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If you could only have one piece of SN swag, what would it be? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 90 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Monday March 23 2020, @05:37PM (1 child)

    by shrewdsheep (5215) on Monday March 23 2020, @05:37PM (#974489)

    These (soft skills) are just as important as your technical skills and only become more important as you work at higher levels. Calling everyone else a kiss-ass just shows that you haven't bothered to recognise the value of other skills, probably because of your arrogance about the superiority of your technical skills.

    Thank you for providing some nuance and quite correctly characterizing my personality traits :-).

    You mention the skills "diplomacy, negotiation and managing upward" (the latter I do not understand). Going into reflective mode, you will recoginise that these skills all include dispositions making it easier for you as a manager. The ideal worker is rough on the edges though, is independently thinking and would have the manager serving him instead of the other way round. My point being that the filters in place are never geared towards the technical goal, but towards the accountability to the next level in the hierarchy. This, almost by definition, will result in unjust decisions. I am personally on both sides, trying to rise through the ranks, but also being responsible for hiring and managing of people (not at your order of magnitude though). Honestly, after an interview I am most the time at a complete loss at whom to hire and how to do justice to the situation, and I am certain that most of my decisions were suboptimal.

  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday March 30 2020, @01:51PM

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday March 30 2020, @01:51PM (#977197)

    > would have the manager serving him

    I think managing upward means helping the manager to know what worker needs to more effectively do his job. "Sorry to nag, but my laptop is busted so my project is gonna be late. Could you chase IT to get me a new one?" ... "I notice Jimbob's stuff is running a bit late, I can't get started on my thing without his stuff. Would it be okay if I lended him a hand?" etc

    > would have the manager serving him instead of the other way round

    Sure, and good workers will make this happen (without being too irritating to the manager). This is "managing upward".