! =þ