Balance Denver
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Why do people do this? 5 behaviors at work that drive me nuts!
By Nataly Kogan, from Work It, Mom!
Last week all of these happened to me so yes, this is a vent. I hope you'll join me in the comments.
So here goes, in no particular order:
1. Canceling a meeting 10 minutes before the scheduled time. In my case, by email, which I was lucky to check before getting out of my car to go to the meeting. And I was all proud of myself because I'd planned my day to get there early. I mean, OK, I've canceled meetings plenty of times, but even when it was an emergency, I called the person at least 1/2 hour before to let them know. But 10 minutes before the meeting?! I held back most of my rage but did write back an email explaining that I was already on my way there. No explanation followed, just a call to reschedule for next week. I haven't called back yet.
2. People who are always asking for something without ever giving something back. About a year ago I met this person who was fairly prominent in the digital media industry, the space I was new to with the launch of Workitmom.com. We really hit it off and got in to the habit of calling and emailing each other regularly. This person would ask me for a favor from time to time, and to be honest, I was giddy with excitement that someone with more experience and connections than me would do that. Then came my turn and I asked for what I thought was a VERY small favor. Nothing happened. After a few months, I'd asked for something else, again, not huge. Ignored, but followed up with an email to ask for my advice on something. UGH! (Yes, I know I am being boringly vague here but I am fairly certain this person reads my blog. Sorry.)
3. Dead-fish handshake. This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but it's not: I've NEVER gotten over this and actually had a good working relationship with a person who shakes my hand with complete lack of enthusiasm. I don't care how digital the world has become, a great, firm, enthusiastic handshake is a must during a work-related meeting. Period. (No wonder it's one of the most frequent good interview tips
we hear.)
4. Unnecessary unfriendliness. I understand that not everyone has a bright sunny personality, but c'mon, you can't handle a tiny tiniest bit of friendly rapport during a conversation? I had a call with this woman recently -- and this time, I don't care at all if she reads this blog -- who spent the entire 20 minutes giving me terse short answers. I wasn't asking anything of her, and quite the opposite, if we ended up working together she and her firm would benefit. Yes, maybe she had a really bad day. But really, not even a nice hello? (I've had plenty of horrible conversations with guys too, believe me, but I have written about my thoughts on women being bitchy at work before.)
5. CC'ing too many people on an email and abusing the Reply All feature. I am sure as you're reading this you can think of an email you got that included (a) way too many recipients, including people who had no business being copied on it and (2) too many recipients replying to the email using Reply All, even though what they were writing was useful for a few people. I HATE this. It wastes time -- reading through emails -- it causes confusion almost always, and it can lead to some unpleasant situations when people forget that so many people are part of this conversation.
Nataly Kogan is the co-founder and CEO of Workitmom.com, an online community and helpful resource for working moms.
Last week all of these happened to me so yes, this is a vent. I hope you'll join me in the comments.
So here goes, in no particular order:
1. Canceling a meeting 10 minutes before the scheduled time. In my case, by email, which I was lucky to check before getting out of my car to go to the meeting. And I was all proud of myself because I'd planned my day to get there early. I mean, OK, I've canceled meetings plenty of times, but even when it was an emergency, I called the person at least 1/2 hour before to let them know. But 10 minutes before the meeting?! I held back most of my rage but did write back an email explaining that I was already on my way there. No explanation followed, just a call to reschedule for next week. I haven't called back yet.
2. People who are always asking for something without ever giving something back. About a year ago I met this person who was fairly prominent in the digital media industry, the space I was new to with the launch of Workitmom.com. We really hit it off and got in to the habit of calling and emailing each other regularly. This person would ask me for a favor from time to time, and to be honest, I was giddy with excitement that someone with more experience and connections than me would do that. Then came my turn and I asked for what I thought was a VERY small favor. Nothing happened. After a few months, I'd asked for something else, again, not huge. Ignored, but followed up with an email to ask for my advice on something. UGH! (Yes, I know I am being boringly vague here but I am fairly certain this person reads my blog. Sorry.)
3. Dead-fish handshake. This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but it's not: I've NEVER gotten over this and actually had a good working relationship with a person who shakes my hand with complete lack of enthusiasm. I don't care how digital the world has become, a great, firm, enthusiastic handshake is a must during a work-related meeting. Period. (No wonder it's one of the most frequent good interview tips
we hear.)
4. Unnecessary unfriendliness. I understand that not everyone has a bright sunny personality, but c'mon, you can't handle a tiny tiniest bit of friendly rapport during a conversation? I had a call with this woman recently -- and this time, I don't care at all if she reads this blog -- who spent the entire 20 minutes giving me terse short answers. I wasn't asking anything of her, and quite the opposite, if we ended up working together she and her firm would benefit. Yes, maybe she had a really bad day. But really, not even a nice hello? (I've had plenty of horrible conversations with guys too, believe me, but I have written about my thoughts on women being bitchy at work before.)
5. CC'ing too many people on an email and abusing the Reply All feature. I am sure as you're reading this you can think of an email you got that included (a) way too many recipients, including people who had no business being copied on it and (2) too many recipients replying to the email using Reply All, even though what they were writing was useful for a few people. I HATE this. It wastes time -- reading through emails -- it causes confusion almost always, and it can lead to some unpleasant situations when people forget that so many people are part of this conversation.
Nataly Kogan is the co-founder and CEO of Workitmom.com, an online community and helpful resource for working moms.
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