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Don't Offer Co-Workers Help Unless Asked

posted by chromas on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the go-away,-I'm-batin'! dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Researchers at Michigan State University report — Don't offer co-workers help unless asked:

If you thought that proactively offering help to your co-workers was a good thing, think again. New workplace research from Michigan State University found that when it comes to offering your expertise, it's better to keep to yourself or wait until you're asked.

[...] "What we found was that on the helper side, when people engage in proactive help, they often don't have a clear understanding of recipients' problems and issues, thus they receive less gratitude for it," Johnson said. "On the recipient side, if people are constantly coming up to me at work and asking if I want their help, it could have an impact on my esteem and become frustrating. I'm not going to feel inclined to thank the person who tried to help me because I didn't ask for it."

In a strange sort of symmetry, it's also better to not proactively sabotage your co-workers, either; wait until they ask for it.

Journal Reference:
Hun Whee Lee, Jacob Bradburn, Russell E. Johnson, Szu-Han (Joanna) Lin, Chu-Hsiang (Daisy) Chang. The benefits of receiving gratitude for helpers: A daily investigation of proactive and reactive helping at work.. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2018; DOI: 10.1037/apl0000346

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @09:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @09:48PM (#753302)

    I used #8 many years ago, out of desperation. I was a contractor installing a data acq system that we had built up off-site. The customer gave me the new guy in the department as a helper and he was toxic--everything he touched was ruined. After a couple of days of fixing things he'd broke, I started coming in hours before normal starting time to get the job done. When he arrived I'd find busy work for him that couldn't damage anything.

    Later I found out that he had recently been transferred to this test lab from the company machine shop. Way I found out was amusing, I needed to drill some holes and the drill bits I found were really dull. There was a bench grinder and I asked him if he knew how to sharpen a bit...he came back with perfect angles, looked like the factory grind and the bits were super sharp. The boss at the machine shop must have had him sharpening drills all day(??), he *was* really good at that.