Does people really like innovative new colleagues?

[Sandalison]

So this woman (let’s call her Lucy) is new-ish in the office (since 18 months ish). She is friendly and confident. She is always talking in meetings and stepping forward with suggestions, ideas, new information, etc. She is the ‘new and fresh’ person, who has been given a special project, made a big success of it, delivers lots of training and also seems to send lots of emails. She likes to make jokes about her “unruly” hair (gorgeous and curly) and “unhealthy dependence on lists” (which I interpret as showing off about how ultra-busy and ultra-organised she is.)

The bosses love her, and so it seems does everyone else. Eveyone except me! She reeeeally gets under my skin.
Now, Lucy isn’t even in my team, so it’s not like I’m in direct competition with her, but nevertheless I have come to terms with the fact that I am just being a jealous cow here.

To emphasise: I KNOW I am a jealous cow!!

What I am wondering is, am I alone in my bovinity (and suck as a human) or do other people feel the same way about the Lucys in their offices ( I still suck but feel a bit less like stabbing her with a pencil).

YABU - you’re on your own hun.
YANBU- yeah Lucy annoys all of us.

I used to be that person but had it bearen out of me so now I'm jaded and bitter I hate her even more.

Depends if she actually delivers. If she does then crack on it's the ones that talk the talk but are actually shit that Sri e me up the wall.

Yeah I always feel like you, I try not to but secretly, yep!

I absolutely get what you mean, but as long as she’s a nice person I would probably only half-hate her. She’s just trying her best like everyone else.

Depends. If she’s genuine and helpful and her improvements are real improvements not just change for the sake of it then I wouldn’t have a problem.

If she’s not a nice person and only doing things to be seen to do then then I would have a problem. But I’d have just as much of a problem whether she was new or had been there forever.

Does Lucy have kids? I find that since having kids and having to just knuckle down and power through with no time to do anything fancy I have less time for Lucy's and all the additional work they generate

I honestly don’t know her that well, she’s in a parallel team and as we’ve been working from home since last March I haven’t got to know her as well as I might have done if we’d been in the office.
I think she delivers what she promises. But I still can’t bring myself to like her!

She's not so new, 18 months in she's got her feet under the table so to speak and her new suggestions and ideas probably make sense in the context of the business. It's the ones who try doing that from day one who drive me to distraction. They usually get the corners knocked off them fairly quickly as they are just trying to work out where they fit in, but some of them can be very annoying while they figure it out. At least Lucy is a nice person, it could be much worse.

Oh she’s been like this from the start, but no corner-knocking seems to have happened..

I’m a bit of a Lucy, I like projects and finding improvements and innovations.

Generally senior management like me but other people I can tell are divided because a lot of people don’t like change. One woman had a personal vendetta against me because my project was chosen for funding and hers wasn’t (they weren’t pitted against each other anywhere other than in her mind).

I try to remain positive and get on with everyone but it’s exhausting sometimes to try and accommodate and bring everyone on board and they still hate you because you are making changes.

There are quite a few of us here on ol' MN, old enough - and professionally experienced enough

• to sum both Lucy, and you, up. Personally...and professionally.

You can be shit hot at your job, and a nice or nasty person.

You can be shit at your job, and a nice or nasty person.

What are you really questioning?

I think you need people like that breathing fresh life in and rattling people up. Otherwise teams just get jaded and stagnate. But there is a shelf life of about 2 years and you either move them to another team or they start to stagnate themselves.

Is she creating extra work for other people with her fab ideas?

Because if she's great and creative and doing lots of stuff that's fine. But we have someone who's been promoted that is forever sending us new tasks to do so that she can say she's doing a marvellous job. She doesn't actually DO anything - she just decides, say, every other dept will do a massive stocktake and let her have a list off exactly what they have (a pointless exercise) so that she can show she's introduced a new initiative.

I hate her.

You’re probably not on your own but I wouldn’t be annoyed by her. As a PP says, at least she is enthusiastic and delivers.

Better somebody like ‘Lucy’ than some passive aggressive whinging git parroting, “you can’t do that, we tried that before, it won’t work, nothing will ever change around here, I hate working here, I’m only staying for the pension, I could earn double if I left and worked somewhere else, nobody trained me to do this, if it ain’t broken don’t try to fix it blah blah”.

Make friends with her and do some work with her.

So she’s hard-working, self-deprecating and gets results?

Yeah she sounds awful.

Just to add, this is why we’re behind the Japanese and the Americans. You think that they would tolerate workplaces full of moaners trying to trip up the enthusiastic, energetic people who want to solve problems?

Just that Jassy.

I'll take her

(To be fair. She's not needed in our team as we are running really well. Parallel teams are not however - hence me going over to them - I'll take a "Lucy" to train up and leave at our parallel teams when I leave)

I agree with @Iamthewombat I would far rather work with a 'Lucy' than a jaded, cynical stick in the mud any day of the week.

I am a bit of a Lucy and have often had to lead teams who were critical and resistant to change and very stagnant. It's exhausting work and each time I question why I do it but when you start to see results its really edifying.

BUT Lucy has to be able to deliver! I have also worked with people who talk a big talk but who consistently fail to deliver and they're hard to take.

I get entirely what you mean!

I've been in my current company for 5 years, promoted this year into a role I find really difficult and don't enjoy, I'm feeling quite jaded, I'm 12 weeks pregnant and exhausted. We had a call today with a colleague who is a similar age/seniority to me but just so full of energy and enthusiasm! She was amazing, but I was definitely jealous/resentful that I couldn't be more like her. I'm wondering if it's time for me to get a new job to be honest, but am definitely going to stay until maternity leave so have got to get some enthusiasm back somehow.

Hmm very astute @PurpleHoodie!

I think without Lucy in my life I would count myself as good at my job and a nice person!
But add Lucy in and I am now worried that I am both shit at my job and a horrible person!!
If you all vote YANBU that at least I will know I am a normal shit horrible person !!

Oh also, I don’t try to trip her up or undermine her. I’m not that nasty! I just secretly dislike her...

I think I'm a bit of a 'Lucy'

My role is to improve business processes and I'm well aware of the eye-rolling from some of the long-term members of staff who aren't bothered whether the system lets them process five cases or fifty as long as they get paid at the end of the day.

I'm paid according to what I deliver, so it's a continuous source of frustration to me, but one that is so embedded into the job, I hardly even notice it any more. It's clear from the get go which employees are interested in self-development and process improvement and which are going to block you at every turn through non-engagement/delaying getting back to you/'missing' your emails.

I just try to engage as much as possible with the ones that are willing help and then speak really positively about them to management. While I never speak badly about the ones that don't readily engage, I don't go out of my way to specifically mention them either. They're not interested in progression or the company so I'm certainly not going to give them a leg up.

I'm probably a bit of Lucy too.

Oh also, I don’t try to trip her up or undermine her. I’m not that nasty! I just secretly dislike her...

I don’t think that you are. That’s because you are honest enough to admit that you don’t like her. There will be plenty of people scheming to make life difficult for the Lucys of the world though, and some of them will be colleagues of yours.

@Iamthewombat

You’re probably not on your own but I wouldn’t be annoyed by her. As a PP says, at least she is enthusiastic and delivers.

Better somebody like ‘Lucy’ than some passive aggressive whinging git parroting, “you can’t do that, we tried that before, it won’t work, nothing will ever change around here, I hate working here, I’m only staying for the pension, I could earn double if I left and worked somewhere else, nobody trained me to do this, if it ain’t broken don’t try to fix it blah blah”.

Make friends with her and do some work with her.

True , but there is nothing more irritating than bright eyed bushy tailed people who tell you things in their first week as if you didn't know