On Compliments

Had a bit of a funny experience today.

Yesterday, I got an invitation to join a colleague's LinkedIn network. I've tended to refuse most of them because they're all so tedious, but this one was immediately accepted.

The colleague in question is a bit of a princess, and certainly a royal pain in the arse sometimes... but, in many ways, that's one of her strengths. She's bloody good at her job, and the occasional dressing-down she dishes out serves to prevent me from becoming a complete tit in the office.

Having accepted the invitation, I proceeded to compose an unsolicited recommendation. I sincerely doubt that she would ever have even considered asking me for a recommendation, but it basically wrote itself in a very short time. She's easily one of the best salespeople at work, though being promoted to management of a team has left her in more of a caretaker role for the most part... Nevertheless, she's very focused, keeps track of everything her clients are after, and is clearly devoted to her team in her own peculiar way.

Since I ran the text past my boss, I half expected her to have seen it before I posted it to LinkedIn but, thankfully, she had not... and she sent me an email thanking me for a recommendation that was - she said - one of the nicest things anyone has ever written about her, and that it almost brought a tear to her eye.

Not sure how serious she was being, to be honest... I'd not really pegged her for the low-self-esteem type, but I guess I haven't paid her that much attention in general. She is quite underappreciated - both by her staff and her managers - considering what she does for the company... And I basically just felt the need to express my appreciation.

...Which has been a long time coming, considering it's only been recently that I've even decided that I quite like working with her, despite the tantrums, specifically because of what she's capable of without them.

Work generally went better than expected, and I was observed to be grinning much of the time... We might have been finished far earlier had the Sales team been a bit more organised about their check-off. Technically, we were finished by about 4pm, but it was only signed off with the Printers shortly before 5pm. Nevertheless, I think I'm on top of my next couple of magazines... it's really only the last one in the cycle that could be troublesome.