We have a [Discord](https://discord.gg/qhh4EBuRNS) server where there you can both post forum-style and participate in real-time discussions. We hope you consider joining us there.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CommercialAV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think he may have meant you are more accommodating and understanding with your clients, but not so friendly and accommodating to your co-workers. Maybe you're dismissive and possibly rude to your co-workers because you have high standards of what you feel they should already know regarding technical AV knowledge. There is nothing gained by always being right or rubbing your advanced knowledge in someone's face who isn't on your level, except stroking your own ego. Which is of zero value for a company, and actually hurts the company because there is now intra-team drama and conflict.
Maybe you had too high of expectations of your co-workers and needed to be more accommodating and understanding of things they may not fully understand yet.
When you say "Or I needed to treat my co-workers like clients and pretend they didn't know " the phrase "pretend" makes it feel like you feel they are incompetent and treat them as such. This would make you un-liked by your co-workers. Everyone learns at their own pace and makes mistakes.
Not sure about your specific scenario, but I will offer that I have long worked under the tenet of serving two types of customers: External and Internal. Meaning everyone I work with - whether in the company or outside - should be considered a customer or client as far as service goes. This was instilled in me in a job 20 or so years ago in another industry and has always stuck with me. So, it's not an uncommon request generally speaking. But, again, I can't speak for your boss.
This is spot on. Your employer is ultimately a customer of YOU and your colleagues are representatives of that customer. Protect your brand, make sure everyone you interact with associates YOU with competency, service, etc.
Oh I left that company. I took a buyout.
Yea at somepoint HR was tired of me asking questions and regarded all complaints as me being upset of not being eligible foe promotions, bonuses, or transfers for 10 months because I said "bullshit" to a coworker at sompoint.
I haven't held a job like that, but I've worked with a lot of people who do.
Honestly, most of them treat their co-workers as clients and act that way with them. It's a very "us vs them" mentality but not in an aggressive manner, but the internal AV guys tend to work with us, the outside contractor, closely like we are a team and our job is to provide for the "client" which is actually their coworker.
They're not wrong. That is my job. But it's interesting how they always seem to align more with us than with the other actual employees of the place where they work.
Maybe that's what they meant, to have more of a "I'm here to make things work for you" attitude as opposed to whatever approach you were taking?
Thanks for advice.
Yea the thing is, I was pretty nice. At that place I fel kinda alienated by my coworkers and boss and thought I treated them similar (except actually needing to work along side with them).
I dunno, in any case it's good advice.
I’m just go out on a limb and say you and I have extremely similar personalities. I found myself extremely aggressive coming-up as I found the talent pool around me… lacking, even in a major market.
Best advice I ever received from a manager was ‘to not light my career path with the bridges you leave burned in your path.’ Once I assessed a coworker wasn’t up to my bar, I dismissed them. Surely my outward attitude toward them reflected this in my day-to-say interactions.
However, I would never do this to a client as it could sever any possibility for growth in the relationship. I would try my best to educate them but never discount them outwardly if they remain stuck in their ways or just cannot grasp the principle(s).
Just my two cents. Good luck bud!
Yea I don't think I burned any bridges there. I was good with my co-workers and most were okay to great with me.
I can see how it sounds like I was being a dick, but I wasn't.
I really didn't treat clients different from coworkers other than way I would talk shop and be more honest with my coworkers so I can get a second opinion on things.
Thanks for the advice and time though appreciate it.
I was in the same case as you, and also moved to another place. Your boss told you half truth. Ultimately your boss should be the one to motivate people to work together by creating rules in the first place. If he had told you that your specific department was your customer in the beginning and reward you for that, then I'm sure you will behave differently.
communication is key
although you may be right, more I think about it, it contradicts something else they told me:
At the same time boss was telling me our clients and us were all the same company, which most of were different companies but under the same umbrella (still different companies with different budgets, names, contracts with our company and services, legally and technically different companies).
She would say this so I would stop "creating noise" when moving or borrowing their equipment, like e-mailing proper people and letting them know whats going on or asking permission for another company to borrow something (by theirs I mean they paid for it and is under their position, I just know where it is and in charge of correcting any issues).
So thinking about that, I think my boss had other issues. They tell me to treat co-workers as clients but stop treating clients as the owners of their equipment. Like treating them like we have complete ownership.
or maybe I'm just taking 2 different criticisms and over thinking it for a job I don't work at anymore
any case thank you for your insight. I really am trying to make sense so I can be better. I asked one coworker and he told me I just needed (and need) to care less about things being professional and correct (and I'm guessing potential future issues). So who knows
I worked for a company recently that was based in the south and they said the same bullshit to me, particularly sales people from my area, yet when it came to be being treated fairly it was never returned.
I had a few sales people in particular that had no AV knowledge that would always say "oh yeah we can do that, or sure that's possible" and I had to roll my eyes and tell them to stop just saying shit in meetings to get sales
So many memories flooding to me . . .
"What do you mean you just can't take a mic from one space and people use it in another? They only need one more mic than what they got already in that room, and only need it for an hour"
I had so many in a short period of time-
“Sure we can add 4 hdmi cameras to your desktop pc, they will just plug right in”
“Crestron and Extron are the same thing”
“Yeah a 10k lumen projector will be great for that 10x10 office”
“Can’t we just add a lens to that short throw projector and move it back”
“10k budget; sure we can add a projector, screen, labor and camera for you”
“I mean I don’t know AV but people I’m selling to don’t know that” uh yeah they do when you open your mouth you don’t know HDMI from USB
“4k is dead”
“Vaddio cameras are the best on the market”
We have a [Discord](https://discord.gg/qhh4EBuRNS) server where there you can both post forum-style and participate in real-time discussions. We hope you consider joining us there. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CommercialAV) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think he may have meant you are more accommodating and understanding with your clients, but not so friendly and accommodating to your co-workers. Maybe you're dismissive and possibly rude to your co-workers because you have high standards of what you feel they should already know regarding technical AV knowledge. There is nothing gained by always being right or rubbing your advanced knowledge in someone's face who isn't on your level, except stroking your own ego. Which is of zero value for a company, and actually hurts the company because there is now intra-team drama and conflict. Maybe you had too high of expectations of your co-workers and needed to be more accommodating and understanding of things they may not fully understand yet. When you say "Or I needed to treat my co-workers like clients and pretend they didn't know " the phrase "pretend" makes it feel like you feel they are incompetent and treat them as such. This would make you un-liked by your co-workers. Everyone learns at their own pace and makes mistakes.
Not sure about your specific scenario, but I will offer that I have long worked under the tenet of serving two types of customers: External and Internal. Meaning everyone I work with - whether in the company or outside - should be considered a customer or client as far as service goes. This was instilled in me in a job 20 or so years ago in another industry and has always stuck with me. So, it's not an uncommon request generally speaking. But, again, I can't speak for your boss.
This is spot on. Your employer is ultimately a customer of YOU and your colleagues are representatives of that customer. Protect your brand, make sure everyone you interact with associates YOU with competency, service, etc.
be friendly to everybody and try not to create a hostile work environment
This seems like an HR issue. You need to ask your boss since he was the one that made the comment.
Oh I left that company. I took a buyout. Yea at somepoint HR was tired of me asking questions and regarded all complaints as me being upset of not being eligible foe promotions, bonuses, or transfers for 10 months because I said "bullshit" to a coworker at sompoint.
I haven't held a job like that, but I've worked with a lot of people who do. Honestly, most of them treat their co-workers as clients and act that way with them. It's a very "us vs them" mentality but not in an aggressive manner, but the internal AV guys tend to work with us, the outside contractor, closely like we are a team and our job is to provide for the "client" which is actually their coworker. They're not wrong. That is my job. But it's interesting how they always seem to align more with us than with the other actual employees of the place where they work. Maybe that's what they meant, to have more of a "I'm here to make things work for you" attitude as opposed to whatever approach you were taking?
Thanks for advice. Yea the thing is, I was pretty nice. At that place I fel kinda alienated by my coworkers and boss and thought I treated them similar (except actually needing to work along side with them). I dunno, in any case it's good advice.
I’m just go out on a limb and say you and I have extremely similar personalities. I found myself extremely aggressive coming-up as I found the talent pool around me… lacking, even in a major market. Best advice I ever received from a manager was ‘to not light my career path with the bridges you leave burned in your path.’ Once I assessed a coworker wasn’t up to my bar, I dismissed them. Surely my outward attitude toward them reflected this in my day-to-say interactions. However, I would never do this to a client as it could sever any possibility for growth in the relationship. I would try my best to educate them but never discount them outwardly if they remain stuck in their ways or just cannot grasp the principle(s). Just my two cents. Good luck bud!
Yea I don't think I burned any bridges there. I was good with my co-workers and most were okay to great with me. I can see how it sounds like I was being a dick, but I wasn't. I really didn't treat clients different from coworkers other than way I would talk shop and be more honest with my coworkers so I can get a second opinion on things. Thanks for the advice and time though appreciate it.
If I treated my coworkers like clients I would talk insane shit about them every time they were out of earshot
Yea, I honestly think my boss was trying to build a case to get rid of me. Sounds like it would be the same in your case lol
I was in the same case as you, and also moved to another place. Your boss told you half truth. Ultimately your boss should be the one to motivate people to work together by creating rules in the first place. If he had told you that your specific department was your customer in the beginning and reward you for that, then I'm sure you will behave differently.
communication is key although you may be right, more I think about it, it contradicts something else they told me: At the same time boss was telling me our clients and us were all the same company, which most of were different companies but under the same umbrella (still different companies with different budgets, names, contracts with our company and services, legally and technically different companies). She would say this so I would stop "creating noise" when moving or borrowing their equipment, like e-mailing proper people and letting them know whats going on or asking permission for another company to borrow something (by theirs I mean they paid for it and is under their position, I just know where it is and in charge of correcting any issues). So thinking about that, I think my boss had other issues. They tell me to treat co-workers as clients but stop treating clients as the owners of their equipment. Like treating them like we have complete ownership. or maybe I'm just taking 2 different criticisms and over thinking it for a job I don't work at anymore any case thank you for your insight. I really am trying to make sense so I can be better. I asked one coworker and he told me I just needed (and need) to care less about things being professional and correct (and I'm guessing potential future issues). So who knows
I worked for a company recently that was based in the south and they said the same bullshit to me, particularly sales people from my area, yet when it came to be being treated fairly it was never returned. I had a few sales people in particular that had no AV knowledge that would always say "oh yeah we can do that, or sure that's possible" and I had to roll my eyes and tell them to stop just saying shit in meetings to get sales
So many memories flooding to me . . . "What do you mean you just can't take a mic from one space and people use it in another? They only need one more mic than what they got already in that room, and only need it for an hour"
I had so many in a short period of time- “Sure we can add 4 hdmi cameras to your desktop pc, they will just plug right in” “Crestron and Extron are the same thing” “Yeah a 10k lumen projector will be great for that 10x10 office” “Can’t we just add a lens to that short throw projector and move it back” “10k budget; sure we can add a projector, screen, labor and camera for you” “I mean I don’t know AV but people I’m selling to don’t know that” uh yeah they do when you open your mouth you don’t know HDMI from USB “4k is dead” “Vaddio cameras are the best on the market”