Pessimism & politics | Ep. 251

(0:00 - 0:25)

I never thought about office place politics in terms of, like, being a threat to your job. Like, I thought they were something that you played to help you get ahead, not necessarily to keep you from getting fired. And so what I couldn't help but think my takeaway from the post was, people in the comments were saying, Oh, like, make sure you log into your CRM and like, get your metrics out.

(0:34 - 0:59)

What's up, lifers, and welcome to the Daily Standup with Lifetime Value, where we're giving you fresh new customer success ideas every single day. I got my man, JP with us. JP, you want to say hi? Is this the five o'clock free cat giveaway? And we've got Rob with us.

(0:59 - 1:05)

Rob, could you say hi? Bing bong. Oh, yeah. Go Knicks.

(1:06 - 1:12)

Go Knicks. By the time this is out, they'll be out of the playoffs. And I'm your host.

(1:12 - 1:18)

My name is Dillon Young. What are you about to do? For all the people not... Oh, he put the Celtics on. I hope they don't win at all.

(1:18 - 1:21)

Anyway. Hey, guys. It's just the three of us.

(1:21 - 1:34)

I got something to read. You guys ready? Dtown Forever writes, I'm getting fired, and honestly, I'm relieved. Shout out to Dtown, man.

(1:34 - 1:38)

Dtown Forever. That sounds wild. This is in the customer success Reddit, of course.

(1:39 - 1:50)

And it says... I'll try to read it fast. I was browsing through our read.ai meetings in search of the transcript from a sales to CS handoff call, and I found a call between my boss and our CEO. It's a very small company.

(1:50 - 2:00)

My name was in the top of the summary. So, of course, I read the transcript and watched the meeting. Who wouldn't? They basically bad mouth me with a bunch of stuff that I have a wildly different take on than they do.

(2:01 - 2:14)

And my boss, who is new to the org and a consultant to boot, said that he... Uh-oh, Rob. Is this you? Said that he knew someone who could come in and take over. And it was just a matter of when slash whether that person can do it.

(2:14 - 2:19)

Now, JP, I know you also read this post. Let's dive into it. I want your take.

(2:19 - 2:23)

I don't want to read through this whole thing myself. Yeah. Yeah.

(2:23 - 2:31)

It's a sad... It's a nasty world. You know, y'all look out for my debut album, baby. Nasty world.

(2:31 - 2:35)

Because it's nasty out here. I would love that album. Just to tell you.

(2:35 - 2:42)

I'm already thinking about song titles and everything. One of them definitely going to be Triple B. People don't know what that's about. Big Baller Bram? No.

(2:43 - 3:38)

You're bringing back Lamar. But as I digress, so what was heartbreaking about this post, what I feel for this guy, even if we obviously read these posts as subjective, I think what's sort of stoked my pessimism, let's say, is the fact that this guy said that he had performed well, he did all this great stuff, like he had, quote unquote, proved your worth. And it brought up the existential question in me, which is, is that enough? I think that I've tried to avoid office place politics for a long time, mainly in the sense of, if I don't want to get promoted necessarily or do something, I want to be able to maybe come in, do my thing, be good at it and let that be good enough.

(3:38 - 4:04)

But I never thought about office place politics in terms of being a threat to your job. I thought they were something that you played to help you get ahead, not necessarily to keep you from getting fired. And so what I couldn't help but think, my takeaway from the post was people in the comments were saying, oh, make sure you log into your CRM and get your KPI, get your metrics out.

(4:05 - 4:35)

And I was thinking, okay, so this person who performed really well is going to get their metrics out, put them on their resume, have them be attractive where he can go get hired somewhere else, maybe to have the exact same thing happen to him over there if they're also a same mindset or if it's, you know, that's basically what my takeaway was. Is that enough? I want to call one thing out before I let Robin here to defend himself about why he did this to this guy. That's not me.

(4:38 - 4:44)

He's opportunity for the world, man. You, bro. There was something really interesting you said, JP.

(4:44 - 4:57)

I've thought like this and I just want to name it because I think it's worthwhile to name. Oftentimes people say, I don't play office politics. I just want to do good work and go home and like not play the game.

(4:57 - 5:26)

That is often a smokescreen for I'm kind of and it shouldn't matter because I do good work. And when I say that and I say some people, I mean, Dillon, and I've had to learn that it is it is not office politics to learn how to play nicely in the sandbox. And I have said that derisively for years.

(5:26 - 5:34)

And it has taken me a long time to learn that they are not the same thing. Rob, go ahead. Tell me more about that.

(5:34 - 5:41)

That's really, that was a really insightful comment. Yeah. No, I'm with Rob.

(5:41 - 5:58)

I'm like, yo, tell me more about that. I think it just if you're not a good teammate, right, then it doesn't matter how good your work is, because you can have a I think a lot of people want to be a force multiplier, right? That's a term. You can you can also be a force divider.

(5:59 - 6:09)

Interesting. So it's not office politics to learn to play the game of working inside a company or playing. I didn't say play the game, play nicely in the sandbox.

(6:09 - 6:18)

Yeah. Yeah. You know, honestly, those are when you boil it down, you're right, because there's just a lot of fundamentals around like what it means to be a good teammate.

(6:19 - 6:37)

That's not really politics. Like, you know, if I have a manager who's very empathetic to me and my needs, should I see that as them playing the game or should I just see that as them just being a good team player and doing the fundamental things that make them human? Right. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's a good question. I think it'd be really funny.

(6:37 - 6:59)

This person, I feel bad for their position. It's it's it reminds me of a time when I had some some people on my team, they would seed some criticisms of me in call recordings that they would then send my way. So I'd hear like the first three minutes before the customer gets on the call of them just like bad mouthing everything that's going on.

(6:59 - 7:03)

I'm like, oh, thanks, guys. Really needed that. Yeah, it was crazy.

(7:05 - 7:11)

Yeah. I mean, look, I think I was just being messed with. But what if that's what's happening here? And this guy has missed the plot.

(7:13 - 7:30)

I doubt it. I mean, the thing is, because I'm the one who said it. PSA, I'm not laying anybody off.

(7:30 - 7:34)

Sorry, I'm not playing any longer. We're just joking. Anyway, it's all jokes.

(7:34 - 7:47)

It's all jokes. Imagine if this person like they just take the funny approach and they say to their manager the next day, hey, you know, I just really appreciate everything you're doing here. I wanted to send you this gift card to your favorite restaurant.

(7:47 - 8:28)

You know, it's just really, really value everything you're doing for the company. And then the manager's like, oh, I'm going to lay this person off. Can I just say real quick, though, is that the equivalent of maybe like, you know, giving someone a promotion or a raise like the backhanded raise, the backhanded, the backhanded sort of promotion.

In other words, like retention by there's a word I'm looking for, almost like emotional hostage take, like emotional damage. There's I think I get where you're going with this. And I've heard this story before.

(8:29 - 9:03)

Maybe somebody who I'm very close with that works in a more corporate setting where they will often promote somebody, quote unquote, into a job that is there's really kind of two ways it goes, that they don't think they can do because they need to build a case for why that person should be exited from the company. What or that is a worthless job because they don't think they'll ever be able to get that person exited. So they want to make their life so boring and miserable that they'll quit on their own.

(9:03 - 9:07)

Oh, that's nasty. That's a game. That's so next level games.

(9:07 - 9:22)

You want to say that's nasty work. But here's the problem is in this post, this guy, let's assume that it's all accurate and true and there's no skewing of reality. His bosses have never told him that he has performed poorly.

(9:23 - 9:57)

That is just as bad. How is somebody supposed to get better if you don't ever give them feedback? What has become of our social contract if in the employment relationship it is you sink or swim, buddy, and we're not going to give you any support? It's a it's a it's an economically idiotic decision considering how long it takes to recoup your investment when you hire somebody, particularly at a small company. But it's also just bad humanity wise, I would say.

-: 10:20

I that's some next level, you know, talking about like the company playing games, too, which I do think happens, by the way, in different ways. And I think sometimes I want to say I think sometimes it's not necessarily as malicious as it can seem. But, you know, I think we asked one time.

(: 10:20

I know we got to go. But I think we asked one time, like, has anyone ever gotten put on a performance improvement plan and actually stayed like, you know, you're saying like they should share the feedback. What if they shared the feedback and they're like, well, if we put them on a PIP, we're just going to.

(: 10:38

Rob, any last words? Not really. I just feel bad for this person. To the contrary, if this person is looking for a new gig, hey, drop me a note, reach out and I can help you find something.

(: 10:49

All right, boys, that's our time. Love it, as always. Thank you for humoring me.

(: 10:53

As always, with my favorite cesspool. See you later. You've been listening to The Daily Standup by Lifetime Value.

(: 11:07

Please note that the views expressed in these conversations are attributed only to those individuals on this recording and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of their respective employers. For all general inquiries, please reach out via email to hello at LifetimeValueMedia.com To learn more about advertising on The Daily Standup and the Lifetime Value Media Network, please reach out via email to advertising at LifetimeValueMedia.com Find us on YouTube at Lifetime Value and find us on the socials at Lifetime Value Media. Until next time.