Skills Won’t Do
Every time I evaluate my job performance, I pretend the only thing in question is my level of skill. I tell myself that I would be perfect at my job if I could only master the skills required for the role. This has led me to excessive efforts to perfect tasks and duties. It has made me a super good employee and it left positive reputations at each place I worked, but this was an overly simplistic view of how success at work occurs.
My mindset shifted on a workday not too long ago. I was scrambling to do two employees’ worth of tasks and feeling like a failure. My coworker had volunteered to handle an off-site responsibility but was taking longer than appropriate to return. A quiet anger hummed in my chest because the decision to dawdle off-site was becoming a pattern when we worked together. My internal performance evaluation was skewed because I was holding myself accountable for both of our duties.
Team communication is a massive component of being successful at work. People have been telling me this for years, and I naturally excel at 75% of this skillset. The struggle area for me is offensive or upsetting communication. During the last 3 years I have been forced to tiptoe my way into this final realm of team communication.
Two jobs back I was doing work that thrilled me, but I worked myself to the point of depression. My first thoughts in the morning were curse words about waking up for another day of grinding. I made mistakes at work and hardly cared enough to address them. I was nearly at the point of refusing to show up for my shifts. Fortunately, I had a spectacular boss who gave me opportunities for candid discussions. I had to admit things that felt embarrassing to me - that I was overworked, that I had lost my zeal, that I was struggling to even show up every day.
Another recent job was intentionally temporary. I felt a little more free to share my experiences. I started to realize that the people above us were overwhelming the people at my level with work. It allowed more income for the company but it seemed like the only way to slow the flood of work was for workers at my level to push back against the excessive workloads. I am only tip toeing in this skill, but I began to speak up to my direct supervisors about excessive workloads. It was easy to share because these people were more peers than people making the workload decisions. They practiced speaking up to the people directly above them and to some degree our voices were heard. I strongly remember an unusual decision during my time at this workplace - I shared my anger about a team decision directly with a supervisor two roles above me. This is a simple skill for many, but for me I could barely convince myself to get the words out of my mouth.
It is a cliche to say job skills are not the main criteria for a good employee, but I have been slowly learning this proverb from everyday experience. Team communication is crucial for excelling at work. Most of this is the positive back and forth communication between teammates or between workers and supervisors. But communication that offends or upsets is also crucial to success at work. I am easing my way into using this critical skill. It is a frightening, necessary journey.
