I just found out about JADE, “don’t justify, argue, defend, explain” and I could use it with my dispatcher, an older man who’s been there longer than me and feels entitled to act like my manager.
We work with wifi based smartphones which are not reliable and slow. Sometimes I have to upgrade android myself because the employee in charge of doing that simply doesn’t. Every day the devices hang, meaning communication with the dispatcher is not possible, nor can I phone in (wifi based), nor can I check the task phase I am currently in (if the task is about to be done, if it’s being done, if it’s been done). When this happens, to avoid wasting time I simply do the job and then click through, something that seems to irritate this dispatcher extremely. Sometimes I get an urgent order, not through the smartphone but given verbally. When this happens I don’t wait for the task to appear on my device, something that can last 15 minutes, but simply tell the coworker who gave me the order to type it in the database, do the task and then click through. This also pisses this dispatcher off.
There are 8 dispatchers I work with. Only this one is the problematic one: he likes to ask per chat if the smartphone works ok, to which I answer it works like everyday: with broken wifi, the application hanging, black spots with no reception…
His answer is always: the smartphone works, which pisses me off, because it’s not true and he just won’t listen.
I get so angry thinking about it because it’s like working with an inflexible person incapable of showing empathy, unwilling to learn, who blames me for things I cannot control.
I already had a conversation with my union rep and with my manager about this but it seems I’ll have to contact my rep again.
How would you use JADE here? blatantly ignoring him each time he asks if my device works?
Should I bluntly write back: Mr A, we’ve had this conversation several times already and it doesn’t make any sense to talk to you because you’re way too deep in your biases and you don’t listen. Should you have any complains about my work, talk to our manager. Now, please, let me do my job.
I don’t know how to deal with this person.
You don’t! At least not in the sense that I’m aware of the JADE thing:
JADE is nothing that is a strong work proven topic but came from social media to handle narcissistic people as a peer group.
Your reactions are hostility and rejection based and how I understand you it’s your nerves that you want to preserve.
For this in a professional work place there are multiple ways to deal with and even all of them at the same time, just from the top of my head:
- Always go over your manager, make it his problem. “Dispatcher causes work for me by raising false claims/redundant questions - please resolve with their manager”
- I’d call it business ghosting: answer and questions raised but but don’t go into any depth. “Correct, phone was not working due to no wifi.”
- Work on yourself to detach your emotional connection: this is the toughest but also the most valuable one. It’s a fucking dispatcher who has his own problems and no other way to handle them then to try to use his environment as catalyst. My personal route is the framing “poor fucker, needs his routine and world to accept himself”. But also “this seems to be the only way he can feel important in front of himself” would work for me. Usually when I take pity with people I can’t get angry anymore about their behaviors.
- Figure out what the true impact on your work performance is and handle that separately from the emotional connection. It’s absolutely normal to be annoyed and angry by the behavior you’ve described - detachment of impact and emotion can be a way forward.
Hope this helps a bit!
Id ignore any request outside his authority.
I would also start making IT tickets every time your device stops you from working. Maybe you have a unique bad device or there is a systematic problem with the topping and nothing will change untill enough people complain about it.
I don’t think JADE is necessarily the right approach.
I don’t really understand the situation you’re trying to describe.
he likes to ask per chat if the smartphone works ok
What does this mean? Why is he asking if he’s just going to say “the smartphone works” regardless of your response?
Your suggested response is defensive and argumentative by the way, particularly so.
I would handle this by just playing along. If he asks if the phone is working just say “yes”. If a problem with communication arises and you use your best judgement, which later pisses him off, just explain what’s happened and ask what he would like you to do next time.
You don’t actually have to to what he says, just make him feel like you’re acquiescing to his authority.
I can’t help you, it just sucks. You’re not the only one though, JADE is dreamt up by utterly deranged boomers who don’t have the brain cells to comprehend the obvious and self-evident difference between an explanation and an apology, they are wholly unhinged and often lack basic reading comprehension and literacy, it’s a shame there hasn’t been more wars and pandemics to thin out their ranks so we don’t have to deal with them.
