Blog Post 17: Type C in the Workplace

Type C people can be a dream to work with - they are strong team players, like to do good work, and are generally easy to get along with. They hate letting people down, so are super conscientious and take their responsibilities seriously. These are great qualities - but as we know from previous posts, can cause harm if taken too far. Given their propensity to default to saying “yes”, Type C people can be taken advantage of in the workplace. 

Here’s an example, albeit extreme, from my own corporate experience (Anna). I went to work for a small investment firm and became pregnant less than a year after joining. Feeling a lot of guilt around the prospect of leaving an already-thin team, I offered to help out while on maternity leave. This was my second child, and having been through it before, I figured I could pitch in if/when they needed me without too much trouble. Fast forward to the day after giving birth, the boss calls me in the hospital, saying “hey, this deal is heating up, we really need to get investor letters out, we need you to do this asap.” This put me in a bind - I had offered to help, so I felt I must honor that. I made a horrendous snap decision and got to work. To make a long and disturbing story short, I wrecked my health by working straight through maternity leave, and it has taken years to recover. 

Kore will tell you this is actually NOT an extreme example - that maternity leave is fraught with conflicts like mine. It is unfortunately all too common to feel a lot of guilt around maternity and paternity leave. There’s a great Type C tool I could have used in this case - a delay tactic. Simply say some version of, “I need to think about this. Let me get back to you on that”  Nothing more. Short and sweet. In my case, this would have bought me time to think carefully about the parameters to set around how much I could feasibly work, and lay those ground rules down from the outset. 

A delay tactic gives us time to carefully evaluate the cost of saying yes - or no. Here are some things to consider when asked to do something: Are there enough hours in the day to take this on? What must you take time away from to get this done? Are you ok with these costs? How will it impact your career if you say no? How will it impact your career if you say yes? Could the assignment be shared with someone else? Could it be delegated to someone else on your team? 

Going through this exercise and giving ourselves the time to fully evaluate the costs and benefits is so important to protecting our mental and physical health. We note that the delay tactic is useful in social situations as well!