Did they all accept you unquestioning when you took the position?
As far as I know, yes. No one has ever said anything, and they all come to me with their issues. The deceptive thing about my age is my background. While I'm young, I went to pretty famous schools and then worked at a place where I earned a lot of experience in a short amount of time (four years, about). It burned me out completely and killed any social life I had (as my friends will attest), but it put me years ahead in my profession as a result. I've no doubts that I know what I'm doing. But as to whether they accepted me? As far I know, yes, because no one has griped to my face, or complained to the higher ups, and lawyers are nothing if not outspoken people.
Has anyone ever questioned your qualifications or lack of experience? No. Which is interesting, because none of them know really what my qualifications are except, of course, the people who hired me. I've never told anyone where I went to school, for example.
And do you spend a lot of time talking to them and your friends about how you don't think you can do something, and have them reassure you that you can?
To the people who work for me? Lord no. Nor my clients. To my friends? All the time. And also to my family, and to my bosses. Just a few weeks ago I was in the dumps, trying to determine if I was doing a good job or not, talking it out with one of my best friends, who, yes, gave me reassurances just like Elizabeth gave Keller. I'm always wondering if I'm doing a good job, and I do talk to my boss about concerns I have, about whether anyone is unhappy or if they see any problems. I think it's necessary. If you have no doubts, to my mind, then you ARE doing something wrong. Because we can always improve how we do a job. I don't know everything about every kind of law that I work with, which is why I rely on the people I work with for help, and that's something everyone does. In every profession. You're not expected to know everything--you're expected to be a good leader who can find out the answers to things and, most times, that means relying on the people who work for you to be that resource.
And, see, this is where I find your comments strange. I've never heard Keller say "I can't" in a way that suggests she's doubting her abilities as a doctor or her ability to lead, which is the key here. And she has *never* expressed that doubt in front of her colleagues (whom, by the way, would be the doctors and nursing staff in her infirmary, not the senior staff of the expedition). She also doesn't show her doubts in front of her "clients", who would be her patients. Take the Shrine--while she showed doubts in front of John, she was absolutely confident in front of Rodney, saying, unequivocally, "I can do it." I also don't see all those instances of "I'm not good at this". I don't think I've ever heard her say that, or express it. When she's in doctor mode, she's completely confident. As for "it's my fault?" Not sure I've seen that either. She expresses that about other things, like her inability to keep up with Teyla in Missing or climbing up beams in Trio, but never about her skills as a doctor, and, to me, that's key. Show me an instance where she has doubted her skills (and I don't mean, showing doubt at being able to, say, synthesize a drug in time to cure the people in Tabula Rasa, or that sort of thing. That's a time issue, not a doubt of her ability). The closest I can come is doubting the efficacy of drilling into Rodney's brain in the Shrine, and that was basic medical facts 101. She was just expressing what any doctor would have expressed in that situation--letting the family know the potential results of the activity. Doctors always tell you the chances of the patient, provide the worst case scenarios. It's what they do.
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Re: second part
Date: 2008-09-27 04:36 pm (UTC)Did they all accept you unquestioning when you took the position?
As far as I know, yes. No one has ever said anything, and they all come to me with their issues. The deceptive thing about my age is my background. While I'm young, I went to pretty famous schools and then worked at a place where I earned a lot of experience in a short amount of time (four years, about). It burned me out completely and killed any social life I had (as my friends will attest), but it put me years ahead in my profession as a result. I've no doubts that I know what I'm doing. But as to whether they accepted me? As far I know, yes, because no one has griped to my face, or complained to the higher ups, and lawyers are nothing if not outspoken people.
Has anyone ever questioned your qualifications or lack of experience? No. Which is interesting, because none of them know really what my qualifications are except, of course, the people who hired me. I've never told anyone where I went to school, for example.
And do you spend a lot of time talking to them and your friends about how you don't think you can do something, and have them reassure you that you can?
To the people who work for me? Lord no. Nor my clients. To my friends? All the time. And also to my family, and to my bosses. Just a few weeks ago I was in the dumps, trying to determine if I was doing a good job or not, talking it out with one of my best friends, who, yes, gave me reassurances just like Elizabeth gave Keller. I'm always wondering if I'm doing a good job, and I do talk to my boss about concerns I have, about whether anyone is unhappy or if they see any problems. I think it's necessary. If you have no doubts, to my mind, then you ARE doing something wrong. Because we can always improve how we do a job. I don't know everything about every kind of law that I work with, which is why I rely on the people I work with for help, and that's something everyone does. In every profession. You're not expected to know everything--you're expected to be a good leader who can find out the answers to things and, most times, that means relying on the people who work for you to be that resource.
And, see, this is where I find your comments strange. I've never heard Keller say "I can't" in a way that suggests she's doubting her abilities as a doctor or her ability to lead, which is the key here. And she has *never* expressed that doubt in front of her colleagues (whom, by the way, would be the doctors and nursing staff in her infirmary, not the senior staff of the expedition). She also doesn't show her doubts in front of her "clients", who would be her patients. Take the Shrine--while she showed doubts in front of John, she was absolutely confident in front of Rodney, saying, unequivocally, "I can do it." I also don't see all those instances of "I'm not good at this". I don't think I've ever heard her say that, or express it. When she's in doctor mode, she's completely confident. As for "it's my fault?" Not sure I've seen that either. She expresses that about other things, like her inability to keep up with Teyla in Missing or climbing up beams in Trio, but never about her skills as a doctor, and, to me, that's key. Show me an instance where she has doubted her skills (and I don't mean, showing doubt at being able to, say, synthesize a drug in time to cure the people in Tabula Rasa, or that sort of thing. That's a time issue, not a doubt of her ability). The closest I can come is doubting the efficacy of drilling into Rodney's brain in the Shrine, and that was basic medical facts 101. She was just expressing what any doctor would have expressed in that situation--letting the family know the potential results of the activity. Doctors always tell you the chances of the patient, provide the worst case scenarios. It's what they do.
I have to answer the rest in a separate post...