By far, one of the most amusing developments of my new job has been observing how my co-workers misread me. GROSSLY misread me. This is particularly funny in that I work with a bunch of counselors, and they pride themselves on being excellent judges of character, declaring it a staple of their trade.
For example, I’m perceived as quiet and conservative, as evidenced by certain offhand remarks made to me, such as “Not that you’d be much of a party person,” or when I was introduced to clients as “quiet, but awesome.”
Keep in mind that I’m a chatty social butterfly with a dungeon in my basement.
However, when it comes to work, I’ve always (at least in the last 9 years or so) focused on business and getting my job done and since the majority of my role here deals with logistics and audits, I suppose I appear rather introverted.
Plus, I want to be professional, and it’s much more important to me that I achieve my career goals for practical reasons (money, job security, upward mobility, etc) than that any one person know the “true” me, regardless of how many hours a week I share space with them.
Still, it’s been an interesting and amusing phenomenon and an excellent illustration of one of my favorite principles:That confidence of one’s knowledge in no way implies accuracy of that knowledge OR feeling sure about something doesn’t mean you’re right. Easy trap to fall into, really.