Comment by WalterBright
1 month ago
In every organization I've worked in, everyone knew who the productive and non-productive people were.
Just like in school. Everyone knew who the good teachers were, and who the good students were.
I don't fathom how you can work with other people and not be aware of it.
Have you ever found your opinions of things, including people’s relative worth changing over time? Perhaps as you had time to understand the context, or as time revealed the benefit of an action that wasn’t so clear initially?
Definitely.
Frankly, I think you might be confusing "productive" with "smart" or "easy to work with". I've had several past team mates at several companies gush to me about staff eng Bob and while I agreed Bob was a cool guy (or just talked good game) I also knew his last few projects were a failure, it was 100% his fault, and management took notice. It happened in the other direction too but not as often. Alternatively you might be underestimating how oblivious some (most?) people are of those things.
> I think you might be confusing "productive" with "smart" or "easy to work with".
Working in teams for most of my career, and especially when I make or lose money depending on how the team performs, I am not confusing them.
At work, I am not really interested in how smart they are or how easy to work with they are, or how nice a person they are. At work I'm interested in results. I've had workers come to me and complain about "Bob" who has annoying habits and an abrasive personality. I defend the ones that produce results.
Outside of work, I value smart people who are good friends. I've had several friends who were laid off for poor performance, yet we continued as friends.
(Being somewhat on the spectrum myself, I recognize that in others and give them a lot of slack.)
> you might be underestimating how oblivious some (most?) people are of those things.
The oblivious ones were the ones who got laid off. They honestly believed they were god's gift to the company. Frankly, it was tragic. The ones I kept in contact with would ruefully admit to me years later that the company was right in laying them off.
> At work, I am not really interested in how smart they are or how easy to work with they are, or how nice a person they are. At work I'm interested in results. I've had workers come to me and complain about "Bob" who has annoying habits and an abrasive personality. I defend the ones that produce results.
And what if "Bob" makes it so that "Alice" who is almost as smart as him can't work effectively?
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