Share the Load: You Don't Have to Be the Weakest Link Due to Your Disability

Summary:
Gain the confidence of your supervisor and co-workers by making sure they see your willingness to share the load as an equal member of the team. Here are some tips about how to do that.

What Is Teamwork?

Are You the Weakest Link?

Getting Your Shoulder Under the Load

Get Past It


What Is Teamwork?

Not long ago the term "teamwork" primarily applied to sports teams. As business recognized that a work team and a baseball team interacted in a similar way, the term has been more frequently applied to staff relationships. And the comparison is useful: Like a baseball team, a football team, a hockey team, a rowing team, or any other team sport, the success of a work team depends on each member playing well in a unique and necessary role. The team can only succeed when each player shares his part of the common load -- just as a baseball team can only expect to win a game when the pitcher, first baseman, center fielder, lead-off man, etc., do their particular tasks well.

In the old staid office, including one where I worked as a clerk in the mid-1970s, desks were in rows as wide and long as a football field. My friend, Cathy, worked in a section where talking to each other, sometimes even asking questions about work, was strictly forbidden. Work was regimented. Creating little personal oases, such as placing a potted plant on your desk, was out. It had never occurred to business experts that this regimentation and depersonalization actually held back business.

Even now, in the UK, human resources writers are looking at the damage the traditional heads-down workplace is doing to the British competitive edge. "Workplace creativity in the UK is being stifled by a production line culture that discourages dialogue between staff," Says Simon Mortlock on Complinet. He includes this quote from Alex McKie, the author of "Virtual Value: Conversations, Ideas and the Creative Economy," to support his contention: "All new ideas begin with conversation and, if employers want to make money, they have to invest time in allowing people to talk to each other. The employer intent on stamping out idle chatter is likely to kill good ideas in the process."

During the 1960s, the approach to idea sharing in the U.S. began to change. That was fortunate for high technology companies because they may not have had the overwhelming growth they have had without it. I remember hearing about a software company that wired the coffeemaker into the network so that software developers, seeing a little coffee cup icon flash on their monitors, would get up and go get a cup. The company found that, while developers met to sip coffee, they also shared ideas and solved problems.

The dynamic among workers is key to any project's success. A row of isolated people who know their own jobs, working diligently and silently, can be highly unproductive. Here is a quote about project management NASA highlights from the book, "The Teamwork Handbook," by Peter Scholtes: "Expertise in the subject at hand is indispensable. But participants in a successful project must also know how to work as a team, plan, conduct good meetings, manage logistics and details, gather useful data, analyze the data, communicate the results and implement changes."

That is what teamwork is: pooled employee talent. "...Most people have skills, abilities and expertise exceeding those spelled out in their job descriptions," says "Tools for Teamwork". "...Finding and collectively deploying those strengths where and when they're needed" is the aim of teambuilding.

"Seven Essential Skills for Teamwork," a web handout for an online course about information literacy, identifies the framework for teamwork as:

• Listening to each others' ideas.
  
  
• Asking each other questions both to clarify and challenge ideas.
  
  
• Seeking to persuade others that your ideas are sound.
  
  
• Respecting each other's role in the discussion.
  
  
• Helping each team member to express and understand ideas.
  
  
• Sharing one's insights and information with other team members.
  
  
• Participating fully and equally in the task at hand.
  
  

An environment that does not build and foster all these skills in team members will not succeed. The individual who cannot -- or will not -- participate fully and equally in all aspects will put the project on the path to failure. You have no doubt been a member of a team in which others slowed, blocked or even sabotaged the team's success, for whatever reason.

These "weak links" need not be -- and often are not -- people with disabilities. As disabled people, however, we know that there are many ways our disabilities can interfere with teamwork. How can we most effectively participate in a team and minimize the impact of our disabilities? Answering that question is important to our personal success and the success of any work team of which we are a part.

Go to Top of Page

Are You the Weakest Link?

Disability does not make a team member "the weakest link" in the proverbial chain. Instead, being the "weakest link" is the sum total of how we participate in the team. To examine how a disabled person might allow his disability (and how he, himself, views it) to weaken his connection on a team, I'll cite a few fictional cases. Please meet Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice.

Bob

Bob, a teacher with low vision, cannot even get past "listening" in his PTA participation. He somehow manages to bring the focus back onto him and his disability no matter what point another team member is making. He uses his disability not only to get attention but to bludgeon others into spending time on his agenda without giving them the respect to hear what issues concern them.

As a result, the PTA is wholly ineffective. Other members avoid Bob because he has set up a wall between him and them. Bob is intelligent and has a lot of insight into what matters to the community, so he could be a vital part of the team. He could be key to implementing not only programs related to disability but to many other issues in the schools.

Carol

On the other hand, Carol, a totally blind marketing associate in a food company, never says a word. Somehow she has internalized her family's cultural belief that disabled people, and women in general, should not assert themselves. In fact, in one-on-one conversations, Carol is a bright star with enthusiasm for projects that could keep the most demoralized team going.

But that skill is wasted. She simply pulls back and lets her "betters" talk when in a meeting. Energy for the task flags. Carol's ability to invigorate every member of the team is lost, and the team project bogs down.

Ted

Ted is -- well -- needy. He has very low vision that has not in the least prevented him from being a crack salesman. He works in his father-in-law's tire store and easily has the highest sales record. But, while he participates, he does not do it on an even par with his co-workers. Worse, he wheedles personal favors from them - such as getting them to go get coffee or give him a ride after work. He turns each and every team member into a personal assistant. He will do the sales pitch, but won't follow up with the paperwork or with customers. He uses his disability to get out of work he simply does not want to do or learn to do.

Therefore, other members of the sales staff and the clerical staff have to do more than their own share. Even though Ted's sales would be great on his own merit, his co-workers resent him and believe he is actively sabotaging them, something they won't bring up since he is, after all, the boss's son-in-law. He blames their reluctance on their having a bad attitude towards blind people. Total sales would be way up, if everyone cooperated. Ted drains cooperative spirit from the whole group.

Now let's examine a case where disability and the person who is disabled is fully integrated into a successful team.

Alice

Alice is, like Carol, totally blind. She is a reporter in a small, rural weekly newspaper. A co-worker in the business office, Amy, who has a physical disability, has developed a whiny tone and appears to believe that no one will ever give her the tools and information she needs to do her work. Alice had to deal with the fallout from Amy's behavior when she first got her job. Others at the paper assumed she would be just as difficult to be around as Amy.

But Alice is nothing like Amy. She is a resourceful self-starter who likes her independence. She asks for things when she needs them, gently and cheerfully reminds people when they fail to give her accessible materials in a meeting, and mentions her blindness only as a fact of her life -- like anyone else might mention having kids or growing up on a farm. She is proud of being a contributing team member. She readily offers to help the others in the office with extra work. Her blindness is not irrelevant, but it might as well be when it comes to how teamwork functions on the editorial staff.

These four examples show that simply doing your work is not enough to be a valuable team member. Whatever the source of Bob's, Carol's and Ted's failure to be a good team member, they handicap both themselves and the team. Each needs to adopt a more productive attitude to gain the respect Alice has earned (in spite of initially landing in a poisoned well).

Go to Top of Page

Getting Your Shoulder Under the Load

The essence here is that we each must balance opportunities for helping and for receiving help. Knowing when to ask for help is a dilemma for any disabled person. I know. I have the same problem. I'm a workaholic and overachiever, but I still feel weird about communicating any needs I have about my visual impairment in work settings. I know that people are nervous about it. I know they are likely not to have a real grasp on disability and what it really is like. And I know other disabled people before me have poisoned the well and set up even worse expectations than simple ignorance would create.

On the other hand, I know I can't be an equal contributor if I am left out of the loop, and not providing me with accessible materials or making sure I can get to a meeting means I'm not "on the same page" with other team members. Many people who have worked with me know they will get more out of me than I do out of them and appreciate my courteous and simple requests and reminders.

But others have written me off or even attacked me. I was a member of a board of directors where a woman, Adelle, gave an unexpected response to my request for large print notes for me. "No, I didn't," she snapped, and she later sent me a six-page, handwritten letter about how "drained" she felt because of "needy people" like me.

From my own experience, I have learned to never decide what I can or cannot do, or should or should not do, or ask for help based on the other's beliefs or opinions on the subject. I only consult my own understanding of the real impact of my visual impairment and my own sense of fair play. I do not allow the protective or pitying beliefs of others to determine my requests any more than I allow people with a chip on their shoulders about disability to subvert those requests. I look at each and every case and ask:

• Can I do this myself?
  
• Is it really the other person's responsibility?
  
• Am I asking for something unrealistic?
  
• Am I giving as good as I get?
  
  

In some cases, I can manage on my own. In others, I cannot, and I try to consider which other team member might be most appropriate to ask for help. I consider whether they really can or whether (in the case of a faux pas) the mistake really could have been avoided.

For instance, at a recent meeting a team member had done all her meeting notes at the last minute. When she got to me, she handed me a regular print copy. I handed it back to her with a smile. She realized she had forgotten and apologized. I said, "I know you'll send me a copy by e-mail. Just be sure if there's anything I need here to participate in discussion that you will let me know and read it to me." I realized she meant no slight, and that it was remarkable she'd gotten to the materials at all. Making her feel bad would do nothing to help me. She told me afterwards that my attitude made her more comfortable and appreciative of me. She knows, too, that I work hard, am a valuable resource and won't play any mind games with others on the team. The fact is, with Adelle in the story I told above, I helped her more than she would have helped me, in spite of her attitude. That's just how I work.

Another extremely important rule is never to make other people guess what you want or need. And be forgiving (to a point), if you do ask and they forget your request. Your disability is not the central focus of their lives any more than some detail of their lives is central to yours.

Other eSight members agree.

Both Keith and Deb recommend candor. "I am very honest with co-workers. When I need assistance, I simply state this need, and it appears to be well received," says Keith, the director of student development at a small university. Deb, a switchboard operator, observes that being honest and forthright can help others avoid misinterpreting both your words and your actions.

Liz, one of eSight's contributors and facilitators, urges honesty with yourself as well. She believes, "One has to be aware of as well as accept one's limitations and strengths and have the confidence to be able to share that information with management and supervisors."

Eric, who does telephone support for cable modem subscribers, deals with problems directly. "When I run into a technical issue at work," he says, "I present to my co-workers what the problem is and what needs to be improved. In return, they help me come up with suggestions to resolve the issue so I can work more independently."

He has also drawn on a useful tool to deal with workload and equity issues: his mentors through the DO-IT Careers Program: "I work with the mentors on helping to resolve customers' issues. When I tell the mentors what is going on, they present me with a resolution to the problem. My duty is to follow through on the resolution that they present to me."

What if you do your best and others still resent you? Deb recounts, "I have tried to help co-workers with things that I can do that they can't get to. I've been available for them as much as possible." In spite of this, "There is a lot of written material and sight dependent material that needs to be adapted for me," says Deb, "thus creating resentment." No matter what she does, she believes some co-workers think, "(I am) lazy, too 'special' to do the work or don't care. Those things are the furthest from the truth."

Liz wisely suggests, "Getting all huffy when suggestions are made or taking offense when none is intended does not for a happy workplace make."

She goes on, "Not everyone is going to be thrilled to have you there or like you. You're not going to like everybody there either, but that's life: Deal with it. But deal with it in a mature, responsible manner that shows your integrity, responsibility and accountability. (If conflict arises), report it, advocate for it -- but do so in a way that makes it a win-win situation for everyone."

Go to Top of Page

Get Past It

The topic of teamwork, sharing the load and conflicts that arise from differing needs is actually getting to be a common one -- well beyond the unique experiences of people with disabilities.

Resentment can come from a lot of different circumstances. For example, in a book review in Notre Dame Magazine, "Vecchio (the book's author) found that inconsiderate supervisors fueled more jealousy and envy among subordinates than did bosses (who were) perceived as nurturing." You can even be resented for being too willing and helpful, inspiring the expression "she's no better than she should be."

The book review also says, "Vecchio ... found that employees who appeared to have a strong Protestant work ethic were more apt to react emotionally to office situations, making them more prone to envy and jealousy." Inevitably someone will seem too well paid, too able to get away with murder, too chummy with the boss, too good-looking, too well educated, too... well, you get the point.

A growing issue similar to that which workers with disabilities often face is this: the resentment workers without children sometimes feel about working parents. In an ABCNews.com article, "Employees Without Kids Say They Work Harder For Less," Rebecca Raphael describes how advances in creating a "family friendly" workplace during the last few decades may have been overdone in the minds of some. "From establishing day care centers and telecommuting to granting leaves of absence and tax breaks," she says, "companies and the government have tried to help workers meet the competing demands of a job and family. But now, workers without young children -- who make up more than 60 percent of the workforce -- are suggesting that family-friendly policies have gone too far, leaving childless employees with less than their fair share." The parallel to disabled workers is obvious, particularly in Raphael's statement that "...Accommodations for parents operate at the expense of childless workers."

Perhaps we in the disability community and our employers can look at the potential solutions in the brewing conflict between those without and with children. Honest communications and trying to understand where the other person's resentment comes from is a good start. The ABCNews.com article notes that parents often feel their extra work put in at home after the kids are asleep is overlooked by those left behind in the office when parents leave to pick those kids up.

As Liz points out, "I think ... that goes without saying in any type of job -- your work habits, your accountability and your integrity demonstrate how committed you are to your work."

"Some companies have begun to notice the tension and started to adapt, by changing their goal from providing for a balance between work and family to work and life," reports Raphael. Perhaps similar emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of all workers in a team without special emphasis on disability per se can help non-disabled team members feel less like they are being shorted.

In "Managing the Stress of Workplace Change," Patricia Russell suggests that everyone involved in relationships which are stressful needs to rethink the causes of resentment. She boils an event down to A-B-C -- that is, an activating (A) event, beliefs (B) about the event, and conclusions (C) drawn. Most people point to the action as the cause or a conclusion. For example, you need help reading so your co-worker has to take time away from his work to read to you. He sees your need as the cause of his irritation and resentment. But Russell demonstrates that the cause of your co-worker's resentment is not you but his own beliefs. Another coworker might actually like the break from routine or enjoy learning along with you. We all must re-examine how we interpret an action to see whether the conclusion, resentment, is founded in anything creditable.

You can only control your own reactions, but, by being as forthright as you can and curbing your own reactive side as well as acting with integrity and a collaborative spirit, you can model the most productive behavior at best or at least not fuel wildfires.

Sharing the load equally -- at different times and in different ways -- is key to the success of any team. It is important that we get beyond the "sharing" to understand that each shares his own skills and abilities in different ways. Disability need not be a detriment to sharing. In fact, it can create an even more diverse and richer source of sharing. Each team member simply needs to stop and look at each situation honestly and take charge of his own responsibilities. To apply an old bit of folk wisdom, "Don't sweat the small stuff. Oh, and, by the way, it's all small stuff."

Go to Top of Page

Bookmark this article to: