So, since my boss’s assistant left for another department, they’re beginning a search for someone new. He asked me to take part in the interview process because he wants to find someone with similar skillsets and attitude towards work as me… which is interesting on many levels, one of which I will describe:
I’ve been trying to come to terms with this thing people keep throwing at me: respect. I’ve never had a job where I work on what I need to do, put in a little extra, and get rewarded for it (monetarily as well as in people’s attitudes). The thing about respect is that it’s cyclical; if you do your best to respect others but they don’t respect you, eventually you stop doing things that deserve respect. On the other hand, if mutual respect is assumed at first and maintained, good results come easier.
Now if I could only get over the fact that corporations are evil…
I know what you mean. I used to always tell my bosses that they’ll get the best results out of me when they consider me as someone who works WITH them instead of working FOR them. It’s basically the same thing as what you’re saying. The more they respected me, the more I respected them and the better I worked.
Totally. When I got a new boss, I found myself trying less and less because I didn’t feel like she respected me at all, whereas my old boss talked to me like we were on the same level.
Of course, now I have no boss.
Ah yes, Barb. That IS the best. 🙂
Very true. Nothing degrades one’s quality of work as much as the feeling that no one cares, or that no one expects anything from you.
On the other hand, having your boss hand you a big ugly project that he doesn’t want to do, because you’ve asked for a little more responsibility can be a bad thing. 🙂
Backfired on me, at my last job, when I went from practically no responsibility to producing a large series of projects involving the coordination of artists, copywriters, and “experts”, all of whom were older than me and didn’t particularly see why they should be doing what *I* expected them to. That was bad.
But respect, yes. That’s nice.