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.

It's probably because she might represent things that you're missing and you know it, so you resent her.

In my experience, there are two types of Lucys, 1. annoying "talk the talk to show off, but do fuck all types" and 2. "talk a lot, motivate the team to work better/harder/more efficient and occasionally step on the toes of the lazy/jealous types".

Now, as a senior person I know exactly who in my team works hard and who tends to be complacent or occasionally slacking.

Lucy Type 1 is useless, not a team player and I wouldn't keep her on. Lucy Type 2 is a wonderful addition as this is exactly what I want to happen every now and then in the team, a shake up and some fresh air, but working well together. Innovating sensibly, not as a pet project. Enriching the team and helping me get the best out of them.

Frankly, I'd choose working with Lucy Type 2 over working with someone coming across as complacent and jealous, these are never desirable traits in a team.

The thing is, it's the sort of person employers often say they want when in reality that was the job ad to attract someone to the position. That's why employers seem to like this kind of person. You get what you ask for 😉

@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.

We had a moaning git leave in March last year.

We replaced part of his role with an IT consultant to revamp our internal set up. We all can't get enough of him. The whole team absolutely ADORE him - he camply flirts with the whole room, he suggests new changes all the time and he responds lightning quick to our requirements.

The other part of his role was replaced by a more junior team member, who doesn't yet "get" some of our industry standards, but at the same time has come fresh from the industry we supply to so is really boosting our knowledge and challenging our assumptions.

After years of stagnating under the last guy, these two "Lucy's" are brilliant.

Well I'm an old hand Weary. Proper old, and could ignore the newbies. A turn up n get paid type of job.

But (given the security nature of the job) brains that are active are required.

There's a mature way of treating keen newbies that gets the best of human resourcing, without pandering to, or entertaining over the top suggestions/ideas.

Experience AND keenness AND innovation.

@Wearywithteens - your comment about out for glory is spot on. I don't blame them for it, but you can tell who genuinely innovate to improve stuff, or those who flit across the surface, pushing ideas they don't really believe in so that they get noticed, or get their ego stroked. I have known a few of the former, a lot of the latter. We have one now, her name is actually Lucy, and you can bet your life if we have a staff event, she is first to comment, not because her comment is stellar but because she wants to be seen. She brown noses senior management and they lap it up, especially the middle aged men. She is a masterclass of pushiness but I quite enjoy watching her game, she doesn't affect me, and it's her way of getting noticed. Luckily I am not in her team but if I was I hate being manipulated for others glory so it is just as well I am not.

For the rest of us, who are a bit older and for whom work is just one part of your life and a means to pay the bills, it raises the bar unnecessarily.

Makes you look lazy and uninterested, you mean? Better to squash poor Lucy and her energy on day one, right? Then she can’t show you up. Maybe take her to one side and tell her what’s what. That will future-proof the business thatemploys you, and pays your wages, a treat.

They are all out for their own glory and not team players.

What, EVERYONE displaying energy, enthusiasm and innovation? Or is that what you tell yourself?

when they’re a bit older, less energy, kids, other responsibilities etc they will understand why enthusiastic superstars as colleagues are totally fucking annoying.

Yes, because nobody with kids, or who is ‘a bit older’, could possibly enjoy work or like improving things, could they?

Better to sit around inertly, waiting to be told what to do and pouring cold water on every new idea. Then when you have stifled the business of your employer, you can whine bitterly about losing your job and pension.

See 99.

Your comment comes across as quite sexist.

Sure you don't mean it.

But there are male and female new staff members who are keensters.

Glory hunters exist at newbie AND old hand levels.

Going on about her hair and her lists would be annoying - it's a form of showing off.

Keenness and enthusiasm - not a problem.

Innovation - yes, if it's genuine innovation. In my experience (been with my company 26 years) things seldom are. The 'great idea' launched with a fanfare is exactly the same as something that was tried in 2004, and worked well enough until some other innovator had an even better idea and there was a new fanfare ...

It does get tiring seeing bright sparks come up with shallow ideas, hang around long enough to tick the kudos box, and then move on before the flaws emerge.

But if Lucy is a decent person, that's the most important thing. It's not her fault that corporate culture in the UK is a load of laughable bollocks in which the people who actually do the work and deal with the mess left behind are never consulted about five-minute-wonder 'projects'.

Experience helps you sift them out.
.

I fear I'm a bit of Lucy. If it makes any difference I love being at work as it is such a relief being away from an awful home life

wizzy

Keep at it. Getting paid through work, can help you get past an awful home life

I'm an absolute Lucy.

I'm also a nice person. I just really like things to work well and love fixing things.

I sort of can't help it but I appreciate that it could be annoying.

I'm a bit like Monica in friends when she always puts her hand up in any meetings and classes.

Always talking in meetings/sending a lot of emails: if this means talking/emailing a lot more than necessary to fulfil her role well - annoying.

Comments about her hair and “unhealthy dependence on lists”: v annoying.

Stepping forward with suggestions, ideas, new information, etc: fine within reason, annoying if she doesn’t follow through at least sometimes.

made a big success of a project and delivers lots of training (well?): not annoying.

I think I'm a bit of a lucy but honestly I have to be I'm a single parent and work in a Male dominated industry, it's that old thing of having to be twice as hard to be considered half as good. I do always follow through with what I intend to deliver tho and genuinely just want to do the right thing and make everyone's life easier. I can tell it runs people up the wrong way because they dont like challenge or change sometimes but I'm just doing my job and trying to move up the career ladder to give my son a better life than I had 🤷‍♀️

@blacksax

I have come across this sort of person once or twice before. They were both called Sarah.

Ha! I'm a Lucy and called Sarah.

Did you work in insurance?

If not, then maybe all Sarahs are Lucys?

It's not her fault that corporate culture in the UK is a load of laughable bollocks in which the people who actually do the work and deal with the mess left behind are never consulted about five-minute-wonder 'projects'.

You think? From reading this thread I’m more inclined to think that the biggest problem with UK corporate culture is whinging gits trying to resist doing anything new that might make things better. And who can barely contain their bile when confronted with anybody who doesn’t think like them, thus ensuring that U.K. companies and, especially, public sector organisations, fall behind.

At least the OP is self-aware enough to understand why she feels as she does. I don’t detect any spite in her, but other posters have displayed abundant quantities.

I'd prefer a Lucy to:
"we've always done it like that"
"That's not my job"
"That'll never work" that applies to an awful lot of the workforce.

If the Lucy's generate more flowery pointless tasks for me then No, I'm not keen on Lucy's.
Yanbu.

I worked with a Lucy years ago. She was very vocal about what she had done/was going to do and at first was very popular with staff and management. After a while though it became apparent that it was all talk and that she wasn't as good at her job as she told everyone she was. She rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way by telling them they were doing their jobs incorrectly. She left after 3 years and I seem to remember the team going out for a celebratory meal because she'd gone. She did also have a stint of shagging the boss during her time of working there.

Yes of course, that’s what all wise old heads do. Encourage the innovation but reign in the naivety and inexperience that your long years in the job have taught you.

That’s not what you said upthread. You said this:

For the rest of us, who are a bit older and for whom work is just one part of your life and a means to pay the bills, it raises the bar unnecessarily.

So you’re all for innovation now, provided that it doesn’t affect you?

Not really weary. But it depends on your industry.

Ours is split Security/Customer with a Customer focus.

No ifs or buts on the hard stuff if you're training/teaching/mentoring properly. Theres no innovation to be had on security. Only more and more hard line.

From reading this thread I’m more inclined to think that the biggest problem with UK corporate culture is whinging gits trying to resist doing anything new that might make things better.

People learn by experience. If their experience of 'innovation' is that it makes things worse for them, then it's understandable they'll be sceptical.

What is the purpose of a corporation? To make money. Its purpose is not to be a pleasant place to work, nor even to deliver a good experience for its external customers - or, only insofar as is necessary to encourage them to spend money there. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.

The first rule when an 'innovation' is proposed? While everyone else is jumping up and down and cheering, quietly go away, tip the ointment out of the pot and examine it for flies. There will be plenty.

Incidentally, what is a ‘flowery pointless task’?

Recommend the book ‘Bullshit Jobs’ for discussion of similar to ‘flowerly, pointless tasks’. There are many around!