Not a Team Player

Post Reply New Topic

My boss gave me my yearly evaluation and wrote on it that i have to be team player and need to improve my communication skills. I am in the process of writing my rebuttal and wanted to know what you guys think of my telling him that the reason i don't have great communications skills is because of AS. I could get a letter from my psych stating that i have it and attach it to my rebuttal. Or i can go to the affirmative action coordinator and let her know about it or else i can go to my union rep and see if they can give me any help. Or maybe i should not do anything because of fear of retaliation. My boss is a real SOB.

bizarre-

I really want to respond at length as I have had a similar experience with a positive resolution, but I have to go to work right now so it'll have to wait. What country do you live in?

-Mark

I consider myself like that, but that's not bad.

At least I care about others.

Did your boss give specific examples to clarify that criticism? "Communication skills" can be a pretty vague term, meaning anything from just not projecting a good image to throwing tantrums and being a complete a***hole. I know one Aspie who can't hold a job because he's at the latter end of that scale and does nothing about it, whereas I've erred on the side of working too hard at communication skills, to the point that everything else suffers.

If you have a formal diagnosis then the letter from your psych sounds like your best bet. It should at least let him know that you're making an effort to fit in and that you could be a hell of a lot worse if you weren't.

I wonder why some people think it is a job requirement.

I'm just glad people have respect for me.

Lord, how I hate the expression "team player". I've routinely refused to apply to any job ad that contained that phrase.

Bizarre, I think we need to know two things in order to answer your question:

(1) How important is this evaluation to your continued employment?
(2) Was the rest of the evaluation good or okay?

If the evaluation isn't crucial, and you did fairly well on it otherwise, I'd suggest you drop the subject. Why bother to write a rebuttal? You'll just start a fight that might not be necessary and that you might not win. Just say you'll work on your communication skills (and then maybe do so? It's something we should all be doing, for very practical reasons).

On the other hand, if your job is threatened and you didn't do well on the evaluation overall, you may want to talk to your union rep about the possibility of playing the aspie card.

i would suggest to write in your rebuttal about your aspieness and how this doesnt make you a team player, but it is vital to aslo include in this rebbuttal the advantages aspieness contributes to you and to your work.
it is important that in different countries there is legislation to protect you from employers discriminating against you due to your aspiness.
you need to let us know what country you are in i am in the uk and can advise at such but maybe others can advise with reagrd to the us or canada.
but i am one for disclosing aspiness, and its advantages, i couuldt do what i do whithout it.

Terms like "team player" and "good communication skills" are something that I'm predicting you won't see in job ads in a few years' time, simply because everyone out there - or at least every NT - thinks they have good communication skills. Certainly it's not a criteria that will deter anyone who thinks they're otherwise perfect for the job. Employers will just come to realise that they'll have to weed out the duds in the interview process.

As a musician, I'd liken it to one term I've seen disappear from band adverts, "no time wasters". Every band that advertised for muso's ten years ago ran that right at the end, until someone twigged that nobody read the ad with avid interest, thought they were perfect for the gig, then got to that bit and thought...DAMMIT!! !

Okay, I’m back.

Teamwork-

I too scored poorly on my last evaluation for teamwork. I have read that one of the previous misconceptions about autistics is that they have no concept of teamwork when in fact they simply have a different concept of teamwork. We do however have difficulty with collaboration. If possible, I would much rather carry a piece of furniture by myself than attempt to collaborate with another person. I shared this with my supervisors. When I was in high school, I was on the swim team. I swam the marathon, the 500, a grueling race, every week. That’s where I was strong. I was no good in a sprint. This is how I think of teamwork. Put people where they’re strong.

Communication-

I scored “acceptable” for communication. I agreed that I did not always provide enough information or copy enough people. This is either because I think something is self-evident, or I see no “need-to-know.” So, I told my supervisors, “If you need more information, just ask.” Also, I expressed appreciation for all the times they told me to also copy so n so on that. “I don’t see why, but if you say so.”

Now, first of all, my supervisors were very understanding and willing to work with me, and while I have no official diagnosis or ADA protection, they nevertheless were very supportive in the spirit of diversity. This is why I asked what country you lived in. If you live in the ‘States and have an official diagnosis, you’re entitled to certain protections and accommodations under ADA. If your boss in indeed a real SOB, I would make sure my ass was legally covered and not expect any sympathy. If you can get that official diagnosis, you might want to talk to an ADA attorney before you do anything. Otherwise, I think you may have good reason to fear retaliation.

I'm in the US. I've had this job for 5 yrs. and he always gave me excellent on my evaluations. He always put something in the need to improve section about how i have to improve my communication. So now he gives me unsatifactory and put me on probation till Nov. to improve. It is really unfair because he said that i should have gone to my immediate supervisor everyday and asked if anything special needed to be done that day. But no one ever told me that i have to do that! How could i have known that is what he wanted me to do if he never told me to do it? I mean talk about lack of communciation. If he had told me to do that and THEN i didn't do it i could see how he could give me unsatisfactory.

He also said that i took to many days off. I had to have an operation and took an unpaid leave of absense and so i used up all my sick days first. He said that i should not have used up all my sick days but save them up like he does. He said he has 200 unused sick days. We get 12 sicks days a year but if you get fired or quit you lose them so why should i do that? Whats the sense of saving them up? I'm using them all up before Nov. in case i get fired.

I have allot of enemies there cause of my aspieness. I just wanted to do my job mind my own business and go home. I didn't want to sit around and BS or gossip and eat lunch by myself instead of with the guys. They think this is weird or unfriendly and they persecuted me and tried turning me into a scap-goat for everything that went wrong which was their own fault but they did not want to take responsibility. Maybe they have gone and bad-mouthed me to the boss and now he is taking it out on me. I'm going to call a lawyer that i know in my union and ask him what my legal rights are. I will keep you posted.

Werbert's Dictionary

Team Player=The poor guy who does all the work while the lazy workers take the credit.

when you add this about the sick days it puts a different spin on things.
u also say you have eben there 5 years.
it is my read of this situation that they probhably like your work ability, but this is a wartning shot to you taking too many sick days.
dont do the aspie thing and over react.
tak to someone about it.
internet advice is good and practical but it is impersonal and i think you may to talj to someone in the loop.
dont over react. plan your moves.
maybe start looking for other jobs on the horizon.

oh how terrible. thats whats wrong with being employed today, you always have to be smiling and upbeat and s**t. i think if your doing agreat job it shouldn't matter either way. "if" i get a job im handing a brochure about asperger disorder on it to my boss with the highlighted areas of "might not show emotion all the time, might keep to themselves and do there job quitely"

Talking to a union rep and a lawyer are both REALLY good ideas.

If you do play the Aspie card - I'd do it in a constructive way - bite your tounge, get a diagnosis and tell the supervisor about what a help forcing you to get diagnosed and treated was.

Some stuff that helped me with communication was speach pathology and a bunch of classes work sends me too (dale carnniage, Influencing skills, presentation skills, intro to leadership).

My ADA accomodation at work is that each year I participate in a class like this 1/yr and see a counciler 1/month for life skill coaching. It actually helps me function better. Be cool if you could suck work into paying for this sorta stuff.

My thought is that just because you have Asperger's does not mean that you can't develop better communication skills.

But you know the funny thing about working in projects is that frequently everyone else says their team mates have poor communication skills. It's always pther people that need to work on them.

Because you know there are two sides to it. The expression of ideas, and recieving them. There seems to be this expectation that you should just do like everyone else. That is, there's a belief that only you should adapt.


By the sounds of things, your boss has pretty poor communication skills as well. I don't know about the other people you work with.


Here's what good communication really boils down. Expressing idea's clearly. If you can't do that, it's something that you probably can learn. NTs aren't neccesarily better at this either, they tend to make a lot of assumptions. What's more, frequently they don't let you know what assumptions they are making.


Furthermore, if you do become effective at communicating? It's entirely possible that your coworkers might not even recognize it, if they are not effective communicators as is.



Communication is something that's very important, and something everyone needs to work on. And a lot of people that think they are good at communicating really aren't. I would say what good communication is exactly, but I don't really know what it is

Software Engineering wise, to the best of my knowledge what works well communication wise is that everyone has a very clear and precise list of requirements. As they complete their work, they write clear and precise documentation on how what they did works. That way, another Software Engineer can come along and change it fairly easily.

Each programmer doesn't need to know what everyone else is doing. Not even neccesarily do they need details on the whole project, so much as just the aspects they are working on. Every line of communication makes things more complex, and this is why for large projects frequently you have several sub teams.


Effective communication also might be part of why open source software is so frequently better designed. This part get's a little hazy though because often the people working on the projects might never actually meet, and a lot of things are just done by a single really good programmer. But then again, documentation is communication.


I would consider asking your boss for specific details on how to communicate effectively. If you are told to just 'do what so and so does', reply with that you might not be seeing the same things that they are, and you really need a clear description of what you need to do. And if they can't do that, then they'll get what they deserve and you shouldn't feel bad about it

A. Communications
The ability to convey knowledge, information and ideas clearly and accurately.

EXCELLING

Almost always anticipates need to communicate information. Demonstrates above average communication problem solving skills. Is Always pleasant and helpful even with argumentative persons in challenging and difficult situations. Promotes tension-free work environment. Always treats fellow employees with respect.

FULLT COMPETENT

Consistently gives and receives information effectively. Clearly presents ideas/tasks to groups/individuals. Actively listens to others, demonstrating respect, attention to, and an understanding of expressed comments and concerns.

DEVELOPMENT NEEDED

Gives and receives information that is at times inaccurate and incomplete. Is occasionally impolite or abrupt. Does not maintain balance between telling and listening.

From Loen County's "EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE COMMON RATING FACTORS"