How to Recognize a Toxic Worker Before They Do Their Worst
I found this article interesting, not particularly agreeable with me, but interesting that it comes from a major HR company that provides data on what you should pay, and what kind of workers you should be looking for.
It is a reflection on the collectivist culture that we have now.
It is a reflection on the collectivist culture that we have now.
Sometimes, I was oblivious to the toxicity of a particular person...until they left the company and then everyone breathed a sigh of relief (myself included). I thought it was just me. Then, afterwards, people come up to you and tell you the stories...
Jan, learning
High self esteem even coupled with high productivity is bad. The employee might have the temerity to make suggestions which might go contrary to corporate traditions. Also, the contactor, who usually exhibits the ability to get a project started should not be allowed to follow through with its implementation, but it should be handed over to the corporate slug.
So, the less imaginative employee whose self esteem is derived from his corporate position is the employee to look for.
No wonder I went into business for myself.
Wow, the slackers will have a field day, because if you're paid less than a business's best producers, the dotgov will step in and get you a pay raise.
All we need now are the statues of Lenin in the City Parks, and framed pictures of Karl Marx and Barack Obama next to each other in each of our homes, offices, and buildings (as mandated by law) to remind us who brought us out of the darkness of capitalism (tho now it's called "oppressive wage slavery") during all our wakeful moments, as we start each say with a rousing rendition of The Internationale, and the pledge of allegiance to the poor & oppressed, the removal of the Bill of Wrongs in the constitution, and the only other thing that matters... black lives.
They didn't much like my farewell comment of now you have to hire three people.
But it was true.
The unions have this curios policy of promoting within the union C Book B Book A Book by sea time not by ability. Those letters used to mean apprentice, journeyman, master. Now they just mean those who learn, those who work and those who get all the good jobs.
To achieve that I had to survive 21 years of toxic workers as well as toxic supervisors.
By year three a lieutenant at a shift briefing described the DOC as "a cutthroat business" and I had already learned enough to nod.
Shortly thereafter my job survival was harassed for two years by a sergeant who seemed to have a bulls-eye painted on my back. Happy was the day I learned he had transferred to another prison.
After that, it was nothing but good job evaluations. I had a good reputation and was known for a sense of humor.
I don't think a year went by when some corrections officer left that maximum custody prison in handcuffs en route to the county jail.
One of those had been telling my peers as well as the warden that I was getting a divorce (yeah, I was feeling depressed) and might go crazy on a tower or in a cell block. Well, I didn't, and I told that warden "Good morning" as he and others escorted that cuffed wannabe snitch past me--and me all the while looking that sucker in the eye like he was nothing. Found out later that day he was caught making an illegal deal with an inmate who was wearing a wire.
I could write a book but, yes, I agree that toxic workers are attracted by government jobs.
And, thinking IRS, EPA, etc.there are government workers who are also toxic to the public.
Corporations were the best solution to the problem of organizing large efforts. However, in the future, we will all be contractors, self-employed technical experts hired for specific tasks that expire when the goal is achieved. I have been doing that most of my life.
One view of this as The Future can be found in Shockwave Rider by John Brunner.
If I want to get a new tool up and running I use a contractor. If I want a person to maintain that tool for the rest of its existence I hire a person.
Highly skilled work tends to be of the type of installing or initially setting up something. that work I agree will go largely contractor. Instead of hiring that person who can do the initial set up to set up and then run the system. A contractor sets it up and then you hire someone for half the money per month to run it with a lessor skill set.
I however would not be looking for a good corporate citizen in either case. I want a highly productive person that can work on there own effectively and with others.
That said, though, the evolution of culture has been for urbanization, specialization, trade, commerce, and invention. So, the future I see is one where "most" people work at a distance as independent creators and producers.
And what is "repetitive" work? In the famous Western Electric study, they found that intelligent people find ways to make the assembly line interesting. From another aspect, what I do as a writer could also be considered repetitive. One time on an information systems project in an automobile factory, we were told to wear neckties because we were white collar not blue collar. I pointed to the computer and said that I get paid by the hour to work at a machine. My thesis was rejected, but you see the point.
What was really interesting was a thought that relates to my research: It would seem that the brain can imitate a conscious mind better than one might expect; meaning imitating rule following, concern for others, etc, when they really have no real connection to those concepts.
That might not mean they have no mind but that they don't use it to control their behavior; instead they have "Learned" not integrated into their character productive behaviors.
Sounds like those we find in government doesn't it.