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

Mon Nov 30 17:41:01 UTC 2020

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
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