Undocumented expectations, the topic of an earlier post that has been the post that has generated the most subsequent feedback and discussion from readers, has proved to be a great way to describe a common pitfall. This has not, however, prevented me or people around me from falling into it anyway.
Recent stressful situations at work lately have culminated in discussion with management and certain peers. It's become clear in the discussion that everyone in a room of five people had a different understanding of one of my peer's roles and responsibilities. In fact, one manager in particular has already taken responsibility for not making expectations clear much earlier, that is, for not documenting expectations and sharing it with everyone involved.
Over the next three weeks, our whole department will become a ghost-town with almost everyone out of the office for some or all of the time, so this issue will likely remain open, but then I'll be off for two of those myself, so I'm hoping that awareness of the problem will at least limit the aggravation it can cause. Then, in the first week of January, I think we'll get clarity around the situation and be able to move forward more effectively.
In the meantime, I plan to take my earlier post, remove the more personal aspects of the anecdotes, and expand on the remaining thoughts to create an article for Microsoft's internal Engineering Excellence Center, a group that publishes a whole library of great articles on topics ranging across all the disciplines represented at the company.
Let's hope the end result is good enough for them to publish.
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