Am I too harsh?
Probably.
Because I "expect" a lot from people. When I say expect, I don't actually expect a lot from them in terms of thinking they will do it, or punishing them for not doing it, but when I judge them through my lens, I assume that they will meet various standards - even though I don't think my standards are all that high. If someone is getting paid to do a job, I expect them to be adequate at the job. If people make mistakes, I expect they will take responsibility and correct where they can. If people are not getting the results they want, I expect they will adjust their behaviors.
I don't ask this of them of course, I just assume that people are going to act in their own best interests and adjust accordingly. However, I also know that people are not overly rational in terms of what is in their own best interests, so at a practical level, they act based on their defaults and desires, even if it leads them to a worse than best interest result.
There are many example of this, but In general it seems to center around people overestimating the benefit of minimizing their work. It also is often around what people feel they are entitled to, regardless of whether their actions and results are worth the entitlement.
Like it or not, we all judge others on what we see of them and we can never be privy to the complete background and story, But we are also recipients of being judged by others. So, because of this I expect a lot from myself also and probably, more than I expect from others, at least at a practical level. There are many reasons that I can't live up to what I expect from myself, but I still have to try, right?
What I think is interesting these days is that people expect concessions to be made for them at the individual level, even on things that are not transparent, and that they would be unwilling to concede for another. It is like everyone believes that they are such a precious and important little snowflake, that they have to be considered as an individual, even when group decisions are being made.
But I want an Oompa Loompa now, Daddy!
But it does seem like there are growing divisions in groups, where the majority are expecting to be taken care of by others, and a minority are taking responsibility for their own outcomes. I see it in several workplaces I associate with too, where there are people who expect their job to come with multiple perks, even they themselves aren't fulfilling the needs of their job. Or, new employees fresh out of school, expecting high salaries and people leader positions, despite their inexperience or lack of practical understanding and skill.
I feel that part of the process automation that AI will bring, will include many new ways to track and evaluate the real-world impacts that employees are making on an organization. And perhaps, it is also going to uncover a lot of their social lives too and provide a confidence score to an employee, perhaps dictating brackets of perks. Do you think the average employee would want AI used in that way?
I am guessing not.
But, this is the thing with tools that make our lives easier - they can also make our lives harder and for knowledge workers, it can make their day resemble that of a line worker in manufacturing, where each piece of information they create or interact with goes into a value stream calculation and affect remuneration. Do people really want to be compared to the person next to them doing the same job, where there is transparency on what each is doing?
I am guessing not.
But, this is also part of the result of the constant demands on employers, as they will bring in mechanisms to be able to evaluate and justify positions and remunerations. What would be interesting to see is if we had perfect insight into each person, what is the value added between the people who complain the least, and those who complain the most about their working conditions.
What would you expect the correlation to be?
Maybe it comes down to whether a person has an internal or an external frame of reference. Are they comparing themselves against the outcomes of others, or are they comparing themselves to their expectations they place on themselves? Perhaps this speaks to whether the person sees themselves as an active agent in their outcomes, or a passive victim of their circumstances. It would also be interesting to see what kinds of activities each group makes when they meet negative conditions - do they adapt, actively try and change the conditions, or complain.
And Complaining isn't the problem really, as for many people, it is the first stage of their activation process. But, just complaining means that the solution for change (if there will be one applied) is also out of their hands - which is again this expectation that they should be looked after, that they are special enough to not have to help themselves.
At the end of the day though, whether I am too harsh in my judgements or not, I generally give people the benefit of the doubt and let them go about their lives. When it comes to something like this writing about it though, this has no target in mind, no judgement of an individual. Yet, what is interesting is that often, people will see themselves in the words and feel judged. This is very interesting, because what they are actually doing, is judging themselves.
We are made to judge. We are also made to move.
What do you expect from yourself?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]