Losing your temper
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You make a good point. But what you're talking about is honesty, sometimes expressed loudly, but honesty nonetheless. My gripe is with mainly with those who personalize hardware/software/design issues and essentially "act out", many times under the guise of being passionate. At the end of the day something either works or it doesn't, and if it doesn't it needs to be fixed. I don't need to "like" code, processor design, people I work with etc., and wish others (mostly developers) felt similarly.
True. What really annoys me is when people get all up tight because you find a bug in their stuff. Yeesh it is your software I am having a problem with - not you. Please don't run to my boss saying I am a meany because I said something of yours doesn't work!
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I don't know who you're dealing with, but if someone is pulling passive-aggressive nonsense like that and claiming that it's professionalism, it most definitely is not. I see one part of professionalism as being able to say why you don't agree with something while not losing your temper, and not turning it into a pile of back-handed politics. Let people know you're angry, just try not to lose your temper - different people lose it in different ways, and some don't just stop at shouting something that is going to come back and bite them later. It still comes down to the individual to decide when they need to hold their ground and when they might need to compromise (or when they might even *shock* be wrong). Too many people try to twist the term 'professional' to their own advantage - making out that if you're not being a passive-aggressive douche like them, then you're not professional. Do not let them get away with it - professional should mean that you get the job done in the most effective way possible, avoiding as many pitfalls as possible (and pitfalls include unnecessary arguments/office-politicking).
glenndavidson wrote:
Too many people try to twist the term 'professional' to their own advantage - making out that if you're not being a passive-aggressive douche like them, then you're not professional.
That's the precise definition, in some of the places I've worked, which shell remain nameless -- Oops! That shouldn't have been "hel", it should have been "hal". The entire communications structure of those two places (which I have, of course, not named) is based on sideways whispers and snide remarks, coming from smiling, happy faces. It's not a difficult game to play, but it's not an environment where you can be happy.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!