Chatter Post: September 2008, Friday, Signup Week
Good Morning!
Some quick community announcements:
- Just a quick heads up to everyone that therealljidol's signups will be appearing very soon. LJ Idol is where it all began: the original concept that brigits_flame was spun from. They're an Ebay to our Amazon, so to speak - the same basic idea, but with two different approaches. ;-) Idol combines the twists and turns of reality television with some hardcore writing competition, great people, and an intense, challenging writing environment. The competition is expected to last about six months- if you're interested, make sure you don't miss out!
- Don't forget that the mini contest and September signups end today! The August art contest ends Sunday.
When a boss asks everyone for their opinion, I don't think he wants your opinion. I pretty much just figured this out yesterday.
At work yesterday, Boss called everyone from what they were doing and brought us all together in the center of the department. He shared various ideas with us, one that would completely change what I do all day long at work. Basically, I would spend all day every day blogging nonstop for different basement companies nationwide.
Are you kidding? I raised some questions, presented some reasonable arguments, and made some points I thought were really strong. Basically, I said that blogging nonstop for literally 100 web sites was probably not the best use of my time. Some coworkers supported the argument, and I felt pretty damn good about it. I thought I'd made some good points and made a valuable contribution.
... until I was taken aside and spoken to. What? Apparently, he'd felt I was challenging him. Well, yeah, I guess I was. I don't think the idea will work, and he'd asked for feedback. Yes sir, I'll be more respectful next time sir. Can I get you some coffee, sir? Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you!
Of course, on my end, I tend to wear people out who share good constructive criticism with me. I ask questions and grill them incessantly, because I love the feedback and I want to explore the crit as much as possible. I challenge the ideas, passionately argue my side, obsess, and generally make people wish that they never gave it at all. I especially like criticism which I completely disagree with, which drives those people nuts. ::: sigh :::
The problem is this: People have very strong policies on feedback. They know EXACTLY what kind they give, and they know EXACTLY what kind they're willing to receive. Some people have wise policies about _when_ to share feedback; I'm definitely not one of those people. If you want it, you've got it. I'll be nice, but I'm tough to sway from my opinion. I don't change my mind just because authority disagrees with me, and I tend to lower my opinion of those who feel that honest, constructive criticism and positions of authority should have anything to do with one another.
How do you give and receive feedback? When does criticism become inappropriate?