[NFBCS] Unrealistic expectations of team leaders and supervisors on the job

Tue Dec 1 14:30:21 UTC 2020

I've always had the workaholic tendency so I'm not sure what that says about me as a blind person.I will admit to doing some really long hours... that are unpaid.
I'm not sure this is strictly a blindness requirement.
As my peers (managers and team leads) are all in the same boat. 

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Michael Walker via NFBCS
Sent: December 1, 2020 3:12 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Michael Walker <michael.walker199014 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Unrealistic expectations of team leaders and supervisors on the job

Thank you for all of your responses. It sounds like I am following the right path with regard to looking for alternative ways to do things, if the main stream way is not accessible. I typically Google, or ask on mailing lists, until I figure it out. Have any of you ever worked with asp.net web forms? How did you go about that? That involves drag and drop programming.

> On Nov 30, 2020, at 2:40 PM, Bryan Schulz via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Well said as usual.
> It's hard to be sympathetic when nobody talks about those who take 
> college courses for a long time and never landed IT jobs.
> Bryan
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Gary Wunder via 
> NFBCS
> Sent: Monday, November 30, 2020 11:41 AM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Gary Wunder <gwunder at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Unrealistic expectations of team leaders and 
> supervisors on the job
> 
> As usual, what Steve has written is a masterpiece. It isn't a 
> comfortable piece, and it doesn't have a lot of firm rights and 
> wrongs. What is reasonable accommodation? If a thing as a functional 
> part of your job, the ADA doesn't protect you. Anything I couldn't do 
> made more work for the manager, so I had to figure out a way to put as 
> little on his or her plate as I could. I also had to figure out what I 
> was going to do in lieu of the things that I couldn't.
> 
> I think working is stressful, but I think that as blind people we make 
> a mistake when we believe that work is only stressful for us. The 
> things that cause us stress are usually unique, but everyone has a hill to climb.
> Working a forty hour week was never something I heard any of my 
> colleagues brag about doing. As salaried employees, sometimes we work sixty hour weeks.
> Those weeks may have given us a little bit of flexibility to go to the 
> dentist, but forty hours was just an expected minimum.
> 
> When I was looking at becoming a computer programmer, I went to see a 
> man in Virginia who used a braille computer terminal. The device cost 
> $15,000, and that was in 1970 dollars. It was a big investment, and 
> the programmer told me that in no uncertain terms I should be prepared to work beyond 8 to 5.
> Figuring out my own alternatives, dealing with a computer terminal 
> that could print 120 characters a second versus a computer screen that 
> displayed at 960 characters a second had to be made up for in some 
> way. I didn't have to pledge myself to be a workaholic, but I couldn't 
> be a clock watcher and expect to succeed.
> 
> I think these are things that we should talk through openly so that 
> people aren't surprised when they approach the work world.
> 
> Warmly,
> 
> Gary
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson via 
> NFBCS
> Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2020 5:03 PM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at outlook.com>
> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Unrealistic expectations of team leaders and 
> supervisors on the job
> 
> Michael,
> 
> I've been thinking about this question some which is why I have not 
> written sooner.  A question like yours is usually not as simple as you 
> have stated it, so I would like to explore it some.  Like Tracy, I've 
> been in the IT field for a long time and have had to think about this very question often.
> I don't know much about your background, so please forgive me if I 
> make any incorrect assumptions.  I'm not one to claim that my 
> experience has given me all of the answers.  Rather, my experience has 
> made me want to try to help others avoid some of the mistakes I made.  
> Of course, I hope something here is helpful.
> 
> First, remember that your team leader is likely having to deal with 
> unrealistic expectations of his or her manager for the entire team.  
> It means that perhaps for different reasons, your co-workers are 
> sometimes being expected to produce more or meet rigid time lines that 
> they can't meet reasonably.  It is unlikely that any of your 
> co-workers are only doing what they feel they can do.  They are not likely only working 8:00-4:30.
> Therefore, you have to try to separate out this part of your team 
> leaders expectations from this question.  Some of what you may be 
> feeling might well be felt to some degree by most of your co-workers.
> 
> Second, if you are relatively new at your job, there are going to be 
> things you don't think you can do that in five or ten years you will 
> be doing routinely.  Some things you may do differently as a blind 
> person, but you will almost certainly be doing things you did not 
> think you can do.  While your situation is different, all employees 
> find that they are pushed beyond their comfort zones as part of their 
> jobs.  When I was new, I would consider calling in sick when I was 
> expected to talk to customers within my company about a new project.  How would I communicate with them as a blind person?
> What if they don't know I am blind?  Will they take me seriously.
> Fortunately, I figured out that calling in sick would just delay the 
> inevitable, so I never did that.  Later, I developed an enjoyment for 
> that part of my job.  A good team leader is going to try to stretch 
> everybody on the team as a way to find out who is good at what.  
> Therefore, sometimes the same will happen to you as well.
> 
> Third, remember why you were hired.  You were likely hired to fill a 
> specific position to do a particular job.  You likely came to your 
> employer telling them why you could do the job they were offering.  My 
> assumption is likely that you are paid similarly to your co-workers, 
> at least with those having the same background.  The expectation is 
> therefore that your employer will get from you, one way or another, 
> the same results from you that they get from other employees.  They 
> are not likely paying you less because they think they will get less 
> from you as a blind person.  In fact, they probably couldn't pay you 
> less even if they wanted to without violating the law.  So to some 
> degree, your management does have to figure out what you are best at 
> so they can get what they need from you.  However, a bigger part of 
> the responsibility to figure out what you can do is on your shoulders.  
> The reason for that is simple.  If your management finds they can't 
> get what they are paying for from you, they will get somebody else to 
> do the job and you will be out looking again.  Getting paid equal to 
> your co-workers do only do the parts of the job you are comfortable 
> doing will only work if you are so good at that portion of your job 
> that it makes up for the areas where you don't feel you can perform 
> well.  Most of us are not that good at what we do, at least at the 
> starting point.  Therefore, most of us have had to try to find ways of doing those parts of our jobs that we may not be real good at doing.
> 
> So what do we do to fit into such an environment?  Please note that 
> some of what I describe here has nothing to do with what is necessarily legal.
> Various laws don't apply equally across all jobs for one thing, and 
> sometimes one has to pick their battles.
> 
> First, we must learn as much as we can about what is expected of our 
> co-workers.  How much are they working outside of normal work hours to 
> get their tasks done.  What tools are they expected to use.
> 
> Next, we need to think about which of the tasks can we do in the same 
> way as our co-workers.  What might we need to learn that would make it 
> possible for us to complete those tasks as quickly and efficiently as 
> we can. In many cases, being very good at using Word or Excel or 
> something else like Google Docs is important.  You will be able to do 
> what your co-workers do, but you will have to use keyboard commands with which they won't be familiar.
> Learning how a co-worker does a given thing can be useful, though, 
> because it might make it easier to find a keyboard shortcut to 
> accomplish the same tasks.  This can mean that you will have to do 
> some extra studying and investigating, and maybe even reach out to 
> others on this list.  Also, while your employer likely allows 
> everybody some time for personal development, they are not paying you 
> to find out how you can do something as a blind person that your 
> co-workers are already doing.  You may need to do some of this on your own time.
> 
> Finally, what is it that your co-workers do that you can't do?  
> Getting a handle on those tasks is important.  In some cases, there 
> might be alternative ways to accomplish the same task.  People on this 
> list might be able to make suggestions.  Remember that your Team 
> Leader does not likely know much about how blind people do things.  In 
> some cases, you will find things that you don't know how to do but 
> other blind people may have found answers.  It could be that you find 
> a way to accomplish a given task in a way that is different than your 
> co-workers.  In the end, if you make an honest effort to figure things 
> out, your team leader will likely recognize that you are making an 
> effort and will probably be willing to be more flexible.  Keep in 
> mind, though, that employment is different from being a student.  If 
> you fail to meet an important deadline, the opportunity is gone and it 
> is on your record,  You can't just retake the course.  You will find that sometimes there is flexibility in deadlines because things can change.
> As much as possible, though, you don't want to be the reason your team 
> misses a deadline.
> 
> Now, more than ever, a lot of pressure is placed upon Information 
> Technology to produce results.  In that sense, it is not always the 
> most pleasant career path to follow.  However, if one likes working 
> with computers and has an aptitude for it, a career in Information Technology can be rewarding.
> There is no doubt, though, that figuring out how best to match one's 
> skills to the job at hand can be a challenge.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Steve Jacobson
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Michael Walker via 
> NFBCS
> Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 7:19 PM
> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Michael Walker <michael.walker199014 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NFBCS] Unrealistic expectations of team leaders and 
> supervisors on the job
> 
> Good evening,
> 
> How do you cope with determining whether expectations of a team leader 
> or supervisor are realistic? Suppose expectations are not realistic, 
> or there are misconceptions about what you can do on the job in this 
> field. How do you approach that? Tell me some stories where you have 
> faced that, and what you did about it. I am completely blind. I am 
> currently experiencing some conflict with my team leader on this 
> subject. She sometimes has beliefs about what I am not able to do, or 
> may have unrealistic expectations about what I can do, regarding possibly frontend development.
> 
> Thank you,
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
> NFBCS mailing list
> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnfbne
> t.org%
> 2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fnfbcs_nfbnet.org&data=04%7C01%7C%7C41889c21
> 1fd241
> 4a0a8808d891a989d5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637419
> 504625 
> 117794%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJ
> BTiI6I 
> k1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=6pjbpPUfy%2FQi7udxP1T1%2FJK38oL
> I0Jnuq
> yL6cVY5urg%3D&reserved=0
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBCS:
> https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnfbne
> t.org% 
> 2Fmailman%2Foptions%2Fnfbcs_nfbnet.org%2Fsteve.jacobson%2540outlook.co
> m& 
> data=04%7C01%7C%7C41889c211fd2414a0a8808d891a989d5%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb
> 435aaa 
> aaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637419504625117794%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjo
> iMC4wL 
> jAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata
> =Bj7IM
> VLtJIWyBBpw52cTMDVqgZQcJnH2lyBCVlGq%2FyA%3D&reserved=0
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NFBCS mailing list
> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBCS:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/gwunder%40earthlink
> .net
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NFBCS mailing list
> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBCS:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/b.schulz%40sbcgloba
> l.net
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NFBCS mailing list
> NFBCS at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBCS:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/michael.walker19901
> 4%40gmail.com

_______________________________________________
NFBCS mailing list
NFBCS at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NFBCS:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/jds.listserv%40gmail.com