The problems of not being a “team player” [Note: Content Warning - discusses prejudice and abuse, and links to videos discussing self harm and suicide. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

I recently attended an end of year event of a group where I had been ... “outspoken” - in my words, I had stood up for objectively ethical points of view, providing praise when I considered it merited (which was actually the majority of communications by number), and, equally, criticism when I considered it merited (possibly a majority by word count, because of the arguments & evidence I included - and, I suspect, more significant by impact).

At that event, I was clearly “on the outer”, or “on the nose” (ignored, in a word) - which was something I had noticed at previous events as well, but at that event I finally conceded that such was the reality. 

I cannot blame the people involved in that: they have a high visibility position, and cop a lot of flak - I know, because I have been in such situations myself. And in such situations, one can very humanly become sensitive to criticism from those one is expecting to be allies - which misconstrues such positions, by placing the personal ahead of the goals of such positions. 

It is vital to exercise self care, but there is also a need to genuinely consider criticism - and discard anything (or aspects that are) malicious, unconstructive or destructive, or otherwise unhelpful (based on content, not motivation - and that applies to my communication: it was motivated by ethics, not malice, but it still may have been of no use or unhelpful, which I cannot say for sure, as I am not now in that sort of position, although, from my point of view, the criticisms should have been constructive or helpful).

Nevertheless, I will avoid those social occasions in the future. 

The main area of life I have experienced adverse consequences for not being (or being perceived to not be) a team player is work. 

Now, as a professional I am expected to hold to a code of ethics and that includes telling the truth - even if that is inconvenient. 

Let me give an example. 

In the 1980s, we had a lot of USA-sycophants here in Australia - people who thought an extremist, overworked, frenetic pace of work was somehow a “good thing”, and some of whom also thought that meant giving clients whatever they wanted was also somehow a “good thing”. In one case, a manager (who may well have passed away now) gave me a plant design to do, and said he would start writing the report, including the conclusions.

We had a bit of a blue about that - I refused to endorse his conclusions until I had done the calculations and other design work. 

He never did like that I didn’t just worshipfully agree with whatever he wanted. 

At one stage in that decade I was considering switching to working on a contract basis, and he objected - alleging it would have been worse for me, but it was actually about what was best financially for the company. Around 18 months later, when more neoliberal economic circumstances meant it was more favourable for the company to have employees working as contractors (a practice that later cracked down on as being a sham - and one which reveals incompetence and/or lack of moral courage in management), he tried to tell me it was in my interests to be a contractor - but it clearly wasn't. 

I told him he had to be lying on one of the occasions, and he didn’t like that. 

I think I am making it clear that I believe in ethics, and I don’t have a good view of things like hypocrisy. (By the way, we now have better legislation and standards in many professions so the push to give clients what they want at any cost is pretty much eradicated - or severely restricted, with notable exceptions such as this.)

That also applies to work end of year functions. Being stuck in a noisy, crowded event with a bunch of people who have been aggressive, abusive or discriminatory and their partners (who are in some cases even worse) is not my idea of fun. 

My partner also dislikes it, so we adopted a policy of not going to those events - which became hard and fast when companies starting charging people for attending them. (I wrote here about an admin person who was utterly flummoxed by the notion that wouldn’t want to go, and did not need to know what the venue was.) 

We don’t regret not going - especially as many of these are on busy nights in the central city, but a few troglodytes think it is an indication of lack of team spirit. 

They’re quite wrong actually - it is self care, and my team spirit has been shown by the unpaid overtime I’ve worked (generally motivated by a desire to help either a client or a colleague), and the mentoring, training, and development I have put into junior staff. 

If we did not have registration requirements, I would be happy to continue aiding junior staff, but the law prohibits (with massive fines and, if I recall correctly, possible jail time) that unless I either resume the time, energy, and expense of a continuing - and manifestly irrelevant to this context - professional development programme, or work under supervision, which, given by expertise in my speciality, would be farcical.

I would also be expected by some of the people I have worked with over the years to do so on the basis of being a team player in a way that they could recognise - a biased and limited view that they held to so frenetically that they were psychologically incapable of recognising the good that was being done in other ways.

That sociopathic version of being a team player needs to be eradicated, and actions to cause that include the imminent implementation of psychosocial safety in the workplace and the positivist duty to prevent harassment. 

The first of those is outlined at the following links: 

• https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/managing-health-and-safety/mental-health/psychosocial-hazards   

• https://www.apsc.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/aps-professional-streams/aps-hr-professional-stream/aps-hr-professional-news/psychosocial-safety   

• https://healthsafety.com.au/what-is-psychosocial-safety/   

• https://psychosocialsafety.network/   and   

• “Creating Psychological Safety at Work in a Knowledge Economy | Amy Edmondson, Harvard”   https://youtu.be/KUo1QwVcCv0?si=crOcaVc1LGeKCNaY  
  

The second of those is mentioned in the coming “from the news” human rights post: 

“Australian Human Rights Commission to crack down on employers who fail to actively prevent workplace sexual harassment”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/12/australian-human-rights-commission-to-crack-down-on-employers-who-fail-to-actively-prevent-workplace-sexual-harassment   “Reflecting on its need, Cody told Guardian Australia there was a “heavy burden” on individuals to come forward.   ...   Captured under the law are ... sexist attitudes   ...   Employees, unions and other bodies will be able to make complaints to the commission via an online portal.”   See also   https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/media-releases/positive-duty-employers-commissions-powers-commence   and   https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/projects/positive-duty-under-sex-discrimination-act   Good! The webinar on this was particularly good - and I was pleased to hear good consideration of toxic workplaces, and good discussion on standards of evidence in the webinar  

In addition to that, I’d like to include another item from the coming “from the news” human rights post: 

“This is a Cult (and I'm tired of pretending it's not)”   https://youtu.be/b2gg4_4GIEg?si=6764M3i2e98kHG1a   Begins with a content warning that it is about cults and suicide. At 2:35: “As for language in this video, I will be using the word cult, but not as a pejorative to other or blame victims. Instead I’ll be using it for the opposite reason - to illustrate how anybody can become a victim and it’s never the victim’s fault.”   The video includes examples of multiple suicides at businesses (at 14:19) and a mass threatened suicide of 150 people unless working conditions improved. What these two companies were said (starting at 16:10) to “have in common is the absolute disregard for humans in the face of profit.” Has a very powerful conclusion from around 17:19.  

As a final point, I am perfectly happy to be a team player in ways that are genuinely ethical, genuinely people focused (including team interactions and work), and genuinely respectful of my wellbeing. 

 

Here are a few links that might also be of interest: 

• “A masterclass in destroying an organisation”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-masterclass-in-destroying-organisation.html   

• “Opting Out of Discrimination (~1,600 words; 6 - 8 minute read)”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/08/opting-out-of-discrimination.html   

• “Worker Advocates and “Fighting the Last War” (~1,550 words; 6 – 9 min. read)”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2022/07/worker-advocates-and-fighting-last-war.html   

• “trump's attempted coup shows the need for emotional and human competence”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2021/01/trumps-attempted-coup-shows-need-for.html   

• “Management - failure to learn, and a call for business unit diaries”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/10/management-failure-to-learn-and-call.html   

• “More on engineering”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/04/more-on-engineering.html   

• “The gaps in modern society”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-gaps-in-modern-society.html   

• “Competition is not the only way”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/01/competition-is-not-only-way.html   and   

• “Body blows to MPs' worldviews in politics”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2018/04/body-blows-to-mps-worldviews-in-politics.html   
  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.