Don't be a quiet professional

http://swizec.com/blog/dont-be-a-quiet-professional/swizec/1707

by Swizec • 15 years ago

31 13 15 years ago

nvictor• 15 years ago

the font sucks.

jamesgeck0• 15 years ago

Take destiny into your own hands! Client-side CSS is yours for the changing via plugins like Stylish [1]. If you don't feel like thinking about it, then Readability [2] is also quite excellent.

1. http://userstyles.org/stylish/

2. https://www.readability.com/bookmarklets/

vog• 15 years ago

This URL leads to an empty page, without any error message.

wccrawford• 15 years ago

Seems to me a middle ground is necessary. The 'quiet professional' he's imagining is someone who does professional quality work -EXCEPT- for giving good status reports and information to his bosses and team. In other words, not quite a professional.

But he seems to be advocate complaining even when nobody is listening. (The twitter comment at the end points to this.) This is wrong, too.

The true professional works quietly and efficiently, but alerts others to problem areas if and when they arise. Suggestions on how to correct those problems are offered without insisting on them.

Swizec• 15 years ago

Seems I got hacked, sysadmin shut down my blog 'cause it was making 1000+ requests per second.

Nice timing.

The URL won't work for another hour or so.

jnorthrop• 15 years ago

Sorry to hear about that -- its never a good time to get hacked. Here is the Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MC2xPhH...

Hopka• 15 years ago

Bing has it cached: http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=http%3a%2f%2fswizec.com%2fb...

thenomad• 15 years ago

Speaking from a manager's perspective - if there's something wrong, I want you to bitch about it. To me. Not to your co-workers, endlessly.

Being a silent robot is bad because then I don't get to find out that your morale was dropping because of something easily fixable. Being a drag on your team by only ever talking about stuff that you don't like is another easy way to Do It Wrong - don't do that either.

elptacek• 15 years ago

That would make you one of those exceptional managers who does not think complaints synonymous with criticism, then. But I have to ask, when your managees complain to you, do you always understand them? Seems to me that complaining, to anyone, is a drag on morale because we don't always completely understand each other's intentions.

Duff• 15 years ago

Folks seem to focus on the "quiet" more than the "professional".

"Quiet professional" doesn't mean you sit by and watch your world go to pot. It doesn't mean that you remain silent either. It does mean that you don't spend your days hand-waving, bitching and rumor mongering, and look for productive solutions to problems.

TillE• 15 years ago

If "quiet" doesn't mean "quiet", then it was a silly phrase to use.

hammock• 15 years ago

I always interpreted "quiet" to mean "calm," not silent. You could also say it means "low noise," implying high signal/noise ratio.

It's funny to see all the debate on here, which is mostly semantic. A quiet professional is the man that does the best work but you never noticed he was there. He's never in the news except maybe a Forbes 100 list where you go "I've never heard of that guy." Contrast a quiet professional with someone like Kanye West or Donald Trump.

dan_sim• 15 years ago

I didn't even read the article but I'm just tired of the titles. Yesterday it was "be a quiet pro", today is "don't be a quiet pro" and people arguing about it like it could be argued about.

That's what diversity is about. Be quiet if you're a quiet guy or don't be quiet if it is your type. Or just take the best out of the two.

I'm just fed up with those posts that tell you to act boldly without discernment.

Don't be a quiet professional

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