Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about: Difference between revisions

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 *'''Not check email out of hours''': Okay, but who doesn’t doom-scroll their work inbox every now and then? If you are passingly interested in your organisation and your career, you will: in which case this is bad advice.
 '''Ask for help''': One of the core functions of any collaborative enterprise, so it should not be a surprise that fellow workers might ask each other for assistance every now and then. But there is proactive collaboration, and there is (non-directed) [[laziness]].<ref>''Directed'' [[laziness]] is a laudable end, and one that the [[JC]] regards one of the highest functions of the working stiff.</ref>
+'''Challenge things you’re not comfortable with''': Of course — could a contrarian disagree — but remember serenity’s prayer. If you find it hard to reconcile your organisation’s capitalist objectives to your own neo-Marxist values — and HR’s heroic efforts to accommodate you don’t quite go far enough — consider whether you are really in the right line of work.
 ===Don’t get carried away===
-*“Make mistakes” — well, okay. Everyone makes mistakes. But there are ''mistakes'' — snap judgments you are forced to make with limited information when dealing with a novel situation which turn out to be sub-optimal — and there are ''mistakes'' — basic errors calling into question your competence to carry out your daily function. The former are fine if you own up to them quickly, learn from them, and don’t repeat them. The latter are ''not'' okay.  Expect to be disciplined if you cannot carry out your basic function.
+*'''Make mistakes''': Well, okay. Everyone makes mistakes. But there are ''mistakes'' — snap judgments you are forced to make with limited information when dealing with a novel situation which turn out to be sub-optimal — and there are ''mistakes'' — basic errors calling into question your competence to carry out your daily function. The former are fine if you own up to them quickly, learn from them, and don’t repeat them. The latter are ''not'' okay.  Expect to be disciplined if you cannot carry out your basic function.
-*“Put your family before your work” — look, look, look: everyone with a brain — well, a heart, at any rate — ''does'' this; only a cretin ''announces it at work''. Besides, being a professional means organising your private life so it doesn’t intrude on a reasonable working day''. Genuine crises are exceptions: junior has been rushed to A&E, no-one expects you to bravely box on at work. But if your kind of crisis crops up weekly — child minder let you down again — then sort your self out. This is your problem, not your employer’s. Organise your self.
+*'''Put your family before your work''': Look, look, look: everyone with a brain — well, a heart, at any rate — ''does'' this; only a cretin ''announces it at work''. Besides, being a professional means ''organising your private life so it doesn’t intrude on a reasonable working day''. Genuine crises are exceptions: if junior has been rushed to A&E with a javelin through his thigh, no-one expects you to bravely box on at work. But if crises crop up weekly — did the child minder let you down again — then ''sort your self out''. This is ''your'' problem, not your employer’s.
-*'''Talk about it/not talk about it''': profound judiciousness is required here. There are some things one absolutely ''must'' talk about, and many one absolutely must ''not''.  The distinction is critical and is utterly lost on the [[LinkedIn]] community which, broadly, witters on publicly about all the things one must not talk about, and has almost nothing to say about the things one must. Now by all means talk about problems with the cross-indemnity structure in that new revolving credit facility. For God’s sake don’t ''not'' talk about that: that, we have to get right. But your on-going dispute with your neighbour about your communal parking space? ''Shut the hell up about it''. You’re at work. There’s stuff to do. Your personal circumstances are a topic no-one ''needs'' to know, and no-one ''wants'' to know. You remake yourself each morning for your employment. You build a stripped-back, unornamented, Spartan machine, comprising only those faculties which you believe will further your organisations commercial goals. These will, of course, include your social skills, your emotional intelligence, your empathy, all those [[illegible]] qualities by which you persuade, build consensies deliver the nuanced, ineffable, superior performance your employer asks of you. These do not, by and large, involve your political views, your deep fascination with association football   By the way, “dispute with your neighbour” is a deliberately disarming stand-in for a lot of personal issues that  people seem certain must be aired in public at all times.
+*'''Talk about it/not talk about it''': ''Profound'' judiciousness is required here. There are some things one absolutely ''must'' talk about, and many one absolutely must ''not''. Now by all means talk about problems with the cross-indemnity structure in that new revolving credit facility. For God’s sake ''do'' talk about that: that, we have to get right. But the simmering dispute with your neighbour about your communal parking space? ''Shut the hell up about it''. You’re at work. There’s stuff to do. Your personal circumstances are a topic no-one ''needs'', and no-one ''wants'', to know about. Re-make yourself each morning as a Spartan for your employment. Present as a stripped-back, unornamented, machine, comprising only those faculties which will further your organisation’s commercial goals. These will include your social skills, your emotional intelligence, your empathy, all those [[illegible]] qualities by which you persuade, build consensus, solve problems, develop relationships and deliver the nuanced, ineffable, superior performance your employer asks of you. These do not, by and large, involve your political views, your fascination with association football or the manifold ways you have been wronged by circumstance. If you are on deck, with a phone, a job, an internet connection and the luxury of cultivate a detailed catalogue of your grievances, you are privileged enough to spare your colleagues the details. Yes, you may be fighting a battle others know nothing about.  Part of that battle should be a struggle to keep it that way.
 *'''Not know everything''': There’s knowing ''everything'', of course, and then knowing ''nothing''. To be sure: if you are the office apprentice, a basic facility with making tea and deft photocopying is all any one can ask of you, but ''be a hoover''. If, after nine months, tea and xeroxing remain your only qualities, be sure to [[Get your coat|remember where you put your coat]] — you may find you need it suddenly. If you have been there, ploughing the same furrow for seven years, then you damn well ''should know'' near enough everything there is to know about the [[BAU]]. You should be the one people turn to at the moment of ''[[tetas arriba]]'', and no-one wants to hear you going, “I don’t know! Don’t ask me!” Earn your paycheck, soldier. ''Think'' of something.
 *'''Be confused''': Don’t make a habit of being confused. Unavoidable, every now and then, but to be avoided where possible. The bare minimum anyone ought to be able to expect of your years in tertiary education — apparently a vain hope these days — is a basic faculty for the English language and a general ability to reason, think critically, and ask informed questions; all skills calculated to head off confusion in the first place, and ''dispel'' it should it arrive unbidden from the moronic actions of another. ''Your own ongoing confusion'' is a sure sign that you are, to put not too fine a point on it, ''useless''. Don’t be useless.
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 *'''Have your pets, partner, housemates or children gatecrash your video conference''': No, just don’t. Close the door. If you don’t have a door, go to the office. You are a professional. You should be ''mortified'' if your child invades your Zoom call. And no, filters are not okay either.
 *'''Add some gaps in your day to think and rest''': Think, okay; — ''rest''?  Look: you’ve been sitting on your chuff all day doing [[conference calls]]. What ''is'' that if it isn’t rest? Unless we are talking about lunch, and you self-identify as a wimp — do your resting at the end of the day.
+*'''Have a cry''': Overcoming the stigma of mental health gets a lot of play, and we are frequently beseeched to be more understanding about each others’ psychological travails — and so we must — but that does not mean living through them at work. If your mental state is vulnerable enough that you are uncontrollably crying, ''you should not be at work''. It is no place to work through existential mental health issues, and nor is not fair on your colleagues — or you, for that matter — to expect them to provide the treatment you may need. If it is your work that is causing your mental issues, and you can’t resolve them, then ''change your job''.
+'''Feel like these are crazy times, because they are crazy times''': No doubt he’s been cancelled by now,<ref>Can confirm, per the [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/manchester-students-union-university-rudyard-kipling-poem-paint-over-racist-colonial-a8452801.html Independent]: “Fatima Abid, general secretary of the students’ union, wrote on [[Twitter]]: “We removed an imperialist’s work from the walls of our union and replaced them with the words of Maya Angelou.”</ref> but ''Keep your head while all about you are losing theirs''. The craziest thing about 2021 is that there hasn’t been a world war in seventy years. Think yourself lucky, and get on with it, while everyone else is running around with their hair on fire flapping about how crazy it is.
+*'''Have a crappy day''': See: have a cry. If you take this to mean “I can just be a bit rubbish at work” well, yes you can, but expect to be marked down for it. You are an athlete: do your talking on the pitch. Have a crappy day ''in your own time''.
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