How Not to Be a Jerk to Your Incompetent Co-Workers
When you find yourself getting frustrated with colleagues, ask yourself what’s motivating them
Jessica Powell, the former Google vice president who wrote The Big Disruption and told you how to quit your job, is here to answer your common but tricky work questions. Check back every other week for more management advice with a tech inflection.
I work with people who are inconsistently motivated, not particularly high-performing and not possible to get rid of. Sometimes I assume the worst, get frustrated, and am an asshole. But I would like to be a better human. How can I work effectively and without arrogance (clearly I struggle with this) with people of different levels of motivation and performance? In other words, how can I stop being an asshole to idiots?
Obviously, the first step is to not think of these people as idiots, because that’s a matter of opinion — they probably think you’re pretty stupid, too (or at least a jerk!).
Most likely, these “inconsistently motivated” co-workers are not idiots, but rather have different priorities than you. It may also be the case that they don’t feel inclined to go the extra mile because no one is communicating to them — through good pay or proper recognition — that their work…
