本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛I was hired as a junior consultant in my current company almost 10 years ago. I was not so successful in my first year. My first project was to lead 10 contractors to perform a Token ring to Ethernet migration for major bank's 10-floor building of around 2000 people - pretty much to perform the changes in the wiring closet and swapping NIC cards for customer PC and laptops. All work had to be done during the day, except I could stay late. Sounds easy enough? It was actually the most challenging job in my career.
My performance was measured on the profit of this migration - meaning the more the contractors can do in a day, the less time they can charge my company, the better off I would be. Among the 10 contractors, 5 were Chinese, 5 were Indian. I was told to use my creativity and authority (I can asked for a replacement from the agent) to get most of it. Some contractors were sluggish and did not perform well - being late, slow, and trying to charge more hours and doing less work. Sadly, the worst one was a Chinese guy. He was new to this country and used to be in a more senior role. I was debating what to do with him – I did not want to complain as I knew his family depending on this income. But by doing nothing it would hurt my own performance – it was my first job, my first project in Canada. I just had my baby girl, my wife in school. At the end, I did not complain, but compensating by working over time myself (not telling anyone and not charging my over-time). I was so worn out after two months. And one day, I missed one evening checkpoint meeting as I was busy doing my job at the client site, the PM complaint to my manager and I got call back to office the next day. That PM was famous – by being mean and profitable.
I was furious. I knew what I did was totally wrong. I should have escalated to the agent and told my PM right at the beginning and got all those under performers replaced – this was what other teams did at other locations. By being nice, I was perceived as weak and not suitable for the job.
My manager was nice, after all. She pulled me out from that project and sent me to the career center to see what kind of job fits me better and what kind of job I liked it better. I knew, that was the last chance. The lady at the career centre was nice too. I still remember what she said to me at the end : “You like living in your little world where everyone is nice to each other, right?” I said: “Shouldn’t it be like that?”. She just smiled and said "good luck".
Did I change much after that experience? Not really. Instead, it helped me understand the meaning of being nice. Today, for whatever projects I am in charge, for whatever team I am leading, for whatever people I am working with, I am still the nicest guy in the world – preparing to offer my helping hand any time. And being nice, it is not being fake. I understand how much it means to me, and how much it can hurt others by being mean. The corporate world is cold, it is up to all of us to make it warm.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
My performance was measured on the profit of this migration - meaning the more the contractors can do in a day, the less time they can charge my company, the better off I would be. Among the 10 contractors, 5 were Chinese, 5 were Indian. I was told to use my creativity and authority (I can asked for a replacement from the agent) to get most of it. Some contractors were sluggish and did not perform well - being late, slow, and trying to charge more hours and doing less work. Sadly, the worst one was a Chinese guy. He was new to this country and used to be in a more senior role. I was debating what to do with him – I did not want to complain as I knew his family depending on this income. But by doing nothing it would hurt my own performance – it was my first job, my first project in Canada. I just had my baby girl, my wife in school. At the end, I did not complain, but compensating by working over time myself (not telling anyone and not charging my over-time). I was so worn out after two months. And one day, I missed one evening checkpoint meeting as I was busy doing my job at the client site, the PM complaint to my manager and I got call back to office the next day. That PM was famous – by being mean and profitable.
I was furious. I knew what I did was totally wrong. I should have escalated to the agent and told my PM right at the beginning and got all those under performers replaced – this was what other teams did at other locations. By being nice, I was perceived as weak and not suitable for the job.
My manager was nice, after all. She pulled me out from that project and sent me to the career center to see what kind of job fits me better and what kind of job I liked it better. I knew, that was the last chance. The lady at the career centre was nice too. I still remember what she said to me at the end : “You like living in your little world where everyone is nice to each other, right?” I said: “Shouldn’t it be like that?”. She just smiled and said "good luck".
Did I change much after that experience? Not really. Instead, it helped me understand the meaning of being nice. Today, for whatever projects I am in charge, for whatever team I am leading, for whatever people I am working with, I am still the nicest guy in the world – preparing to offer my helping hand any time. And being nice, it is not being fake. I understand how much it means to me, and how much it can hurt others by being mean. The corporate world is cold, it is up to all of us to make it warm.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net