1. Introduction
Injustice is incalculable: correcting one, you risk committing another.
Romain Rolland
Working as a programmer since the early 90s, I have had to deal with problems of underestimation more than once. For example, I am so young, smart, positive from all sides, for some reason I do not move up the career ladder. Well, it’s not that I don’t move at all, but I somehow move differently than I deserve. Or my work is not evaluated enthusiastically enough, not noticing all the beauty of the decisions and the gigantic contribution that I, it is I, make to the common cause. Compared to others, I clearly do not receive perks and privileges. That is, I climb the ladder of professional knowledge quickly and efficiently, but on the official level, my height is stubbornly underestimated and clamped down. Are they all blind and indifferent, or is this a conspiracy?
While you are reading and no one is listening, confess honestly that you have faced similar problems!
Having lived to the age of "Argentina - Jamaica", going from a developer to a systems analyst, project manager and to the director and co-owner of an IT company, I often observed a similar picture, but from the other side. Many scenarios of behavior of an underestimated employee and a manager who underestimated him became clear and obvious. Many questions that complicated my life and prevented self-realization for a long time, finally got answers.
This article can be useful both to the underestimated employees themselves and their managers.
2. Analysis of the causes of undervaluation
Our lives are defined by opportunities. Even the ones we miss...
(The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).
As a system analyst, I will try to analyze this problem, systematize the causes of its occurrence and suggest solutions.
I was prompted to think about this topic by reading the book by D. Kahneman “Think slowly… Decide quickly” [1]. Why is Psychoanalysis mentioned in the title of the article? Yes, because this branch of psychology is often called non-scientific, while constantly remembering it as a non-committal philosophy. And therefore the demand from me for quackery will be minimal. So "Psychoanalysis is a theory that helps to reflect how unconscious confrontation affects the self-esteem of the individual and the emotional side of the personality, its interactions with the rest of the environment and other social institutions" [2]. And therefore, let's try to analyze the motives and factors that influence the behavior of a specialist, and "highly likely" are imposed by his past life experience.
In order not to be deceived by illusions, let's clarify the key point. In this age of speedy decision-making, the assessment of an employee and an applicant is often given one or two, based on his presentability. The image that is formed on the basis of the impression made, as well as the messages that a person involuntarily (or intentionally) broadcasts to the “evaluator”. After all, this is the little, individual that remains after template resumes, template questionnaires and stereotypical methods for evaluating answers.
As expected, we begin our review with problems. Let's determine the factors that can negatively affect the performance mentioned above. Let's go from the problems that tickle the nerves of novice specialists to the problems that stretch the veins of seasoned professionals.
A representative sample from me includes:
1. Inability to articulate your thoughts well
The ability to express your thoughts is no less important than the thoughts themselves,
for most people have a hearing to please,
and only a few have a mind capable of judging what has been said.
Philip D. S. Chesterfield
Once at an interview, a young man who highly appreciated his potential, nevertheless, was not able to answer plainly any standard question and made a very faded impression in a thematic discussion, was very indignant at being refused. Based on my experience and intuition, I decided that he was unimportantly oriented in the subject. I was interested to know his impressions in this situation. It turned out that he felt like a person who is well versed in this material, everything is clear and understandable to him, but at the same time, he simply cannot express his thoughts, formulate answers, convey his point of view, etc. I can well admit that option. Perhaps my intuition let me down, and he is really very talented. But: first, how can I get confirmation of this? And most importantly, how will he communicate with colleagues, performing his professional duties, if he cannot simply explain himself to people?
A kind of intelligent system, completely devoid of an interface for transmitting signals to the outside world. Who is interested in her?
According to experts, this behavior can be caused by such an innocent diagnosis as Social phobia. “Sociophobia (social phobia) is an irrational fear of getting into or being in various situations related to social interaction. We are talking about situations that are in one way or another connected with contacts with other people: about public speaking, performing one's professional duties, even about simply being in a society of people. [3]
For the convenience of further analysis, we label the psychotypes we are analyzing. Let's call the first considered type - "#Informal", emphasizing once again that we cannot accurately identify it aka - "#Dunno", as well as refute it.
2. Bias in assessing the level of their professionalism
Everything depends on the environment.
The sun in the sky does not have such a high opinion of itself as a candle lit in a cellar.
Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach
Absolutely objectively, we can say that any assessment of the professional capabilities of a specialist is subjective. But there is always the opportunity to establish certain levels of employee qualifications for various key indicators that affect performance. For example, skills, abilities, life principles, physical and mental state, etc.
The main problem of self-assessment of a specialist, most often becomes a misunderstanding (very strong underestimation) of the amount of knowledge required for assessment, the level of skills and abilities.
At the beginning of the XNUMXs, I was indelibly impressed by the interview of one young man for the position of a Delphi programmer, during which the applicant stated that he was still just fluent in the language and development environment, since he had been studying them for more than a month, but for the sake of objectivity, he still needed another two or three weeks to thoroughly comprehend all the wisdom of the instrument. It's not a joke, that's how it happened.
Probably, everyone had their own first program that displayed some kind of "Hello" on the screen. Most often, this event is perceived as a pass to the world of programmers, raising self-esteem to the skies. And there, like thunder, the first real task appears, returning back to mortal earth.
This problem is endless, like eternity. Most often, it simply transforms with life experience, each time moving to a higher level of misunderstanding. The first delivery of the project to the customer, the first distributed system, the first integration, and also high architecture, strategic management, etc.
This problem can be measured by such a metric as - "Level of claims". The level that a person seeks to achieve in various areas of life (career, status, wealth, etc.).
Simplified, the indicator can be calculated as follows: Aspiration level = Success rate - Failure rate. Moreover, this coefficient can even be empty - null.
From the point of view of cognitive distortions [4] here on the face:
- The Overconfidence Effect is the tendency to overestimate one's own abilities.
- "Selective perception" - taking into account only those facts that are consistent with expectations.
We will call this type - "#Munchausen". As if the character is generally positive, but exaggerates a little, just a little.
3. Unwillingness to invest in your development for the future
Don't look for a needle in a haystack. Just buy the whole haystack whole!
John (Jack) Bogle
Another characteristic case leading to the effect of underestimation is the unwillingness of a specialist to delve into something new on his own, to study something promising, arguing something like this: “Why waste extra time? If I get a task that requires a new competence, I will master it.”
But often, a task that requires a new competency will fall to someone who works proactively. Anyone who has already tried to dive into it and discuss a new problem will be able to describe the options for solving it as clearly and fully as possible.
This situation can be illustrated by such an allegory. You came to the doctor for a surgical operation, and he seems to you: “In general, I have never done surgery, but I’m a professional, now I’ll quickly go over the Atlas of Human Anatomy and cut everything out for you in the best possible way. Be calm."
For this case, the following Cognitive Distortions are viewed [4]:
- “Outcome bias” is the tendency to judge decisions by their final results, instead of judging the quality of decisions by the circumstances of the point in time at which they were made (“winners are not judged”).
- "Status quo deviation" is the tendency of people to wish things to remain roughly the same.
For this type, we will use a relatively fresh label - “#Waiting”.
4. Not realizing your weaknesses and not showing your strengths
Injustice is not always associated with some action;
often it consists precisely in inaction.
(Marcus Aurelius)
Another important problem, in my opinion, for both self-assessment and assessment of the level of a specialist is an attempt to form an opinion about professional opportunities as a single and indivisible whole. Good, average, bad, etc. But it also happens that a seemingly very average developer starts to perform some new function for himself, for example, to control and motivate the team, and the productivity of the team goes uphill. And it happens the other way around - an excellent developer, a clever one, who is in a very good account, cannot elementarily organize his colleagues for the most ordinary feat in an emergency. And the project flies downhill, dragging along with it his faith in himself. The moral and psychological state is flattened and smeared, with all the ensuing consequences.
At the same time, management, due to its limitations, possibly associated with employment, lack of insight or disbelief in a miracle, tends to see in its employees only the visible part of the iceberg, namely, the result they produce. And as a result of the lack of results, following a drop in self-esteem, management's assessments fly to hell, discomfort arises in the team and "as before, they will have nothing ...".
The set of parameters itself, for evaluating a specialist in different areas, is most likely more or less universal. But the weight of each specific indicator for various specializations and functions varies to a large extent. And how clearly you show and demonstrate your strengths in business depends on how positively your contribution to the team can be noted from the outside. After all, you are not judged for your strengths as such, but for how you effectively apply them. If you do not show them in any way, how will your colleagues find out about them? Not every organization has the opportunity to delve into the depths of your inner world and expose your talents.
Here appear such cognitive distortions [4] as:
- The "craze effect, conformity" is the fear of standing out from the crowd, the tendency to do (or believe in) things because so many other people are doing (or believing in) them. Refers to groupthink, herd behavior and manias.
- "Regulation" is the trap of constantly telling yourself to do something, instead of sometimes acting impulsively, spontaneously, when it's more appropriate.
In my opinion, the label “#Private” is the best fit for this type.
5. Adjusting your commitments to your alternative assessment of the contribution
Injustice is comparatively easy to bear;
what really hurts us is justice.
Henry Luis Menken
There have also been cases in my practice when an employee’s attempts to independently determine his value in a team, or in the local labor market, led to the conclusion that he was greatly underpaid compared to other colleagues. Here they are nearby, exactly the same, doing exactly the same job, and they have a higher salary and more respect for them. There is a disturbing sense of injustice. Often, such conclusions are associated with the self-assessment errors listed above, in which the perception of one's place in the global IT industry turns out to be objectively distorted and not in the direction of underestimation.
The next step, such an employee, in order to somehow restore justice on Earth, tries to do a little less work. Well, about as much as they don't pay extra. He defiantly refuses to overwork, comes into conflict with other team members who are so undeservedly exalted and, in all likelihood, behave pompously and pompously because of this.
No matter how the “offended” person positions the situation: restoration of justice, retribution according to merit, etc., from the outside, this is perceived exclusively as a confrontation and demarche.
It is quite logical that, following the decline in his productivity and efficiency, his wages may also decrease. And the saddest thing in such a situation is that the unfortunate employee associates the deterioration of his position not with his actions (or rather inaction and opposition), but with further discrimination of his own person by the die-hard leadership. The resentment complex grows and deepens.
If a person is not stupid, then at the second, third repetition of a similar situation in different teams, he begins to squint at himself, and he has vague doubts about his exclusivity. Otherwise, such people become forever nomadic wanderers in firms and teams, cursing everyone around.
Typical cognitive distortions [4] for this case:
- "Effect of expectation of the observer" - unconscious manipulation of the course of experience to discover the expected result (also the Rosenthal effect);
- "Falseness in the spirit of a well-aimed shooter from Texas" - the choice or adjustment of a hypothesis to the results of measurements;
- "Confirmation bias" - the tendency to seek or interpret information in a way that confirms pre-existing concepts;
Separately, we highlight:
- "Resistance" is a person's need to do the opposite of what someone encourages him to do, because of the need to resist apparent attempts to limit freedom of choice.
- "Resistance" - a manifestation of mental inertia, disbelief in the threat, continuation of the previous course of action in the face of an urgent need to switch: when postponing the transition is fraught with deterioration; when delay can lead to the loss of the opportunity to improve the situation; when faced with emergencies, unexpected opportunities, and sudden interruptions.
Let's call this type - "#Wanderer".
6. Formal approach to business
Formalism as a quality of personality - a tendency contrary to common sense
to give excessive importance to the external side of the matter, to fulfill one's duties without putting one's heart into them.
Often in a team you can encounter an individual who is very demanding of everyone around, except for himself. He can be extremely annoyed, for example, by non-punctual people, about whom he grumbles endlessly, being 20-30 minutes late for work himself. Or a disgusting service that daily plunges him into a sea of indifference and heartlessness of stupid performers who do not even try to guess his desires and provide for the needs of the people. When you jointly begin to delve into the causes of frustration, you come to the conclusion that most often this is due to a formal approach to problems, a refusal to take responsibility and an unwillingness to do what is supposedly not your own business.
But if you do not stop there and go further, scrolling through his (employee's) working day, then, oh my God, all the same signs are found in his behavior that just so enraged others. At first, anxiety arises in the eyes, some analogies run through with a chill, and the hunch strikes with lightning that he is exactly the same formalist. At the same time, for some reason, all those who owe him everything, but he just has principles: from now to now, this is my work, and then excuse me, it’s not my responsibility and nothing personal.
To sketch a typical portrait of such behavior, the following plot can be cited. An employee, having read the text of the task in the tracker and seeing in it that the problem is somehow not sufficiently detailed and informative and does not allow him to solve it right away without straining, simply writes in a comment: “There is not enough information to solve it.” After that, with a calm soul and a sense of accomplishment, he plunges into the news feed.
In dynamic and low-budget projects, it happens that in the absence of full-scale bureaucratic descriptions, work efficiency is not lost due to constant close intra-team communication. And most importantly, due to non-indifference, indifference, non-indifference and other "not". A team player does not divide responsibility into his own and someone else's, but in every possible way tries to push a stuck problem to the surface. It is these people who are most valuable and, accordingly, most often have a higher price tag.
From the point of view of cognitive distortions [4], in this case, the following is manifested:
- "Framing effect" - the presence of a dependence of the choice of a solution on the form of presentation of the initial information. So, changing the type of question wording, with semantically identical content, can cause a change in the percentage of positive (negative) answers from 20% to 80% or more.
- “A blind spot in relation to distortions” is an easier detection of shortcomings in other people than in oneself (he sees a speck in someone else's eye, he does not notice a log in his own).
- The “moral trust effect” is that a person who believes that he has no prejudice is more likely to show prejudice. He perceives himself as sinless, he has the illusion that any of his actions will also be sinless.
For this type, we will put a label - “#Officer”. Oh, and it will do.
7. Indecisiveness in decision making
Fearful and dreamy indecision creeps after laziness and entails impotence and poverty...
William Shakespeare
Sometimes a good specialist is listed in the team as an outsider. If you look at the results of his work against the background of other employees, then his achievements look above average. But, his opinion is not heard. It is impossible to remember when he last insisted on his point of view. Most likely, his point of view went into the piggy bank of some bawler.
Since he is not proactive, then he also gets second-rate jobs, on which it is difficult to prove himself. It's kind of a vicious circle.
His constant doubts and fears prevent him from adequately evaluating his own actions and presenting them in proportion to his contribution.
In addition to just phobias, from the point of view of cognitive distortions [4], this type can be seen as:
- “Reversion” is a systematic return to thoughts about hypothetical actions in the past to prevent losses that are the result of irreversible events that have occurred, correct the irreparable, change the irreversible past. Forms of reversion are guilt and shame
- “Delay (procrastination)” is a systematic unjustified postponing, delaying the start of the inevitable work.
- "Underestimation of inaction" - preference for more harm due to inaction than harm due to action, due to non-acknowledgment of guilt in inaction.
- "Submission to authority" is the tendency of people to obey authority, ignoring their own judgments about the expediency of action.
These harmless people most often impress and do not cause irritation. Therefore, we will introduce an affectionate label for them - “# Avoska” (from the word Avos). Yes, they are also not representative, but extremely reliable.
8. Reassessment (exaggeration) of the role of previous experience
Experience increases our wisdom, but does not decrease our stupidity.
G. Shaw
Sometimes a positive experience can play a cruel joke. Such a phenomenon manifests itself, for example, at the moment when the successful use of the "light" methodology is trying to be mirrored in a larger project.
The specialist, as it were, has already gone through the path of producing something several times. The path is thorny, requiring for the first time maximum effort, analysis, consultations and the development of certain decisions. Each subsequent similar project was easier and more efficient, sliding along the knurled track. There is calmness. The body relaxes, the eyelids become heavy, pleasant warmth runs through the arms, sweet drowsiness envelops, peace and tranquility fill you ...
And here is the new project. And oh, it's bigger and more complex. I want to go to battle. Well, what's the point again to waste time on its detailed study, if everything is rolling so well along the beaten furrow.
Unfortunately, in such a situation, most specialists, sometimes very intelligent and diligent, do not even think that their past experience does not work at all in the new conditions. Or rather, it can work on separate parts of the project, but also with nuances.
This insight usually comes at the moment when all the deadlines are missed, the required product is not in sight, and the client, to put it mildly, begins to worry. In turn, this excitement pretty much lulls the project management, forcing them to invent all sorts of excuses and take out the brains of the performers. Oil painting.
But the most annoying thing is that with the subsequent repetition of a similar situation, the same picture is reproduced and all with the same oil. That is, on the one hand, the positive experience remained the standard, and on the other hand, the negative one, only a monstrous combination of circumstances, which should be forgotten as soon as possible, like a nightmare.
This situation is a manifestation of the following cognitive distortions [4]:
- "Generalization of particular cases" is an unreasonable transfer of the characteristics of particular or even single cases to their vast aggregates.
- The "focus effect" is a prediction error that occurs when people pay too much attention to any one aspect of a phenomenon; causes errors in correctly predicting the utility of a future outcome.
- The "illusion of control" is the tendency for people to believe that they can control, or at least influence, the outcome of events that they actually cannot.
The label - “#Know-Swimmed”, in my opinion will do.
Usually the former #Munchausens become #Know-Swim. Well, here the phrase itself suggests itself: "#Munchausens are never former."
9. Unwillingness of an accomplished professional to start over
All of us would do well to start all over again - preferably in kindergarten.
Kurt Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle)
It is also interesting to watch already established specialists, whom life pushed to the sidelines of the IT industry and forced them to look for a new job. Shaking off the husk of disappointment and insecurity, they “with a bang” pass the very first interview. Impressed HR people enthusiastically show their resumes to each other, saying that this is how it should be written. Everything is on the rise, in anticipation of at least the creation of some miracle, and in the very near future.
But workdays flowed, day after day passes, and the magic does not happen.
This is a view from one side. And on the other hand, an established specialist, at the subconscious level, has already developed his own habits and ideas of how everything should spin around. And it’s not a fact that it coincides with the foundations that have developed in the new company. And should it match? Often, to discuss, to prove something with hackneyed copper pipes ears, a specialist tired of fire and water, there is no longer any strength or desire. I don’t want to change my habits either, and it’s somehow undignified, still not a boy.
All together fall into a zone of turbulence and discomfort, unfulfilled hopes and unfulfilled expectations.
For experienced people, the bouquet of cognitive distortions [4] will certainly be richer:
- "Distortion in the perception of the choice made" - excessive perseverance, attachment to one's choices, perceiving them as more correct than they really are, with their further justification.
- The familiarity effect is the tendency for people to express unreasonable liking for an object just because they are familiar with it.
- Irrational escalation is the tendency to remember one's choices as more correct than they actually were.
- The "curse of knowledge" is the difficulty that informed people have when trying to view a problem from the point of view of less informed people.
And finally - the crown of creativity:
- "Professional deformation" - psychological disorientation of the individual in the course of professional activity. The tendency to look at things according to the rules generally accepted for one's profession, discarding a more general point of view.
With a label for this type, there is nothing to invent, it has long been known - "# Okello". The one that missed. Well, yes, yes, they helped him miss. But he is a moral leader, he had to somehow not get into such a story.
10. Section summary
There are walls that you can climb over, dig under them, go around or even blow them up. But if the wall exists in your mind, it will be immeasurably more reliable than any of the highest fences.
Chiun, Royal Master of Sinanju
Summing up the above.
Often, the idea of a specialist about his place, role and significance in a team or project is significantly distorted. More correctly, one can say this: what he sees, and what most of the people around him see, differ greatly in their assessment. Whether he has outgrown the others, whether he has not matured, whether they have evaluation priorities from different lives, but one thing is clear - there is dissonance in cooperation.
For young professionals, most often, such problems are associated with a lack of understanding of the criteria for their assessment, as well as a distortion of the idea of the volume and quality of the requirements for their knowledge, skills and abilities.
Mature specialists, on the other hand, often build fences in their minds from ideas of how everything should be arranged and stop the manifestations of any dissent, even more preferable and progressive ones.
Having identified the motives that cause negative behavioral patterns in employees that impede career growth, then we will try to find scenarios that allow leveling their influence. As far as possible without medication.
References[1] D. Kahneman., Think slow… decide fast, ACT, 2013.
[2] Z. Freud, Introduction to Psychoanalysis, St. Petersburg: Aletheia St. Petersburg, 1999.
[3] "Social phobia," Wikipedia, [Online]. available: .
[4] "List of cognitive biases," Wikipedia, [Online]. available: .
Source: habr.com