I asked you guys to submit questions about difficult
workplace questions or difficult clients
and some of the questions are fantastic
and I'm gonna start off
um with three different questions
this one this one and this one um
the first one comes from Monkey Circus
how do you quote
avoid being the type of project leader you hated
working for when you were starting out well
that was mostly
paying attention to how I felt working for a supervisor
and then wanting to make sure
that I never did that kind of stuff
I've had supervisors shame me
I've had supervisors humiliate me
I've had supervisors
performatively dress me down in front of a room
I've had supervisors tell me
that the thing I was gonna do was stupid
and I was gonna fail at it I mean
I've dealt with the gamut uh
as we all have
as every last one of us has um
having a job is uh
it's not I was gonna say unfortunately
but it really is just like part of
being in the working world under late stage capitalism
as you'll be saddled
well I mean
really on almost under any economic circumstance I get
I'm gonna try and state that out
right I mean
at any rate
it's a bigger philosophical question
bosses be bosses and work be work
and like you're
we're all gonna deal with that
and I have dealt with the gamut
that was the first question
Monkey Circus
how do you avoid
being the type of project leader you hated um
a second question that is along the same lines
Suzy Revenge says
how do you know if you have a toxic work environment
a really fantastic question
is there a way to recognize it
including whether you unintentionally
maybe the cause of it
another great question
and then Vickie Bligh asks a third question
and all three of these I'll address um
we ask questions
all the time about the people who won't play nice
but how do you deal with the folks that are too helpful
haha too helpful um
you're describing I think
a person who lacks boundaries
which is a really particularly
difficult thing to deal with at work
um so let's talk about toxic work environments
um the first past that you think of
when you think of a toxic work environment is of course
you know uh uh
people that punched down um
who years and years ago
I read an account from a comedian that got a tour of
Saturday Night Live set during its first season
and John Belushi
was giving them a tour of the behind the scenes at SNL
and one of the things that Belushi
said to the person they were giving a tour at was
I only ever yelled at the executives
I never yell at the staff
and I love this
what he's really saying is
I don't punch down um
Tom Hanks gives a little talk about this in uh
uh uh Saving Private Ryan
how complaining goes up the chain of command
not down um
punching down I
e yelling at the staff
yelling at the crew
I think is one of the
like the lowest hanging fruit of crappy workplaces um
supervisors who feel like humiliation or shame
or belittling or disrespect are ways to run a crew
um you cannot demand respect unless you give it
you can only demand respect if you give it
otherwise you are saying that rules
apply to them and not you but um
so those aspects of workplaces uh
belittling shaming
disrespectful
distrust hostile blame
supervisors who are always looking for someone to blame
again these are all low hanging fruits and anti work
uh the subreddit I'm I spend half of every day on there
uh is replete with stories of that
but there are more subtle ways to have have uh
toxic work environments or toxic co workers
um one of them that I have an issue with is
people who won't take blame
buck passers
I had a workplace years ago where we had a buck passer
a bright young kid who they were sort of a legacy hire
there was a little nepotism in their hiring
they were good at what they did
but there was a little nepotism in their hiring
and at the beginning of their work
they didn't take a lot of blame
for stuff that went wrong
and I'm saying that in a kind of a neutral way because
it's not always incoming on you to take blame
for the stuff that you got wrong
sometimes you just got to take the blame
it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter um
sometimes it's incoming on you to fall on your sword
especially if I'm a supervisor
working under a supervisor
and I've got folks dude
I'm falling on my sword all over the place
for my people
I'm not gonna tell them that they screwed up but
this kid was a buck passerine always
there was always a reason why something went wrong
instead of I'll pay attention
I'll get that better next time
however and actually so
after about a year of working with this guy I was like
I don't think I'm ever gonna work with that guy again
and within the next year
he had some epiphany and I never spoke to him about it
and he ended up becoming
one of the best people I've ever worked with frankly
it was that like
significant of a shift in consciousness
defensiveness
is often unwarranted
it is a natural place for us to go
but when you are a supervisor and you hear a butt
that wasn't my fault
that's really not the discussion we're having again
some workplaces place a high level of
importance on who gets blamed for what
and I have worked for large
multinational
Fortune 500 companies in which that is the case um yeah
one of the things that happens in Fortune 500 companies
is they don't like laying lots of people off at once
cause that's bad for the stock
so they just are constantly
laying people off in small ways
and what that eels
in terms of a toxic work environment
is a situation in which whoever
screwed up most recently
was the first person to get fired every quarter
and can I tell you what it's like
to work for a company like that
they can't make any decisions
because nobody wants to make the wrong decision cause
it doesn't matter how well you're doing at your job
if you made the most recent wrong decision
you are out um
companies that do that
do great for their bottom line
and they savage
their institutional knowledge
that is how you eliminate all your institutional
knowledge is
constantly trying to lower your payroll cost
by firing whoever screwed up most recently you
you and when you destroy
the foundation of your institutional knowledge
then you just get people who are coming in
and reinventing the wheel every single time um
complaining
complaining is a a a a minor
but can be a major
complaining and gossiping
can absolutely create a toxic work work environment
I worked for a guy
I worked sorry
no I worked well um
yeah no I'm gonna name this outright
not the person
but I worked on Bicentennial Man in the model shop um
we were making hand props uh
all the little hand props you saw in um
in Bicentennial man
were built in this room in Treasure Island
with a whole bunch of my colleagues from ILM
and we did some great work there
it was really
really fun gig
the supervisor on that man
he was just the worst supervisor I have ever worked for
I I'm not even sure I can remember his name
it's fine cause I wasn't gonna mention it anyway
um what was so difficult about him as a supervisor
he would insist on how you built something
in a way that was unnecessary micromanaging
and it yielded a poorer product
and it was like enraging to work for him on that front
cause you'd be like
you hired me to build a model
and now you're stopping me from building it in this way
that is efficient
will look good
will be durable
it was like a constant micromanaging um
and also on that job was an agitator
there was someone who kept on walking around going man
they're screwing you
they're screwing
which again
that certainly might be the case
but this guy would be like Adam
you gotta stop working so fast man
you're raising the bar here
and they're gonna expect more from the rest of us
that that didn't go well with me
I'm gonna work as fast as I work um
that's that's my you know that's how I like to work um
wait wait wait
boundaries right
folks that are too helpful
so look I think many of us can
identify many toxic workplace environments
I think subtly toxic work environments are
environments where there's not a lot of yelling or uh
uh or shaming
but it is a blame based culture
um but the much better question
and it's when we all ask ourselves
should be asking ourselves all the time is
am I creating work
or taking it away
when you are working on a project
you get this area that you are dealing with
and other people have their area that they're dealing
with and when you need a lot of
support for your area from other people
you are creating more work than you are doing
here's a great example
uh your relative you haven't seen in a long time
comes to your house and you're cooking dinner
and they say
can they help
but as they move around their kitchen
they have questions about where every last thing is
and you're spending so much time
acclimatizing them to the kitchen
that you're not getting your work done
that's fine
that's like what it is to have family
and what it is to cook over the holidays
but in a professional environment
that can be a freaking nightmare
and I think we've all worked with people
who add drama and labor
and decision making to their portion of the job
that is unnecessary
and so I spend a lot of time thinking about
my favorite people to work with
and what do they do
well my favorite people to work with
and for over the years have been clear in their speech
clear in their expectations
clear in their critique
and advice about moving forward
and they have been what I call self contained
like the problems their encountering aren't my problems
I'm dealing with my problems
and they are dealing with theirs um
self containment is a great way to ascertain
uh how you are to work with and for me
I'll admit I haven't always been the easiest
person to work with
not because I punched down I don't
but I certainly
noticed at a certain point on Mythbusters that like
look I was dealing with a lot on that show
I was in the middle of a divorce for the first 2
3 seasons uh
I was going to court a lot
I was having custody battles about my kids
it was crazy stressful
and there was a moment in which I noticed
that the crew was accommodating my mood
now if any of my old Miss Bus
or colleagues are watching this
they're probably smiling
um it took me a
took me a while to realize that uh
and I'm not
you know I'm not proud of that
that I don't want a whole crew adjusting to my mood
I know that I'm the business and you know
one of the five
businesses of this television show
and I got to get this stuff on camera but like
we all got to get the job done um
and I wasn't happy at that thought that I was creating
an atmosphere in which people were
and it wasn't like people were again
walking on eggshells around me
like I was gonna burst at them
cause that's not the kind of co
worker or boss that I am
but that doesn't mean that it was easy
to work around me when I was in those moods um
I have said this a lot
but I want my Tombstone to say it was nice to work with
I don't have to be the best person you ever work with
but I'd like to be nice to work with
I'd like to I'd like us all to get the job done um
wonderful questions
monkey circus
uh sorry yeah
Monkey Circus
Susie Revenge and Vicky Bligh
I really appreciate uh
I really appreciate that
asking yourself about what creates a hostile
or toxic or difficult work environment is a process
again it's and
if you Google like I did before this live stream
ways of identifying toxic work places
there are tons of wonderful lists
that people have concocted that include
much of this and some stuff that I that I added okay
thank you so much for watching
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I'll see you on the next one