Professional jealousy. Examples, causes and methods of struggle
Greetings to you, GT reader.
I usually write technical articles, but now I want to highlight one very subtle point that spoils the life of an engineer (and me in particular). This is professional jealousy. I could not find a definition on the Internet, but after a brief explanation, many engineers (and other specialists) will understand that such jealousy happened to them.
Example 1 :
The customer invites you (or your team) to discuss the project that he wants to give you. You come, acquaintance, discussion begins, and here the customer calls his engineer who works for them / started this project / another potential executor, etc.
And he starts saying phrases like:
- “Why is it so difficult? You can vooot so ... "
- “Yes, what is there to do a month? At Arduino (or any other board) can be done in a week ... "
- “How much, how much? I would do it for 3 rubles, BUT ... and from the drop-down list of reasons, one is randomly selected (busy with another project / ill / on leave, etc.)
')
Moreover, if you succumb to provocation (go to the individual, for example), you can easily lose the order (even if the parties are interested in cooperation) and in the end none of the parties will be satisfied, only a local engineer will scratch his ChSV.
Example 2 :
Several teams are working on the project. As usual at the junction of areas of responsibility, questions arise, but each team (or its individual representatives) believe that their solution is ideal and: "The problem is on your side." At the same time, gossip can last for quite a long time, which will lead to a stretch of time and an increase in cost for each of the teams.
Example 3 :
The customer, in order to “assess your competence,” offers to tell about the most complex / significant project in your opinion. And after you tell how a few months have developed an 8-layer board for prom. products (under severe operating conditions, for example) exclaim: “So what were the problems? I do not see any problems, there is a lot of space on the board, what can I do for 3 months? “- at first such questions are a reason to talk about the complexities of the project, then they start to annoy. A person who does not know TK, without understanding the question, immediately sees the ease of the task - how can it be ??? ..
I hope that these examples are enough to understand what will be discussed further.
Now we will try to understand the causes of such situations. I am not a psychologist, so I can only explain to the best of my understanding. I admit that just a year ago I myself suffered greatly from professional jealousy, but in the end I began to understand that she (like jealousy between partners in a pair) does not lead to anything good. I lose money / people / dating. After ridicule, customers leave, workers / trainees are discouraged. But it always seemed that I was objective, it’s just that idiots surround me and I absolutely must tell them about it. Now I understand that everything is not so obvious.
Let's look at examples:
For the first example, one of the causes of professional jealousy (in my opinion) is the reaction of the “local” engineer to the attempt to “overthrow him from the throne by outsiders”. Simply put - when in his company he is “god” and everyone listens to him (if there is a department of engineers, then as a rule it concerns the main one), and then some people appear and begin to be clever about topics in which nobody is better does not understand.
The second example is the classic „problem on your side“. The engineer is completely confident in his competence and, since he is surrounded by some idiots, the product does not work exactly because of them.
The third example is not obvious: perhaps in this way the customer wants to talk in more detail about the project (at the same time asking the question “not so much”) or trying to depreciate your value in order to then buy you cheaper. To recognize the reason for such a dialogue is to get the customer (or say goodbye to him - until it became completely bad).
Another reason may be the fact that the task always seems easy to the person who does not do it. In addition, a ready-made solution is much easier to repeat than to come to it.
Wrestling
Fight is of two types - when you fight with jealousy within yourself and when with the manifestation of jealousy
another person.
It is quite difficult to fight with your own jealousy, but you can. The basic rule is not to give vent to emotions when communicating with the customer / engineers and not to consider people as idiots from the threshold.
Example:
At the meeting, I show my rather complicated and steep fee (as a confirmation of my competence) to a potential customer, he looks at and says:
- How much time is spent on circuitry and tracing?
- 3 months.
- Why so much? Is there any difficulty? I think the fee is simple, we have a similar grandfather in retirement who makes a trace of them for a month of 3 weeks…
(How much and what could I answer him with such a phrase - censor and not very, but limited to a phrase)
- I am glad that you have such a professional, how can I help you? ..
Before, I would answer like this:
- Ok, so give the project to him - he will make it faster and cheaper.
... (here begins the story that grandfather is extremely busy now and they want to strengthen the team) ...
Or so:
- So clone the grandfather, and you will be happy! (got up and left).
It is more difficult to deal with the attacks of jealousy of another person (especially in front of other representatives of the customer and the person who makes the decision). There are several scenarios:
Epilogue
This is only my humble experience of identifying and combating an ailment and, in view of its strong prevalence, I would like to know how my colleagues are struggling with it. Therefore, if you have experience in countering acts of professional jealousy, considerations regarding the reasons for its occurrence or entertaining examples of manifestation, I will be glad to discuss them in comments.
I usually write technical articles, but now I want to highlight one very subtle point that spoils the life of an engineer (and me in particular). This is professional jealousy. I could not find a definition on the Internet, but after a brief explanation, many engineers (and other specialists) will understand that such jealousy happened to them.
Example 1 :
The customer invites you (or your team) to discuss the project that he wants to give you. You come, acquaintance, discussion begins, and here the customer calls his engineer who works for them / started this project / another potential executor, etc.
And he starts saying phrases like:
- “Why is it so difficult? You can vooot so ... "
- “Yes, what is there to do a month? At Arduino (or any other board) can be done in a week ... "
- “How much, how much? I would do it for 3 rubles, BUT ... and from the drop-down list of reasons, one is randomly selected (busy with another project / ill / on leave, etc.)
')
Moreover, if you succumb to provocation (go to the individual, for example), you can easily lose the order (even if the parties are interested in cooperation) and in the end none of the parties will be satisfied, only a local engineer will scratch his ChSV.
Example 2 :
Several teams are working on the project. As usual at the junction of areas of responsibility, questions arise, but each team (or its individual representatives) believe that their solution is ideal and: "The problem is on your side." At the same time, gossip can last for quite a long time, which will lead to a stretch of time and an increase in cost for each of the teams.
Example 3 :
The customer, in order to “assess your competence,” offers to tell about the most complex / significant project in your opinion. And after you tell how a few months have developed an 8-layer board for prom. products (under severe operating conditions, for example) exclaim: “So what were the problems? I do not see any problems, there is a lot of space on the board, what can I do for 3 months? “- at first such questions are a reason to talk about the complexities of the project, then they start to annoy. A person who does not know TK, without understanding the question, immediately sees the ease of the task - how can it be ??? ..
I hope that these examples are enough to understand what will be discussed further.
Now we will try to understand the causes of such situations. I am not a psychologist, so I can only explain to the best of my understanding. I admit that just a year ago I myself suffered greatly from professional jealousy, but in the end I began to understand that she (like jealousy between partners in a pair) does not lead to anything good. I lose money / people / dating. After ridicule, customers leave, workers / trainees are discouraged. But it always seemed that I was objective, it’s just that idiots surround me and I absolutely must tell them about it. Now I understand that everything is not so obvious.
Let's look at examples:
For the first example, one of the causes of professional jealousy (in my opinion) is the reaction of the “local” engineer to the attempt to “overthrow him from the throne by outsiders”. Simply put - when in his company he is “god” and everyone listens to him (if there is a department of engineers, then as a rule it concerns the main one), and then some people appear and begin to be clever about topics in which nobody is better does not understand.
The second example is the classic „problem on your side“. The engineer is completely confident in his competence and, since he is surrounded by some idiots, the product does not work exactly because of them.
The third example is not obvious: perhaps in this way the customer wants to talk in more detail about the project (at the same time asking the question “not so much”) or trying to depreciate your value in order to then buy you cheaper. To recognize the reason for such a dialogue is to get the customer (or say goodbye to him - until it became completely bad).
Another reason may be the fact that the task always seems easy to the person who does not do it. In addition, a ready-made solution is much easier to repeat than to come to it.
Wrestling
Fight is of two types - when you fight with jealousy within yourself and when with the manifestation of jealousy
another person.
It is quite difficult to fight with your own jealousy, but you can. The basic rule is not to give vent to emotions when communicating with the customer / engineers and not to consider people as idiots from the threshold.
Example:
At the meeting, I show my rather complicated and steep fee (as a confirmation of my competence) to a potential customer, he looks at and says:
- How much time is spent on circuitry and tracing?
- 3 months.
- Why so much? Is there any difficulty? I think the fee is simple, we have a similar grandfather in retirement who makes a trace of them for a month of 3 weeks…
(How much and what could I answer him with such a phrase - censor and not very, but limited to a phrase)
- I am glad that you have such a professional, how can I help you? ..
Before, I would answer like this:
- Ok, so give the project to him - he will make it faster and cheaper.
... (here begins the story that grandfather is extremely busy now and they want to strengthen the team) ...
Or so:
- So clone the grandfather, and you will be happy! (got up and left).
It is more difficult to deal with the attacks of jealousy of another person (especially in front of other representatives of the customer and the person who makes the decision). There are several scenarios:
- The customer himself understands the problem (especially when he has already encountered the problem and “cuts the chip”) and tries not to organize such meetings, but this is an ideal option and it is rarely encountered.
- The first meeting takes place with the manager / decision maker (try to organize the first meeting without an engineer yourself). At the same time, it is possible to understand what kind of person is in front of you, to hint at a possible jealousy problem and prepare for the next meeting.
- The classic situation came across and the customer's engineer was a person with professional jealousy. In this case, I can advise you to take pauses when answering questions that can “feed the troll”, for example, time and cost estimates (they don’t say right away in the normal world - there’s nothing wrong with that), the complexity of the project, the component base used, etc. After a while, passions will subside and a normal workflow will begin. If people want to know immediately the cost and terms (as in the market ... usually they are effective managers trying to push the price), then practice shows that it is better to work with such people very carefully (in small stages) or not at all.
Epilogue
This is only my humble experience of identifying and combating an ailment and, in view of its strong prevalence, I would like to know how my colleagues are struggling with it. Therefore, if you have experience in countering acts of professional jealousy, considerations regarding the reasons for its occurrence or entertaining examples of manifestation, I will be glad to discuss them in comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/397039/
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