Understanding Gray Areas in the Workplace

Alex's Perspective

There's sometimes a case where you think, okay, I need to speak up about something. And you also think, but maybe I should just be able to do this. I shouldn't speak up about it because maybe, you know, there's a gray area. There are some things, you know, like, I can't read charts well, so I have to speak up. But there's many gray areas where even, like, thinking about it a year later, you're like, I don't know about that situation because it's very gray area. I kind of equated, you know, we both like soccer and sometimes make a perfect pass. Great. But what if you make a pass that misses by like a foot? It's still a pretty good pass, but it's not perfect. And the receiver says, hey, you didn't make a perfect pass. And the passer said, hey, you could have made a better to take. Received it better. So who's the fault is very gray area. Have you. Do you recall any. Sorry to put you on a spot. Do you recall any of these kinds of situations where it really was hard to decide, like, who's in the right in a particular situation?

Sam's Perspective

I think there's a few things. First of all, just with dyslexia comes a relatively, like, limited, for me at least, working memory. So I'll just answer the last thing you said. First of all, one thing I've really struggled with in my life and including at work, is like, believing there is some kind of objective truth, there is some kind of objective right or wrong about a situation. And again, when you have kind of the majority telling you like, this is the way it is, this is how we've received this, and it means that about you. It's really challenging to push against that. And. And it can kind of. You can internalize that a lot and feel a lot of shame and kind of. That there's something. Something wrong with oneself. So I don't want to believe too much that there is kind of like a objective right or wrong going to the football aspects. Like, I can kind of use that analogy. And I think, say, in terms of the charts and these things I struggled with in terms of looking at data. I was hired as a. As a creative producer. So I was hired for my ability to think creatively, think strategically, to use my technical expertise to make things, not necessarily to look at data and look at numbers and look at charts. So if you think about, like, Cristiano Ronaldo, like, amazing player, in terms of, like, scoring goals, leading a team, you wouldn't put them in goal. He, he wouldn't be able to excel if he were. He is the goalkeeper. So I think in this job where I was hired for specific aspects but kind of was asked to be involved in things that weren't my strengths, I. And without that kind of knowledge and will to say to myself even like, I'm really struggling with this and, and to communicate that it can be difficult. So, yeah, I think more than anything, it's less about kind of whether there's an objective truth about who's at fault and more just about recognizing one's strengths and challenges. And in some of the challenges, asking both the employee asking themselves is this actually necessary for my job? Is this even where, like, my skills are put to best use? And for the managers to do the same thing, like, does this person need to be at this meeting? They need to be involved in this. Can I encourage them to spend, spend more time doing what they're really good at?