UBC January 2024 - Ambivert

Inspired by Elisa's post "Extroverted at Home" I will use today's post to answer her question "Are you an extrovert working from home? Or are you an introvert that is thankful COVID changed the way we all work now?"

As it relates to working, I definitely prefer to leave the house and go to the office for so many reasons:

• The water cooler moments, even though we don't technically have a water cooler
• I like to keep work at work and prefer not to "contaminate" my home with business
• Household chores would distract me from doing my actual work. There's always that dishwasher to unload, laundry to do, hair / dentist / doctor appointment to make...

The picture above and below were taken in January 2022, when Colin tested positive for Covid, and us parents had to quarantine until we got our own test results. Meaning we had to work from home for two days. Husband quite enjoyed himself and stayed home all week.

I tried to make it cozy. Yes, it's in the living room. Hubby used the home office. Look, I even created a break room, it was more like a chill corner.

Apart from then, the only time I worked from home was when I was 9 months' pregnant, and my belly caused me to set my car seat so far back that my foot couldn't reach the gas pedal anymore ;-) I was literally, physically unable to drive to work.

Enough of work though. The real question goes deeper: "are you an introvert or extrovert in general?"

Myers-Briggs and others have done research on this and offer online quizzes for you to find out. I've taken them all at one point in my life. 

Jung says I'm 

• Introvert: 34
• Sensing: 44
• Feeling: 31
• Judging: 3

PsychCentral says I am ambivert. I haven't heard that term, but sure, makes total sense:

An ambivert refers to someone who exhibits a strong balance of both introverted and extroverted tendencies. Ambiverts may feel like they're equally comfortable in social situations and when they're alone. They might also find that their tendencies change based on the situation or their own emotional state.

Psychology Today found out my sociability is 49/100. So close to 50!

A popular question in any of these quizzes is whether you prefer to work in a team or alone. My answer of course is "it depends on who's part of the team". 

Here's a current example:

As I was telling you guys, we had our editorial board meeting last night, it was the second time I attended. The first one was quite nice and relaxed. 

Yesterday? Not as much. 

One of the reasons we met was to take a group picture. A person had left the team, I joined, the magazine is supposed to get a new and refreshed approach. New beginnings and all...

Guess what, two people excused themselves after 5pm. The meeting started at 7pm. One of them was the guy - we'll call hem Mr No Show from now on - I was not looking forward to spending time with, so I wasn't too sad. 

Of course the topic came up, what good is a team picture if the team is not complete?

Well, my personal opinion is, what good is a team of eight if certain members never attend?

Mr No Show, you see, had excused himself from the last meeting already, and as I found out, from the ones before as well. He's known for basically only showing up for the Christmas Dinner, or if a member of the municipal councils takes part. 

It's worth mentioning that 

• My Mom has been part of the team for many years, she is the designated photographer.
• I had left the office early to go to the salon for a nice blow-dry. 

Also, two people whom I had not met yet, attended yesterday. One was very nice and cooperative, one was super frustrated. Ms Unhappy is responsible for the layout, meaning her tasks are last in the process, meaning she depends on people keeping deadlines and following rules where text, pictures and documentation is concerned. 

I could totally relate to her situation. Factually. But boy, does she lack social skills. She was calling people out not by name, but those who were concerned, knew. One being my poor Mom.

It all started in the team chat when Mr No Show and another person posted last minute that they were not going to attend. 

She wrote:

I'll be a few minutes late, I have to drive my son to practice. Maybe you can already think of answers to the following questions:

Why is the editorial deadline not adhered to, even though the date has been set for 12 months?

Why is it so difficult to write a caption under an article?

Why are captions still noted in the picture name?

See you later!

Wow, I was with her when it came to keeping deadlines, but I  perceived her written tone as totally rude. I was very curious what she was gonna be like in person. 

When I arrived I met a team member just outside of the building. It was the second time in our lives that we met. We hugged and wished each other a happy new year.

The meeting had not begun officially when Ms Unhappy walked in. BTW her last name suggests she's the sweetest person. She did not greet anyone personally. She just mumbled Hello, sat down, grumpy expression on her face, and opened her laptop. 

Our editor in chief welcomed everyone and addressed her.

 "I can sense you need to vent. Go ahead" 

And venting she did. It started with 

People, I can't work like this. If you can't follow simple instructions, you'll have to look for somebody else to do my job. This is not working for me.

In my mind two things happened:

• I told her Bye Felicia
• I saw that clip from Ally McBeal where Ally is annoyed by a guy, so she shrinks him and throws him through the open window into the trash container that, at this very moment, is being emptied by the garbage truck. (I just wasted enjoyed half an hour of my life unsuccessfully looking for it on YouTube)

Then of course my HR background kicked in. Over the course of the evening I could tell Ms Unhappy was a hard worker and a linear thinker.

Linear, as opposed to global. I explained all about it here. 

Linear people care about exact measurement, structure, deadlines, details and rules. Global people go about things more holistically, they are intrigued by ideas, concepts and the bigger picture. 

Simply put, Accountants vs Sales People. 

Of course within an editorial team it takes both types. The global ones will go out there, soak up the atmosphere, meet new people, take pictures (Mom) conduct interviews (me) and take on projects that they potentially won't finish (Mr No Show). If they take notes, they are more like bullet points.

It will be up to the linear folks to do a whole lot of editing and filling in the blanks (Ms Unhappy, also me)

Anyway. The meeting. It was sort of difficult. Ms Unhappy, as right as she was in terms of content, had other issues. She came across as condescending and as perceiving herself as the only one who knows sh**, and pretty much everybody else is an idiot. 

A member suggested portraying a bread sommelier. She told us a little bit about him. He is a trained baker who has completed further training and now works as a product developer in the wholesale bakery of a well-known supermarket chain. His dream is to set up a wood-fired oven in his own front yard. There he wants to prepare and sell various bread specialties on customer order.

Photo by Ty Finck on Unsplash

I thought this was going to be a wonderful story. Ms Unhappy totally killed the joy by pointing out the following: 

He wants to call himself a bread sommelier, which sounds fancy and exclusive, but he works for good old (insert name of company, comparable to, let's say, Albertsons)?

So if anybody asks me whether I prefer to work in a team or alone, for yesterday's scenario I will say, I'll gladly work on my own.

I felt exhausted. We weren't done though. We actually agreed on taking the team picture and caption it with our names, mentioning that two people were missing. At least I didn't invest my time and money in an unnecessary hair appointment.

So our next meeting will take place on February 29. It's going to be interesting for sure.

What about you? Are you an introvert or extrovert? Are you a linear or a global person? Do you think a guy can work wherever the h*** he wants while he saves money to make his dream happen?