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When Smart People are Bad Employees

blogs.forbes.com

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Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#81

Post by philwelch »

BigZaphod wrote: post #21
waratuman wrote: post #14

This may be a little picky, but this statement just doesn't make sense: :He is fundamentally a rebel—She will not be happy unless" Where did the she come from?

"She" probably came from some attempt at political correctness. There's been a rise in recent decades to use "she" when speaking about an unspecified person. Historically, it was common to use "he" for that task. Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun and until/if one becomes accepted this will probably continue to be a confusing issue... edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun

Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun

Yes it does: "they".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#82

Post by kenjackson »

BigZaphod wrote: post #51
kenjackson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the lyrics, the hard-worker is the person singing the lyrics. He's saying he's a jerk for not taking time off to spend time with the girl. So really he is the smart jerk who is trying to tell someone to stay away because he is a jerk and will just criticize her, although he really doesn't like who he becomes, but that's his gift. He ends it with toasts to himself (and people like him). While he's toasting them, he…

"In the lyrics, the hard-worker is the person singing the lyrics." I just don't get that at all from the snippet quoted, but I can imagine how the larger context of the song might flip the meaning of things around - but I don't know the rest of the song and was going only based on the words in the article with no way of knowing how those words were performed. :) I suppose the use of "toast" could be a clue that he ac…

The grander context is that this song was performed by Kanye at last year's VMAs. Both he and Taylor Swift did a song in response to the event that happened two years ago, where Kanye took Taylor's award.

The basic concept of the song is I'm a jerk, don't know why, but stay away from me because I'll be a jerk to you. The title of the song is Runaway -- the girl should be a runaway from Kanye.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#83

Post by DuncanIdaho »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #58
DuncanIdaho wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently supervising an 37year old rookie . He had some absence issues, so I confronted him. Tuns out he is an ex-addict (that's why he's rookie at 37). I don't have a problem with people trying to straighten themselves out. He doesn't get any preferential treatment from me - because it won't do him any good. As long as he does the expected work of expected quality he is fine with me. Knowing that he is an ex ad…

>He doesn't get any preferential treatment from me [...] [knowing about his past] is valuable to me so I can put our relationship in right context. I don't understand how knowing about his past should matter if you're not going to behave differently towards him? That's like asking someone’s sex on an application form - if you're not going to discriminate why do you need to know.

To give you more detail.

Addict is never really cured. Once you're through with addiction, the cravings are there for life. Whenever you need to release your steam the craving for drug kicks back in.

My mentee is coping with that through writing, so sometimes he will not come to work on time - because he's setting his mind straight. So our agreement is that I don't care about his schedule - as long as his work is done according to specified parameters.

I didn't say I don't act differently towards him. I said he doesn't get preferential treatment in a sense that I won't be commiserating him for being an ex-addict. Instead I raised his tempo of learning while gently guiding him through the finer intricacies. But I demand highest quality of him. I also look out that nobody (especially superiors) will pick on him since he is pretty introvert - and I don't want him to slip back due to some extrovert having a bad day.

This guy needs to build character, courage and ultimately self-confidence. And not making it hard for him, plus helping along the way if possible is one of my goals.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#84

Post by kenjackson »

qq66 wrote: post #39
kenjackson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your job IS to deal with them Your job isn't to deal with them, its to extract from them. Once you can no longer extract value beyond their cost, "poof, be gone". Once T.O. isn't a great player, who's gonna put up with him? No one. With that said, when you look at most of the greats, think Gretsky, Jordan, Tiger, Magic, Bird, etc... they are the model player. The only major exception I can think of is Bonds, and with…

Even without his later 'roid years Bonds is statistically by far the best batter of his generation and one of the top 5 of all time (Probably #2, just a sliver behind Williams).

Well he is claimed to have started roids in 1998. While he was a great player before '98, he moves into legendary status after '98. With that said, I shouldn't have put A-Rod in the same breath with the Kid since clearly A-Rod also used steroids.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#85

Post by [deleted] »

BigZaphod wrote: post #62
lwhi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I've not heard the song - but I think main voice is making a comparison between being an anally-retentive, controlling jerk and being a successful achiever. The main point being; if you like the latter - you put up with (or celebrate) the former. I can't see any reference to underachieving in the lyrics - I think you might be projecting some personal assumptions. The main speaker is most definitely talking abou…

"I can't see any reference to underachieving in the lyrics" This is what I see as a kind of reference to under-achieving by calling out and insulting people who work harder: "Let’s have a toast for the jerkoffs / That’ll never take work off." It seems to me that the voice is therefore showing contempt for over-achievers and, by taking the rest of the lyrics into account and the fact that I've met a lot of people who…

[deleted]

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#86

Post by binaryfinery »

I'm just staggered that this article doesn't even mention the most destructive personality at a company: the status-quo politician. This person absolutely has an agenda other than improving the company: personal comfort and status.

So I find Horowitz's description of the Heretic somewhat ironic:

However, sometimes really smart employees develop agendas other than improving the company...

The young heretic might be guilty of this: Specifically, he builds his case that the company is hopeless and run by a bunch of morons. The young heretic has yet to learn that a company has three types:

  1. The Status-Quo Politician. 1%
  2. The Enablers 98%
  3. The Heretics 1%
The Enablers can be further divided:

  a) Those who are naive or don't understand psychological abuse
  b) Those who do and don't care.
My advice to young heretics: identify the status-quo politicians and discuss with CEO. If the CEO doesn't see it, perhaps be cause he's non-technical, leave. Your company is going down the toilet.

Also note that there are plenty of politicians who are also interested in making a ton of money by making the company great.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#87

Post by mmt »

philwelch wrote: post #81
BigZaphod wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"She" probably came from some attempt at political correctness. There's been a rise in recent decades to use "she" when speaking about an unspecified person. Historically, it was common to use "he" for that task. Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun and until/if one becomes accepted this will probably continue to be a confusing issue... edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun

Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun Yes it does: "they". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

I believe the grandparent commenter meant:

English does not have a unique[1], singular, gender-neutral pronoun.

[1] unambiguous

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#88

Post by philwelch »

mmt wrote: post #87
philwelch wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun Yes it does: "they". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

I believe the grandparent commenter meant: English does not have a unique [1], singular, gender-neutral pronoun. [1] unambiguous

I've never heard a sentence in actual usage[1] where the usage of the singular "they" was ambiguous.

In terms of being understandable and elegant, the singular "they" is probably the best English can do. Unfortunately, it's not widely accepted because it "sounds" uneducated, despite being the current best solution to the problem. Gender-neutral neologisms, like Spivak pronouns [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun], are not commonly understood, while constructs like "he/she" or randomly alternating between generic "he" and generic "she" as in the OP is inelegant and confusing (hence this whole thread).

[1] I'm sure you could construct a contrived example.

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#89

Post by DuncanIdaho »

DuncanIdaho wrote: post #83
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He doesn't get any preferential treatment from me [...] [knowing about his past] is valuable to me so I can put our relationship in right context. I don't understand how knowing about his past should matter if you're not going to behave differently towards him? That's like asking someone’s sex on an application form - if you're not going to discriminate why do you need to know.

To give you more detail. Addict is never really cured. Once you're through with addiction, the cravings are there for life. Whenever you need to release your steam the craving for drug kicks back in. My mentee is coping with that through writing, so sometimes he will not come to work on time - because he's setting his mind straight. So our agreement is that I don't care about his schedule - as long as his work is don…

Why the downvote?

Re: When Smart People are Bad Employees

#90

Post by naner »

lwhi wrote: post #40
naner wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes across inappropriate and immature. Regardless of the content, a VC in his mid forties shouldn't be quoting rap lyrics at the head of business articles. I can't imagine having a conversation with this guy about business where he casually offers a quote about douchebags and assholes from Kanye West to explain something. Kanye belongs on your iPod, not in your Forbes opinion piece.

Oh please. Do you really believe this? The quote is directly relevant to the piece. It fits completely within the context of the article (personality vs. success). I don't think something should be disallowed, just because it falls out of your narrow sphere of what's directly permissible.

I wouldn't say it is not allowed, just that it is distracting and takes away from the article. I didn't find it relevant or poignant enough to overcome the initial shock. I skimmed the article afterward but the only thing I took away from it was how jarring the intro was. I'm not just being prude, in a different context the lyrics wouldn't bother me.

Of course, I'm not the arbiter of social conventions but many times you ignore them at your own peril.

As an aside, if you are well known for breaking certain social conventions or are influential enough you can usually get away with it without much criticism. Nobody is going to scold Steve Jobs because he wears a black turtleneck to a board meeting instead of a suit.

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