Is It Me?

Every so often, particularly when it comes to work-related stuff, I find I have a bit of a confidence crisis. Primarily it’s to do with working in a team – I can work OK with other people who are doing different stuff to me, but when I’m working in a team of people doing something it all starts to go a bit tits-up.

This week has, to a degree, been one of those times.

As most people know, I’m working for a company doing web design/programming work, and we also have one American in charge of other sites, and another web programmer. The American and I get on OK-ish, but we can also clash like cat’n’dog (and I’m talking here about Psycho Cat and Hound) although normally we realise we’re talking about the same things from opposing sides.

With Simon, the other web programmer, we just have conflicting styles. I’m capable of doing most stuff when it comes to websites, including basic design, layout, appearance, useability, blah, blah, blah. Simon purely does web programming. Anything else is “someone else’s job”. Guess who “someone else” normally turns out to be. The other problem is that really he doesn’t seem to be conscious of things like deadlines, or whatever. So much stuff that he’d been asked to do by Christmas has still not been done – or, more often, has ended up being done by me instead.

I find I get frustrated by this kind of thing – I can’t deny, I’m better suited to being independent, to being the only person doing this stuff. That way I only have to rely on myself, instead of relying on others who normally don’t do what they’re supposed to. It’s not an ideal way to be – it makes team-work particularly trying, it has to be said. But I do continue to try dealing with it all.

Anyway, sometimes it gets to a point where I have to take a step back, and when that happens I also find myself wondering whether actually it’s me that’s the problem, rather than other people. I find it easy to find fault with others, or to see that they’re not living up to my standards.

So is it that actually my standards are too high? Should I just work to the lower common denominator, and not get annoyed when people only live up to that, instead of getting the work done when promised?