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It’s strange but true that people on a job like to be appreciated and loved. They all want a sense of belonging. Recently while working on a project I noticed for some god damn reason people from my team working on other projects would come up to me and confide in all work related issues. I would listen and give comments where I thought that I could add value such as where to go and find this or that information, etc. The one issue which stood out was about being part of a team and how the Team Manager was not treating the Team well. To this i would not comment much as being a Contractor and not an employee. It kind of made no sense for me to get involved in the team politics, day in and out i would observe and it started becoming more apparent that the team was drifting. The team kept complaining and after a period i too got caught in the Rat race of complaints.

My life was going no where with this whole Team thing. I started keeping to myself and deep inside of me I knew my personality was changing. I wanted to do something but could not find a way to do anything as being a contractor i felt its not my problem. I am paid X amount to do X things and that’s it end of story. One day it hit me, i woke up early that day and made a plan of what i value in the team and the top of the list was PEOPLE.

All the strangers i had met were now my work buddies. The reason they came and spoke to me was because they trusted me. I need to let the Team Manager know that he needs to wake up. May be there is a reason why this has got to a point where the team manager is not aware. For the first time I decided to do something about it. The list that follows are just a few of the things i tried and hopefully if you come across such as situation or have experienced such a situation you will be able to relate to this. Please do provide feedback so that others reading this have a broader Picture.

1. Observe other Managers within the organization. Talk to people from the same department but who belong to other teams. Ask them how they feel being part of their team.
2. After having spoken to lots of members from other teams during my lunch break i went back to my team and asked if they got a wish to swap Mangers which Manager on the floor would they choose and why?
3. Everyone from my team chose common names from the floor as they perceived these individuals to be human, down to earth and helpful.
4. I asked my self the same questions before asking any of my team mates and had the similar names.
5. Then i took it one step further and looked at the situation from a contractor’s point of view and spoke to my contracting buddies outside the organization of what attributes they like about their contracting work place and what they don’t.
6. I made a list of all this and created a matrix based on the votes.
7. Then came the most dreadful moment, booked time with the Team Manager
8. Spoke about general stuff on workload and stuff and learnt that the Manger was under a lot of pressure with many projects on the go and meetings were consuming most of the time
9. Deep inside of me I wanted to puke as I did not want him to be under more pressure and at the same time I wanted him to realize that he is caught up in a rat race where the ending is not going to be pleasant. Part of me said Forget it, this whole situation is not your problem and who cares. I wanted to walk away but then the other side kept taunting me of what a coward I was being so i closed my eyes for a moment and said ” We need to talk about something that is causing a bit of a yucky environment lately”
10. The team manager was like Yucky, what is it
11. I said well ” You need an attitude fix, i don’t want to be rude but i have no other way to put it”
12. The team is not happy and please take this in a constructive manner
13. The next few words that came out of the Manager mouth made me feel so proud of him. He was like thank you for this i will make an effort to do something to improve myself.
14. I gave him pointers of how he could get more involved in their day to day tasks off and on.
15. How he could let them know what he has been involved in lately and ask them for their views
16. How once in a while just not talk about work but talk about anything else like reading this awesome book or watching this sucky movie that sucked big time.
17. Just be a normal dude and chill out for a while and see how the environment starts buzzing.
18. I got back to my desk and both sides in my head shook hands and gave me a pat on my back.
19. I went home that evening and listened to music and believed that the next day i would see my work buddies with all smiles and so would my Team Manager
20. I walked in later than usual at work and I had a smile on my face when I saw my Team Manager busy chatting with my work buddies
21. My work buddies were happy and chatting about everything else other than “My job Sucks”.I don’t know what the feeling is from an employee perspective but as a contractor (freelancer) the one thing that i learnt from this exercise is “Feel the fear and do it anyway” there is a book too that tells you about how to deal with fear, its written by Sussan Jeffers.

All of us are human and some of us behave like sucky people because of ego or power, some of us behave the way we do just because we are caught up with so much that we are living in autopilot mode. I hope you enjoyed this post, please do share you experiences as well.