Not Helpful
Dec. 16th, 2005 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebSometimes when people call you at work and ask you a question and you try to be helpful, this totally backfires on you. Sometimes people have already decided what they want to hear, so no matter what you say, they will hear it wrong, and then they will go around telling everyone that you supported their mistaken beliefs. And they will feel more righteous about the horrible things they are about to do.
I like to be helpful, but I am no longer going to be very helpful to certain kinds of callers at my current job. I am going to redirect them to someone who is closer to the data they seek and act like I know nothing. (Unless I forget again. Because I am such an idiot.)
So if someone is being strangely unhelpful, maybe reassuring them about why you want the information and what you intend to do with it and what your motives are will help you get farther with them. Or maybe not. Some people here have become so cold. And those people do not get in trouble.
Edited to add that I did not get in trouble today. Whew. But the situation was taken out of my hands and put into the hands of other kinds of people. I could never be one of those people.
You know how people who help you figure out what career you want sometimes ask you if you'd rather work with people, things, or data? This question used to seem so irrelevant to me. It's partly because they ask it wrong. They should ask whether you'd rather work with problem people, broken things, or messed up data. I'm a data person.
I like to be helpful, but I am no longer going to be very helpful to certain kinds of callers at my current job. I am going to redirect them to someone who is closer to the data they seek and act like I know nothing. (Unless I forget again. Because I am such an idiot.)
So if someone is being strangely unhelpful, maybe reassuring them about why you want the information and what you intend to do with it and what your motives are will help you get farther with them. Or maybe not. Some people here have become so cold. And those people do not get in trouble.
Edited to add that I did not get in trouble today. Whew. But the situation was taken out of my hands and put into the hands of other kinds of people. I could never be one of those people.
You know how people who help you figure out what career you want sometimes ask you if you'd rather work with people, things, or data? This question used to seem so irrelevant to me. It's partly because they ask it wrong. They should ask whether you'd rather work with problem people, broken things, or messed up data. I'm a data person.