Tag Archives: Responsibility

The Youngsters

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I’m traveling by train each day and I’ve seen and heard lots of weird things on my way to work back and forth. Lately I’ve noticed that young people these days tend to speak annoyingly loud. The concept of privacy and/or private space of others is either something they’re not aware of or don’t seem to grasp at all. They also lack a serious amount of courtesy and show no respect for others. Pointless chatter by one or two of them seems to be the standard morning ritual. Utterly annoying and most of the time extremely loud. They don’t seem to have a clue about the fact that everyone is overhearing their conversation or when they’ll start bragging about things which makes it even more annoying and ignorant.

The other day I was on the train back to Amsterdam when I girl next to me was talking so loud to the person on the other end of the phone connection that all six people around her where sitting with an expression on their faces of total disbelief. The girl was exposing her so-called problems to the world around her in such a way she probably wasn’t even aware of. The woman opposite of me started grinning at some point and had to put her hand before her mouth to cover her laugh. I saw her face and was grinning as well. We were all spectators of the utter drama of a 20-something-year-old.

The woman opposite of me even asked her to lower her voice which she did after staring at her for a while, unfortunately it didn’t last long as within three minutes the decibels were back on the same level as they were before the remark. It wasn’t just the loudness that was causing us six to chuckle it was also the total absurdness of the conversation; the topics that were discussed and how it was discussed. She made it sound like each and every pathetic issue was the end of the world. She sounded and looked like a spoiled rich child, making us witnesses to her little drama of a soap opera.

The moment she got up and left the train, everyone around me started to laugh and remark on the ignorant attitude of this creature who unfortunately is not one of a kind… Another time -during rush hour- there were these two guys, one sitting opposite of me with his friend standing next to him and another guy also sitting opposite of me talking on the phone. The guy on the phone was speaking so loud that the other two were constantly battling and raising their voices in order to be heard by everyone nearby. One of them talked with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about his achievements.

He just got a new advertising job and his manager and colleagues had invited him to join them on a retreat to Thailand for five days. He was constantly bragging about everything he had accomplished and the guy he was talking to barely responded. I could tell he felt really uncomfortable about his boasting ‘friend’ and the volume that was used to bring the news to the whole train. In the meantime the guy on the phone couldn’t stop blabbing either. It was like a hen fight somehow and all these meaningless and pointless conversations -again- made me chuckle. What is wrong with these people?

I honestly feel blessed when I get on a train in the morning and people just don’t talk, when the quiet is so loud it becomes overwhelming. I can really really enjoy those journeys to work, where I stare into the distance and watch the meadows passing by, the beauty of nature, the sun rising and the tranquillity of the morning. I cannot imagine I would’ve been so loud at that age, I would’ve been talking that same kind of nonsense or discuss drama with someone so everyone could hear. It is not my nature nor am I the boasting type. I guess it’s a generation issue and a matter of courtesy and respect.

I’m getting ‘old’.

Malleable Inflexibility

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There’s been something going on over the last two, three weeks that has had a major effect on my mood. As a contractor I’m used to having to adapt to different systems, work environments, people, politics, flexable work spaces etc. Most of the time when I start on a new assignment it takes a couple of weeks to get to know people, the system, and everything else I have to work with. It takes time to adjust. So far I’ve been on an assignment by myself mostly, meaning that the contracting company (let’s call it company A) that I work for outsources me as a skilled individual to one of their clients (company B) for a certain period of time. Most of the time I’ll join a team of people but in other cases I have also worked just by myself.

I’ve been doing this for nearly six years now and never ran into problems as I was easily adjusting to new situations and people of company B. At times direct colleagues (from company A) would work for other departments of company B, but I wouldn’t have to work with them. Until about three years ago when I was asked to become part of a scrum team by company A which was placed at one of the ministries. It was the first time I was part of a team of direct colleagues, about 14 of them, divided into two teams. I was the only designer that was hired, so I had to design for both teams. This assignment lasted for a year and half before it all went pear-shaped because of the behaviour of certain team members.

I won’t go into details but let’s say my strong work ethic was way different from theirs and particularly from the scrum master. If there is any chance I would have to work with him again in the future I will refuse it, my manager knows my reasons and agrees with me. There was a clash in the end because apparently I was not allowed to vent my opinion about situations where this scrum master would abuse certain privileges given by the client, which he did almost daily. Because I had said something about it, I was no longer his ‘friend’, I was now his foe, thus he turned the teams of ‘young, malleable, first-time-job graduates’ against me. Who -of course- would follow him like sheep. Talking about professionalism ;)

I was happy to leave this toxic environment. Four months into another government assignment I’m running into something similar. I’m currently dealing with a naysayers scrum team (different client, different scrum team but people from my contracting company) showing similar traits. So far it’s manageable but the main issue is, that another direct colleague from company A has been hired at the current place as an engineer. The product owner that I worked for has left since a couple of weeks and has not been replaced yet. So this colleague is now also temporary product owner and ever since he is feeling his ‘power’ it’s gotten to his head in a negative way, displaying an extremely dominant ‘attitude.

He keeps trying to undermine my position within the department, while I don’t need to answer to him but to another co-worker. And recently he’s been trying to undermine her position as well, telling me that I don’t need her approval on my designs, that he can do that as well. Which is absolutely not true. What he doesn’t understand is that she has certain knowledge and responsibilites that are related to her job and the reason why she is hired. He is basically saying that he has the same professional skills as she does. It would be like me saying that I could easily replace him as an engineer, which I can not because I didn’t study engineering *duh*. He can’t seem to get it through his thick skull tho.

I have no clue what it is that is causing people to act like this. My attitude is and has always been one of trying to solve issues and make sure a client is contented with my designs and solutions. Trying to undermine my position in this as a co-worker is not going to make things easier as I’m not willing to just give up and bow down. I’m not the one causing the friction and you will definitely meet the Capricorn side of me. There’s more but I think it will be best to focus on how to deal with it without getting angry about it. I’m sure there will be a ‘to be continued’… hopefully in a more positive way. If not I might have to draw my conclusion and find another assignment. ‘Solo’ this time…