Sharing

Large boy had come home today in high dugeon because, while working on computers at school, his partner didn’t share well.

I tried to advise him to take the same approach most adults would for working on a team: set expectations and check progress, take joint responsibility for the result.

That is, start by saying how long each partner will get for their turn – say 5mins. Then check the time and progress and switch over at the right moment. When the time’s up, be proud of the result of their joint efforts.

Then a colleague has told me about a sort of similar issue. She’s putting loads of effort into a project, raising issues, holding things together with little acknowledgement or appreciation of her efforts. Questions go unanswered and no one seems to realise what a mess will result when she goes back to her normal work and the project loses her input.

It’s the other side of the same coin. Large boy is cross that he didn’t get his turn. My colleague is frustrated that no one else wants to take a turn or even pays attention that she’s doing it all.

I don’t know really where I’m going with this. Maybe there’s an illustration of how business isn’t so different from primary school? Or a commentary on how women’s efforts aren’t valued equally?

What if our work colleagues were clamouring to have their turn? Because we hardly expect our children to have their efforts ignored. Where did that opposite evolve and when and how? It’s not fair on either large boy or my colleague – how do we find the middle ground.