Social Media is an
intricate relationship and networking environment that needs nurturing much as
it needs to be weeded and pruned like a vine so that it can bear much fruit for good wine.
Well over a decade
ago, I attended an interview for the role of a technical specialist, it was
going well and during that interview, I was promoted to the role of a technical
architect. On the first day of work, it appeared everyone else who had been
engaged thought I was one of the juniors in the team. It was no time to be a diva,
these were people I needed to get the job done.
So, I mucked in with everyone,
did and the simple and difficult whilst taking the time to teach, explain,
mentor, educate as required. I was also on a postgraduate programme at the
time.
Invisible acts for
visible benefits
One particular young
man, somewhat introverted and quiet stood out for the talent of being able to
produce efficient, time and cost-saving tools that helped us a great deal. In
my view, it was one of the most valuable members of the team, even if for
whatever reason others did not recognise how his utilities considerably raised
the productivity of the team.
After I left that the role, I never encountered someone who had significantly changed the team dynamic
that way he did, and I did not seem to be presented with an opportunity to
commend him and recommend him.
Never too late for a
commendation
However, this
evening, as I was reviewing my profile, I saw that he had visited and I could not
have had a better chance to pen a few sentences down about our working
relationship, because there had to be a record. That is what I did which
initiated a conversation and a sanguine trip down memory lane.
If the opportunity
presents itself, I will willingly work with him again, much as there are others
I would love to be on my team. I have worked in many places in the last 20
years, encountered hundreds of people with various levels of expertise and
camaraderie, but the few that stand out, do because they were good people first
and good at what they do, and in doing what they were good at, helped everyone
else get things done better, faster, and beautifully.
Of those people, we
must when given the opportunity, speak up for them, support them, commend them, provide glowing references, and promote them. We can see the best of humanity in the work environment and
celebrate it too.
With respect to my new odyssey up in the beautiful climes of Scotland, I must confess, every day has been brilliant, bright and beautiful in Edinburgh, I am beginning to disbelieve my new colleagues who have constantly suggested the weather would change in 15 minutes. Maybe there is a different clock mechanism working in the country of our cousins up north, because going by English time, that 15 minutes of changeable weather has been running for almost 5 days.
Considering what they say about the weather in Manchester, Edinburgh could as well be in summer already, however, I guess by the time I return next week, I might arrive at a rude awakening.
I updated my LinkedIn profile with sketchy details of my new role and soon after congratulations and best wishes came flooding in. Contacts from way back asking after my health and welfare amongst other things. Good thoughts and prayers, news and anecdotes coming in that you can only feel liked and loved.
The workplace relationships we rarely cultivate
We forget we have an amazing community in the workplace, people we interact with, day-in-day-out, we probably spend more productive time with people at the workplace than anywhere else, it makes me wonder why some people end up being nasty to other colleagues. You step away and conclude a dark soul would never be a spring of laughter or humour, they are harbingers of ill will, stress, and discontent, wielding power without either a sense of responsibility or humanity. In the end, they will not be remembered fondly or happily, they are the scions of perdition.
Yet, in the little notes we exchange of reconnection, friendship and reminiscences, you are heartened that your friends are doing well, living well and happily well.
Breaking rules properly
One such remembering a working relationship over 14 years ago commented on some influence I had on him to the effect that I apparently said, “Learn the rules well so you can break them properly.”
Now, I cannot remember saying that, but on reading it bad to myself, they do sound like something I would have said, both seriously and in jest. I would not consider myself a rule breaker per se, I could be quite conformist, yet, in knowing the rules well, you have every opportunity to test its breaking points and dare to experience the daring-do of living free of constraints.
In another way, a lack of understanding of the rules of doing things, of engagement, of conduct and many other things not only symbolises incompetence, that incompetence is compounded by ineptitude presaging absolute chaos and worse.
As I have been reminded, I should keep this in mind. As an Englishman, I was looking forward to the Early May Bank Holiday on the 1st of May. Alas, it is not that strictly observed where I work in Scotland, so no long weekend for me, I’m back in Edinburgh on Sunday. Finally, I did not know TransPennine Express trains offered wireless connectivity in motion, I noticed someone else connecting and so I got to post this blog.
LinkedIn* is more or less the professional networking site that allows for people to keep tabs with people one has somewhat interacted with in professional life.
For a person who has been self-employed most of my working life and has worked in many organisations, LinkedIn offers a forum to keep tabs with people I have worked with and also allows one to keep abreast of the careers of those same people.
Most recently, I tapped this professional network for job opportunities after having been out of work for almost a year and that mostly due to serious illness. I was glad to find that many of my ex-colleagues responded with sympathy and help which eventually lead to a job.
Self-referencing resource
I have also found that the LinkedIn profile can serve as an adjunct to a curriculum vitae (CV) because it can contain information that would not necessarily appear on a CV for instance, it can be a self-referencing portal if an employer reviews the profile finds people you have worked with and probably knows those people or organisations and make qualified assumptions or deductions of the prospect.
A slightly more subjective but useful function in LinkedIn is the recommendation feature, it can be interesting and indicative of the views ex-colleagues have of a person, hence, it is important that the writer and recipient pay particular attention to the construction, content, context, intent and import of the recommendation.
The recipient is given the opportunity to edit and recommend to the writer changes that would reflect better in order not to have the opinions misconstrued by other readers.
Understand before acceptance
Where English is used but not the mother-tongue, it is even more pertinent that the matter be reviewed by an English speaker before publication. I have at least in a number of cases had to decline recommendations that were subject to unfavourable interpretation even though the intentions were noble and generous – such however should not be enough to allow a recommendation or it would be the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot.
I was completely mortified when I read a recommendation posted on a LinkedIn profile, I was half persuaded to highlight that the intention and the meaning were at complete variance. However, on reflection, the writer might well have meant what he wrote and the recipient none the wiser about the nuances and pitfalls of the gentle English putdown has proudly published this damning assessment of abilities sandwiched in passable praise.
The short recommendation
“Person is a great consultant with a lot of knowledge from everything. Doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things. Really a great team worker and a nice colleague.”
Three short sentences that speak volumes that are either lost in translation from a Dutch context or are a good excuse to use language as a deficiency to castigate in the most unfair light.
Person is a great consultant with a lot of knowledge from of everything. Either way, the knowledge from or more correctly, the knowledge of everything could easily read as a Jack of all trades and a master of none. The more charitable turn of phrase would probably have been a very broad knowledge of technical concepts – giving it a more specific frame of context. Whilst Dutch allows for verbosity and generalisations that could be easily contextualised, English is not that forgiving.
Does he bother or does he mind?
Doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things. This is the damning part because it reads like he doesn’t mind helping you in every way but it says he is the most unhelpful person you can find regardless of the situation presented to him.
It might be that the writer thought bother was synonymous with mind; in some contexts ‘Are you bothered?’ or ‘Do you mind?’ could be interchangeable but definitely not here. With Google Translate to Dutch the meaning did not carry as well until I modified the sentence to read as “He doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things.”
Dutch requires that the object and subject are very explicit in a sentence, it is not that good with implicit references and so this passed the censorship of the recipient when it should not have gone any further.
Can he really be?
Really a great team worker and a nice colleague. This would leave one almost wondering what the writer was trying to say after the first two sentences and it might well allow one to consider the possibility of a Freudian slip. Malevolently, this was the sweetener to the bait, obfuscating the intentions in the second sentence.
You might call it pedantic but recommendations are read with a greater attention to the detail rather than the general idea of what the writer is trying to convey – this recommendation has in my opinion torn the professional reputation of an otherwise knowledgeable and great consultant who is a nice colleague to shreds.
To think this recommendation has been published for over 2 years might well mean the damage is already done.
As for my opinions of the recipient, I could not possibly comment any further. The advice is, never accept wholesale a recommendation you do not fully understand and comprehend regardless of the good intentions of the benevolent writer.
Looking back and seeing the path on which I have travelled, there is no doubt I have come a long way.
And how best to appreciate that amazing journey than to look in my bank account this afternoon and find that I have been paid for the work I did in March.
Yes, the month of March offered me five working days and that was a week’s pay for 40 hours, my very first income in a year wherein I have been very, very ill, treated with chemotherapy and recuperating all together for 9 long months.
Though nowhere near my earning potential at my last project before those circumstances, the thought that one has been productive enough to get paid is like the feeling I had regarding my very first job some 29 years ago.
More thanks again
Without doubt, I have been nurtured and nourished on the full cream milk of human kindness from neighbours, friends and colleagues – in so many ways, no matter how small, it has been for me a bountiful harvest of grace and favour.
It is good to know that one can now begin to do something about those bills, every little bit is a start to forestall the incessant harassment especially the one that has harangued me in the name of Queen. I never told them, that could well be my name.
I have every reason to be thankful, the future is bright, my days are fun and life is beautiful – to everyone that loves life, cherish your health and keep it strong, it is your foundation to wealth and the breath of fresh air each glorious day.
