Continuity is Key

Today, I learned a valuable lesson about the environment of the workplace that I felt would be relevant to blog about.  I was sitting in on a call with one of my superiors, in which he was discussing a specific deal with a colleague. That colleague works in a separate division in the company, which has different responsibilities, but shares some key ones with my superior.  One of these responsibilities is to negotiate a proposed budget for upgrades and maintenance on properties.  Since both employees have to come to an agreement as to what the budget should be, this naturally causes a lot of friction.  I saw this friction first hand during this call, in which the two were butting heads and were sticking to their guns.  They went on and on and didn’t seem to get anywhere, as they both had strong personalities and felt that what they had come up with was right and disregarded the others’ opinion. 
This encounter taught me that while it is important to be smart and capable of completing tasks, you also have to be able to work with others in a civil manner.  Prior to this, I hadn’t put enough emphasis on these specific skills for successful employees, but now I can see why maintaining relationships both within and outside of the office can make your job easier.  It is easy to say that you’re right and the other is wrong, but compromise is just a part of life.  Without it, there would be no progress in anything, since one side would inevitably be unhappy.  It is necessary to work with others in order to get anywhere in your career and I believe that working within an office has helped me learn more about what it means to be a solid employee.