As some of you dopers will know I’m often working on intranet tools that are used by the call centre department where I work.
Yesterday I finished enhancements to a page that returns a list of customers who qualified for a weekly bonus.
The enhancement I did was to make the page email all the customers with the amount that they had been awarded. Thus saving the call center person the job of emailing them manually.
Well, once I informed people of this change I was a little taken aback by the reaction. People were saying it was ace and brilliant, and they wish our actual developer did things like this. Today more of the same from staff who weren’t in yesterday.
The reason it’s so surprising is that the tool is likely to only be used by one or two of them… certainly not the ones who complimented me on it.
And I do things like this all the time, and never really get much of a reaction (It doesn’t bother me much… I’m not looking for approval. I just like doing these things to improve my skill-set)
I get the feeling their boss told them to be more appreciative of the stuff I do. If this is true then it is somewhat patronizing. I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
But anyway, ever get the feeling the people you work with have been secretly told to treat you better?
so you wrote a program that is going to give people one thing to take off of their list of things to do, and they are happy with you? You the woman/man!!!
Work places don’t usually care if people are nice to eachother at work. A few may be concerned if people are actually being mean. Anyway, IF they were told to show more appreciation, it is because they want to keep you happy so you don’t leave.
Quit worrying and have a celebration beer. Don’t forget to bring this up at your next review.
I’ve gotten a form of this, and I’ve practiced/initiated it myself.
Most recently got it when I got hosed on my comp announcement last December for kind of political purposes. I wasn’t pleased and let the guy notifying me know so. Lo and behold a few days later the dept. chairman calls to “see how things are going” and to encourage me to keep up the good work on some special (and supererogatory) projects.
Was I mad? Only to the extent they thought that the attaboy call could replace the salary bump I was really owed. I had been doing good work on the extra projects, and it was good if not entirely satisfactory to know that they realized the value (but were still willing to hose me). Hey, it’s by no means the case that contributions actually get noticed at all.
Yes, people should do their jobs because they’re their jobs, but managing includes letting people know you appreciate their basic competence (which realistically isn’t universally there) and their extra contributions. I’m not warm and touchy at all but I always try to comment, even if just by e-mail (I’m personal!), pointing out when someone has done something especially tricky, or done it especially quickly or well. The other thing this does is let the guys a few levels down know that I understand the degree of difficulty of what they are doing and how hard it is – which is true of the converse. So a fringe benefit is I communicate that as a manager, just as I appreciate a really elegant solution, I won’t be snowed by someone dragging their feet and claiming a basic task is really daunting and that’s why they’re taking so long. Well-informed praise can raise the esteem of both parties for each other.
The other context I’ve seen this is from friends and family after the difficult breakup of an LTR. Suspicious rash of “hey, want to get a drink tomorrow?” calls and long chatty e-mails on unrelated pleasant topics from female relatives, with a giveaway “hope you’re well” or “we’re thinking of you” closing line. Again, it was well-intended so though I rolled my eyes once or twice, I mainly took genuine (and not OTT) kindness where it was offered.
Yes. I’m pretty sure that’s why I first became popular in junior high. Some freshmen were told to be nice to me, and some in the lower classes noticed, but weren’t told why, so I became cool for a while.
So people are nice to you and your suspicious? Even if they were ordered to be nice to you and you find that patronizing, there are a LOT and I mean a LOT worse things than that.
Don’t create problems where none exist, 'cause the real ones will come along soon enough without anyone else’s help
I know what you’re talking about but to me this doesn’t sound like one of those cases. It sounds less like “Be nice to Lobsang” and more like “See if you can get Lobsang to keep doing extra work for us.” It seems like you’re earning some good-will that may come in handy down the line … so yeah, keep it up.
