Quote:
Originally Posted by Strive4health
My issues have always revolved around supervisor's expectations. I guess you can say I have had some very poor workplace experiences which have shaped my view of them.
One of my workplaces has a couple of supervisors who couldn't be direct, and I am the type of person who means what I say and say what I mean. I would always ask my supervisor, "is there anything you'd like me to work on?" or I'd ask "do you have any feedback for me?" It was always no, no, and no...that is, until my supervisor felt the need to write me up for such poor performance and then I ended up having a meeting with her supervisor's supervisor (which was nerve-wracking and traumatic).
Another supervisor LOVED working in chaos and if things were disorderly, the better (in spite of him getting into trouble with it all the time). I would clearly express what I needed to do my job well, and even he said I went above and beyond. Then at another job the expectations always changed and were made arbitrarily, and it depended on who you talked to and what day it was and what mood they were in, etc.
I think you can say my issues have revolved around supervisors and their expectations. I've asked in interviews casually "what type of person will the supervisor work best with?" and was just given some generic canned answer.
|
Flexibility is a bad thing. I mean if they talk about how important it is to be flexible, often they mean they work chaotically and imprecisely, and expect you to go with that. "Flexible" might be a key word that you are hoping not to hear from them. On the other hand, you could ask how rigid or flexible the workplace is. You want to know how they see it. Don't get roped into you defining those terms. You want to know what they think. Just one idea of how to approach these questions.
Then again, I don't think there's any place out there for me, so coming up with screening ideas is very easy for me. It just depends on what is critical for you to screen for. A generic canned answer would be a red flag for me. I expect more intelligence than that. If they don't value what you do, it's not a good match, and sounds like you value order. Unfortunately, a lot of companies are geared to dealing with a rapidly changing marketplace and an entrepreneurial approach and they expect people to thrive on the chaotic non-systems that result. Hence the bias towards young people who were raised with this and can put up with the short attention span multi-tasking.
I don't mean to rant, but you are kind of going against the mainstream here, possibly, as I am. Being direct and specific takes time and/or brain power. Many people aren't offering these in responding to questions. I hope you can find some better quality people to hire you.