Honesty

The other day the consultant at work said to me, "I notice that you seem to have a problem with me." And I replied, "Well, first I'm really stressed out because we have so much to do. And second, I'm uncomfortable with how much hand-holding it takes to walk you through one of these issues." Well, at this point she went off the handle at me, yelling about how I didn't respect her, something about common decency, and by then I had gotten to my cube, put on headphones and tuned her out.

It wasn't a nice thing to say. It wasn't an easy thing to say. But it was an honest answer. I am honestly uncomfortable with how much effort it takes to watch her do work she is assigned. It's not that I hover over her like a micromanager. She comes to me and asks questions again and again. She's been with us three months and the level of independent work has not gotten better yet. Maybe it doesn't help that she is the least charismatic person I've met. It's not just that she is unattractive (and I work in IT), but her entire personality is one big hodgepodge of repellent from her nasal, cracking voice to her lurking out of sight until you turn around and she's right in your face. Uncharasmatic but productive we've got and we like. Charasmatic and unproductive - well that's usually upper management and we've got those too. But neither is an especially hard sell.

The thing is that I talked to everyone in my group and no one disagrees with me. They may not have said it, but it doesn't mean that they weren't avoiding giving her work so that they wouldn't have to deal with her. But I'm the bad person until her contract is up.

Honesty is still the best policy, right?