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Subject:Oppressive SMEs, take II From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Thu, 20 Aug 1998 14:27:07 -0600
It occurred to me after my longer post on this subject that I left
out a fairly important piece of advice: wherever possible, get
witnesses (if possible in writing). The disadvantage of taking notes
and keeping a logbook solely by yourself is that after some time has
passed, it becomes a case of "is this real or is it fiction?" and "my
word against yours". If you have one or more witnesses to the
problem, your case is vastly strengthened, particularly if you can
get signatures on a written report of the problem. Along these lines,
if you're one victim of this SME, it's a good bet that you're not
alone. Is there any way to find others who have been wronged and get
them to support you?
If you do go collecting evidence, you'll have to handle it carefully
for a few reasons. For your own sake, you don't want to be conducting
a witch hunt and you don't want a reputation of being vindictive:
though it might be very satisfying to kill your foe and drink her
blood <eg>, that's probably not the best strategy. Better by far to
save a lost soul and learn to coexist than to damn her to hell
without a chance to be saved. But that's just me; I'm a suck. For the
sake of the SME herself, it pays to remember that no problem is ever
100% one-sided: it may be 95% her fault, but you still have to own up
to the 5% that's entirely your responsibility. Given that you own
some of the problem, some of the punishment is rightly yours.
(Don't get me wrong here; I'm not suggesting that you haven't
already suffered and thus been punished. But you _did_ let the
problem get out of hand, when perhaps an earlier intervention would
have led to a far less painful resolution.) Among other things, this
is simple fairness, but if you're of a Machiavellian frame of mind,
don't forget that it also strengthens your case enormously to show
that you understand the problem isn't solely hers.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it."--Author unknown
