He's an a**hole but I'd like to work with him

Hey friends, just wanted to give you a quick heads up that today’s edition of The Debrief is a bit controversial.

It reflects my true feelings on a somewhat serious matter but I would love to hear your honest opinions since I can definitely be a little narrow-minded at times.

Onto the debrief

My first month into Google, I met a colleague - let’s call her Claire - that I did not vibe with.

The few times we interacted outside of the workplace, I felt she was self-centered, rude, and clique-y (i.e “I only want to hang out with a select few people I deem good enough”)

But. If you were to ask me today:

Jeff, there’s a huge project that needs to succeed, and your next promotion depends on it. Who would you want on your team?

I would answer - without hesitation - Claire.

Claire is only 1 year older than me but I am not ashamed to admit that her ability to get things done is on a completely different level.

When faced with an unprecedented issue, she’s able to quickly identify key points and corresponding implications by asking thoughtful questions (using her version of the management consulting framework).

Then, she executes at lightening speed and is not afraid to put in extra hours to achieve the objective.

Which brings me to a controversial point

Imagine you were scolded and belittled by Claire for 3 months, but the project succeeds and you get promoted with a large raise, would you be okay with that?

What if you needed to get your child into a “good school” but the tradeoff was you had to do or tolerate something that made you feel uncomfortable?

“It depends on the individual person and situation” you might say, and I agree!

You can probably see where I'm going with this

This might come as a surprise to some of you but I’m actually not that easy to work with.

I have high standards at work (I like to prioritize efficiency above all else), and I tend to hold my colleagues to those same standards (which is very unfair).

But I would try to justify my actions with: “Well if the end result is positive, then it’s fine right?”

Put another way, should I take it as a compliment if my colleagues say, “Jeff can be an asshole, but yea if push comes to shove, I’d definitely trust him to get the job done."

A lot of my peers would say “Heck no. The ‘how’ matters just as much as the ‘what.’”

And a lot of companies (especially in tech) would specifically look at how employees achieve their goals during the performance review process (e.g. how would cross-functional colleagues rate working with you?)

I'm sure there are good arguments for both sides and there's no "right" answer. And I'm also sure my perspective will change as I continue to grow personally and professionally.

I'll keep you all updated.

Got feedback for this edition of The Debrief? Let me know!

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