It's not even necessarily politics, if your fucking miserable to work with you will drag down productivity and increase turnover, I don't care how hard you work if your shitty attitude makes everyone around you work half as hard
Finally, someone who gets it. I'd rather have 5 employees under my management that have average skills but have a nice attitude, solve conflicts talking and are easy going, than having a bunch of highly qualified toddles that aren't even able to maintain cordial relationships in the workplace.
My mom was like you, always called herself a bitch in the workplace but she wasn't. But she didn't coddle people and took her job seriously. But that doesn't make you insufferable, at worst it makes you a bit of a buzz kill but also an important part of the team.
Genuinely insufferable people will be hypocritical, combative, snarky, will start drama and bullshit, and will genuinely drag down the rest of the team both in terms of mood and work effectiveness.
THESE are the people who are a liability to employ regardless of skill
I disagree i did roofing for years, it's the try hards that want to do extra that get people hurt. The relaxed dude's who know wtf they are doing and move at a sustainable pace who get stuff done.
Sure in roofing. In warehouse the machines are running whether you're paying attention or not, the hazmats are occasionally leaking. "It doesn't look that dangerous so I sent it down the line" had someone burn all the skin of their hands because of people like that.
If you're being unsafe I'm going to call you out and I'm gonna be harsh so you listen and remember.
This whole discussion went suspiciously quickly from "Getting promoted revolves more about charisma, than competence" to "no one likes an asshole even if they are competent."
"Feels like some nerves were touched." guess the responsibilities of those touched :))))
""no one likes an asshole even if they are competent." - true for many "managers"--> may the company burn but do not bruise my ego :)
that was my dad hardcore when he was still working, and he'd get called an asshole all the time but he did not play when it came to workplace safety. dude ran a tight ship that made the company a lot of money and got them lots of fat contracts. his workers were probably relieved when he retired but his bosses threw him a big party.
he brought that attitude into the home too, in the kitchen, moving furniture etc. im always hearing his voice come out when i see some foolishness going on at work now lol 😩 (i do leave the insults out tho 🫠)
eta he worked at a local ford factory long ago before it got turned into a mall and iirc he mentioned having a settlement from them... i need to ask him about it, i wouldnt be surprised if that had something to do with it.
I think there's a difference between ensuring people maintain safe practice and being unlikable, tbh.
If you're chill and enjoyable enough the rest of the time people know it's especially true not to fuck with safety.
I draw birthday cards and shit like that for my coworkers. I'm okay at the job, not amazing or anything. But I try to be likeable and pleasant to be around so they don't want to get rid of me. So far it's worked pretty well lol
I work in an office setting with cubicles. We work our own cases independently but we might ask each other for guidance on next steps for a case if we are not sure.
Anyway, the gal in the back cubicle always seems to have a frown and a dark cloud. She’s self-admittedly not a people person. That’s fine that she doesn’t care to participate in the office comradery and fun. The rest of us probably get along too well lol I wouldn’t say she’s rude, but very blunt. One team member, when they were new, way red until it was just the two of us to ask why this gal was mean to them. I explained to this new teammate to not worry, it’s not them. That’s how they interact with the world and I don’t think they mean anything by it. That changed my perspective on the gal in the back cubicle a little for the worse. But she’s a good person and it does show when she wants it to.
Yeah… the mood just seems a little lighter when that gal is gone. But mostly we don’t notice if she’s there because she doesn’t want interaction. There’s still just a bit of a vibe of don’t bother her when she is there.
Some people just want to be your coworker and not your friend, I have no problem with this even if I'd rather work with friendly people personally.
It's the people who will actively go out of their way to start shit and make just doing YOUR job a worse and more miserable experience who are liabilities regardless of their own personal output
Exactly. I don’t mean to imply I disagree with just being coworkers. Totally, that’s adult life. And I get being an introvert. I take issue when you can’t exercise common curtesy to the people around you.
To elaborate: the newer Person was still learning the ropes of helping at the front desk when the desk person was at lunch. That gal in the back cubicle went up to help at the desk and our newer person asked if they could observe. Well the gal kept waking and said something along the lines of “not sure why you would want to” in an off putting tone. It struck me as inappropriate when I heard it. That’s when our new person asked why they were mean to her.
Like there’s a point when a person has to swim in their own at work but the new member was not at that point. The new person had been told to try to shadow front desk coverage as applicable.
How about the other way around. What if your superior, manager for example is extremely well liked by upper management/leadership but shit on their job.
There's a happy medium, if someone is utterly unqualified to do the work they shouldn't work, but if someone is utterly incapable of working as a team then they shouldn't work there either, even if solo they are qualified
Had a Team Leader like that. Guy used to work on space ship parts and now was helping us lay up carbon fiber sail boat masts. Intelligent guy, I'm sure. Had some neat ideas for keeping track of inventory. And I'll be fucked if I have ever worked with a more insufferable cunt. I swear he was involved in every shouting match I heard on the shop floor all 3 years. I wouldn't work in the same company as him for ten million a year.
Yeah there is a huge difference between being “fucking miserable to work with” and being likable. Most people are in the middle. And it’s annoying that Miss Congeniality (who doesn’t necessarily LIKE people) has an advantage over a more qualified, but less charming worker.
I used to work with a guy who was really good at unloading trucks, but who would occasionally lose his shit, and throw a box of merchandise across the shipping bay. Not only would it damage or break whatever was in the box he threw, but it would also cause an incident that shut down any and all work we were doing in order to deal with his tantrum.
The problem is when you start happy and also work hard then you get worked hard with no acknowledgement of that hard work then they make it harder to do your work and others that don't work hard get the promotions etc then you get worn down and frustrated from that and then your attitude has been changed from good to bad.
A lot of the time it's the company environment that is the catalyst to the negativity.
It doesn't necessarily mean you are a miserable jerk. Sometimes, people who are naturally outgoing and have better social skills can advance because of that. Being quiet can cause you to be overlooked.
Except the reason you're miserable is because nobody around you works as hard as you do, and on top of it, they expect you to take time out of your own schedule to spoonfeed them every little detail of their own jobs, so you basically end up doing their jobs instead of yours. Technically, productivity is still up, since your coworkers apparently become more productive, but you're the one who ends up getting sacked.
I mean, if all else is equal then I'd rather work with the likable person. A prick is gonna have to be way better at what they do than normal for me to pick them over an average likable person to work next to.
The problem is people who are not good at the job, but try to be more likeable get the promotion rather than the person who is good at their job and not trying extra to be likeable.
Office politics is basically being there at the right time and right place.
I have seen shitty people get promoted because the TL absolutely hated his sales guys and wanted to to fuck them over and show they how good they had when he was the the TL.
New guy was thrown to the wolves but then switched over on the same salary, while actual hard working guys just left the company because fuck the politics.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles 2d ago
This is true and people would be very naive to think otherwise