Jan 20 2008
Bob
Well, it’s official. I’ve now jumped, hurdled, and Navy-SEALed my way through three at a financial company. Reflecting now I can say there have been more rough times than good, more conflict than resolution. Bright spots in my week that are predominately overshadowed by larger, loomyer dark spots.
I’ve come this far though, and I’m resolving to stick with it for at least a year. If at the end of the year it’s not working out, then I can look at other options. Different department, different offices, or even quitting altogether. At least I tried. This is not a quitter’s thinking, per-say, it’s just taking succeeding at this job from the slot of ¡Èa sure thing¡É to ¡Èdesirable outcome.¡É It makes me more open and I get less headaches this way.
As I experience more and more in this all-Japanese team, I’ve encountered things that I would like to sort out in my head but really can’t because of my lack of experience. Let me give you an example.
There’s a veteran on my team. Let’s call him Bob. Bob is generally a nice guy when you talk to him outside of the office. A bit of a introvert, in fact. Even in the office he’s a nice guy, if you’re one of his business superiors. But in being the new guy on the team, I’ve experienced a very different side of Bob. Bob can be an outright dick.
While doing my work I use quite a number of different trading systems and programs, none of which I knew how to operate coming into this job. Throughout the day I would sometimes get errors and problems trying to use these. I like to call this a learning curve. Bob is probably calling this incompetence. One time I asked him about one of these errors. His response? A biting ¡ÈNo, no, no, that’s impossible.¡É He hadn’t even turned around. I had to print what was on my screen and shove it under his eyes to actually get his attention. This is one of the guys who’s supposed to be training me. Instead, I get a lot of flak for not knowing stuff. Opposite of helpful.
This is just an example of some of the negativity on my team. It’s not everybody, but Bob here does a good job of dishing it out. I’d like to sort this out in my head and give it a label. Is this just Bob? Is this a cultural thing (Are Japanese people like this when teaching stuff?) Is this a business thing (Do people just expected to turn into dicks when they get a job?) or is this even a business cultural thing (Japanese people turn into dicks as soon as they get a job and have to teach something?)
Figuring this out, as well as a good number of other things, obviously seems a task bigger than a short three months.
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I am experiencing the exact same dickery in Toronto. My trainer shrinks at teaching me anything, and when I don’t know something because she didn’t teach it, she freaks out on me. This is really a symptom of someone who is both overworked and has bad people skills. It’s not a Japanese thing. I’ve had really patient, helpful mentors while working in Japan, as well as impatient assholes. Don’t blame it on the Japanese.