After having had this nice conversation today, I had to realise that it is still a real hard job for me to be a nice and sweet guy, only some hours later.
A little indifference at work soon turned into a major argument. We are right now having a trainee, a young - not really goodlooking- bird, and above all she isn’t the smartest person on the continent. She is only 20, knows quite a little about computers, mainly about Windows XP - which can be helpfull when you want to work as a systemadministrator - but has forgotten that there is something as an hierarchy in life, in companies. I was actually speaking to one of our financial directors about the need of more memory in the helpdesk-computers, an investment of approximatively $30.000, and then suddenly that bird - yes I am the dumbo who got assigned to explain her our serversystem - created some genuine interferences bye telling us that we should be some OC(overclocking) - optimised memory modules. First of all I wasn’t aware that in our new helpdesk-development-plan we had written something about overclocking 400 computers and equipping them with watercooling to make them faster, more silent and gaming-optimised.
But then! Suddenly, I realised the old-fashioned “little birds have to shut up when the big boys are speaking”-principle and jumped out of my shoes - last at least in my head. I started to explain her in a strict and direct, but still polite way (yes, I did take my tablets today) that there are moments in a professional career where trainees aren’t intellectually required to participate at a discussion, although they might still be physically present at that particular moment. Yes even in a big company, like the one with the black credit cards, it happens occasionally to consult each other just without having a meeting about it. Not realising that I actually wanted her to keep upper- and underlip together without having a quarter of an inch in between them, she continued explaining us the advantage of OC-memory modules, especially when run in dual-channel mode. I know a lot of technical stuff, and actually really boring so I shall pound my egg.
As you can imagine this, above all, blonde chick was annoying me “just a little” and I waited for the financial director to have taken of, to make sure that she would never want to feel like working among highly paid an competitive system administrators. Just to sentence were enough to have her ask me, if she could finish her day of work and go home. I realised immediatly I might have gone a little too far, and tried to convince her that I didn’t mean it in this way. YES, that one was a 3-pointer, she took off crying. Not that I really cared bout her leaving early, since we only had 20 minutes to go anyway. The only thing about it was that I realised still being a genuine asshole, but I think just being born like one. And at least it gave me a good reason to double the amount of Gin&Tonics after work. Next week I might eventually go to see my shrink and tell him that those pills are just crap, and I am still the same bastard as before.
7 have made me smarter ↓
1 Crazy Dan // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:01 pm// View all comments by Crazy Dan //
I think it was the right thing to do, at least you didnt do it out there in front of everyone she should be thinking her stars for that. New people coming in think they are suddenly smarter then all the old pros and need to be put in their place early and often so they know there place in the world.
2 Franky // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:02 pm// View all comments by Franky //
well yes, i still agree with the fact of having told her about her position in “life/business”, but maybe i should have done it in a more appropriate way and not been that harsh…
this wasn’t the first time in life that i reacted as a coldblooded psychological warrior, and above all i am aware of this and hate it… but someday or the other it always happens and when i start it is just not nice…
imagine, she was/is only 20…
3 BeckEye // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:03 pm// View all comments by BeckEye //
Eh, being nice all the time is overrated. Not to mention bad for your health. There are studies.
4 Tickles_Tapesworm // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:04 pm// View all comments by Tickles_Tapesworm //
If you’re going to make judgements on intellegence, at least learn to spellcheck and form sentences.
Where does one’s appearance fit into the hierarchy? The pathetic thing is you consider yourself professional. That would imply you actually follow a code of ethics.
You’re really pushing it, calling yourself one of the “big boys”. What you did sounds rather little to me.
5 Franky // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:05 pm// View all comments by Franky //
hi tickles, sorry i only speak 4 languages, and rather seltom have to write in any of them… yep, to design, develop and maintain a server system you don’t have to be able to write, and even if we did most people would not understand us…
maybe you might have realized, while reading, that i am totally aware of my attitude and of his impact… hope you did…
i never tried to judge her on appearance, that’s just some “rude flair of the blog”
but thanks for having stayed here a while and commented…
i hope you will win a lot again at blingo, so you can spent it on BEER ! lol
6 Izabella // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:06 pm// View all comments by Izabella //
Luv to read your blog! funny..
7 Tara Tainton // Nov 12, 2006 at 2:07 pm// View all comments by Tara Tainton //
Yeah, but the “little bird” should’ve been a little tougher too, especially if she wants to run with the big boys, so to speak. What’s with the crying in the office?? That’s why we women are still trying to be viewed equally in that corporate environment (I’ve been there)…some of us are perpetuating the bad stereotype.
Don’t let her reaction get to you. Treat her as you would a man with her same actions and credentials, and you’re not an asshole. Big difference between speaking your mind and speaking what NEEDS to be said…and being an asshole.