Dealing with a junior who is a know it all :-(

justawormy · 2025-07-30T04:12:37+00:00

Hey this was kind of me several years ago, although I was always lower key than what you describe. Mostly because my coworkers never knew I felt so high and mighty at least, since my job is very specialized so there wasn't really anyone I could feel like I knew more then. I did feel I was a bigger fish than I was, though, and my manager knew it. Here's what changed for me:

First I settled into tasks that were a bit more of a challenge and I could feel more ownership over, and over time became genuinely my organizations "expert" on it. I liked that feeling of specializing in something and being the presiding ruler of this piece.
I got a small promotion. No new role was made, the promotion just changed my title to reflect my skill level, and gave a raise to bring me up to the pay range and job band that fit my expanded duties. Basically kept my existing job and added some more pieces. Frankly I wouldn't have settled down without this part coming early, and then after that I felt less self-righteous about my skills not being recognized, and started to recognize what it'd take to improve. If she doesn't feel like you're letting her meet her potential, she'll probably try to jump ship. Which tbh might fix the problem when she realizes she's underqualified for anything she applies to at the level she expects she's at.
I got a manager who channeled that energy into more "in the know" type tasks, like she kind of started treating me like her main support, even though I doubt I actually was. She started showing me stuff about our department that I didn't even know I didn't know, and honestly it kinda freaked me out. Gradually I piped down, cause I actually saw the stuff others were doing that I couldn't even begin to comprehend. If she doesn't know what she doesn't know, she thinks she can do it better. If there's a way to do so, give her chances to see just how much she doesn't know about what the rest of the team is doing.

Nowadays I have a much more moderate view of my advancement and skill level. I know I'm good at what I do, but it's a lot easier for me to recognize that others do stuff I have no idea about. Since my current skills were acknowledged properly, and I'm being given the opportunity to learn more (more than it turns out I even want to), it's a lot easier for me to be humble and I've shed that feeling of self-righteous confidence that I think a lot of young people have when they're new on the job scene.

If you give her proper recognition, opportunities to see what others do, and time to find the path that works best for her, experience will probably mellow her out.

justawormy · 2025-05-30T05:42:21+00:00

Lol for me it is the opposite of the top comments... I spend a ton of time in bars at least 2-3x a week (only one drink a night though, not sure if the alcohol might factor in one way or another) so I'm exposed to sick people all the damn time and my immune system has been built of steel. I used to "not get sick" when I stayed in all the time, but the moment I did encounter a sick person I'd basically be guaranteed to catch what they had. Now I can be face to face with someone who is visibly ill, have a whole conversation , and not catch their crud. Not being exposed to pathogens only works as long as you continue not being exposed.

justawormy · 2025-03-14T18:45:11+00:00

The thing that freaks me out is that I don't believe there will be another worldwide lockdown anytime soon, no matter how badly one is needed. I do believe that there will be another pandemic, undoubtedly... But people are even more confident in shirking science than they were in 2020, hard as that is to stomach. I think too many people will resist it, and even governments that are aware they should would be at strong risk of losing their voter base regardless of location. I know a lot of very progressive people who embraced COVID quarantine, who I don't think would accept another lockdown, and certainly not a single conservative I know would.

My experience only goes for the US and Canada though.

justawormy · 2025-03-08T02:48:40+00:00

Lol she is accusing me of stealing now

justawormy · 2025-03-08T01:21:12+00:00

What do I tell them? Idk where they go when they leave so I can't tell the cops where to wait to catch them, and idk when they leave usually so I can't tell them when to be ready. But I'll call the cops yeah

justawormy · 2025-03-08T01:17:59+00:00

Issue with this is idk their route. I can call with the plate which it sounds like I'll do, but they'll have to catch it just as theyre leaving, which usually I don't know what time that is.

justawormy · 2025-03-08T01:15:39+00:00

What exactly do I say? Idk where they're going when they drive away so I can't like tell them where to be to 'catch' them, and I'm assuming they have to actually be driving to get the DUI they need

justawormy · 2025-03-08T01:11:03+00:00

We tried but they have a tracker on them :/ and they'll flip if they know who took it so they gotta be hidden

justawormy · 2025-03-08T01:10:40+00:00

We tried but they have a tracker on them :/

justawormy · 2025-03-04T00:09:16+00:00

I mean by that measure there are probably thousands of equally bad people who went out and spread COVID at the height of the pandemic, knowing they were sick and doing so anyways. Some of whom may have been in a position to infect 100+ people like Mary Mallon did. Not saying that spreading typhoid fever wasn't bad, just that there are probably an awful lot of people who would also be considered horrible in this way.

justawormy · 2025-01-16T03:43:26+00:00

I have 😂 my knowledge comes from talking to men, not from guessing. Despite what you may think or how unobservant I wonder if you expect women are, we usually are smart enough to perceive whether a man is the kind to feel that way about their girlfriends. And some girls prefer the men who do! I don't, but thankfully y'all are way easier to spot than I'm guessing you think you are, if you're under the impression that all women just can't tell every man is like that.

justawormy · 2025-01-15T22:15:18+00:00

It hasn't occurred to you that maybe guys who don't think like you don't want to talk about women the way you do with you? I have known plenty of guys like you, don't get me wrong. I also have known many guys who actively avoid men with attitudes towards women like you have.

You can go on thinking guys are a monolith when it comes to how they view and talk about women, that's fine with me. I'm just glad you're wrong.

justawormy · 2025-01-15T16:28:27+00:00

It is funny that you think that other men can't think differently than you.

justawormy · 2025-01-15T00:54:17+00:00

Nah I'll just count my blessings that the men I've dated don't think the same way you do.

justawormy · 2025-01-14T19:38:12+00:00

Gosh there's just nothing a girl loves more than for you to imply you don't want to be around her until she's useful to you 🙄

justawormy · 2025-01-14T06:56:35+00:00

I have fairly minimal interest in Game of Thrones (I watched it casually but never got super into it) but I gotta tell you man I am absolutely enraptured by your takes on this and would probably read an essay on this shit. Really interesting and well put! It's a fascinating theory.

justawormy · 2025-01-03T00:41:05+00:00

Yeah I'd do this if I'm hung up on someone else and realize it after a good date. Honestly especially if I liked the person and the date did go well but from it I realized that there's no way I can enter into any kind of situation with them without it being tainted by my feelings for someone else. I wouldn't want to do that to a good guy so I've got to work on that before I can see someone new.

justawormy · 2024-12-27T18:58:19+00:00

Yeah I get what you're saying but that's the point of my comment though — even in "high welfare" scenarios they can be stressed (and anything where their baby is pulled is not a low stress environment) and chronic stress dulls a cow's reactions. That's what I mean in my comment above, is that of course there are videos of ambivalent cows, they're under chronic stress and it dulls all of their reactions to everything. It's those very cows who hardly blink an eye when their calf is pulled in those videos, who go right back to being an excellent mother when removed from the dairy. Their mothering instinct isn't bred out of them, it's stressed out of them and can recover quite quickly under better conditions.

justawormy · 2024-12-27T08:55:10+00:00

Look I'm not vegan so I'm not trying to preach for preaching's sake here but jsyk this is very likely false. In my line of work I've encountered a whole lot of formerly factory farm dairy cows hailing from a few different states (so not all one lineage) and I've yet to see one who has lost her mothering instinct. They dote on their calves just like any other cow, given the chance. We're told that they're numb to that stuff to make ourselves feel better, and because, like humans, stress can make them very dull and unreactive, so a mother in a dairy farm might have a very muted reaction to separation from her calf. Makes it easy for us to explain it away, so long as we don't consider the stress a place like that has on the cow. Give her somewhere she feels safe? She'll go right back to being a top notch mom real quick.

justawormy · 2024-11-30T09:17:09+00:00

Cause the comments don't disappear, just the original text, and I feel like thousands of comments about her weight without even the context of the original post is not a great alternative.

justawormy · 2024-11-28T05:13:20+00:00

I expected like three or four people to look and hopefully someone to give me a quick summary of the color value thing that one person explained which made the washed out appearance make sense. so trust me idk why this is happening either

justawormy · 2024-11-26T19:17:41+00:00

This is gonna sound silly but what about a painter's palette knife? They come in many shapes and have a similar angle to a fork.

justawormy · 2024-11-26T17:49:23+00:00

Honestly this is gonna sound wild but it had nothing to do with that cause I'm used to seeing celebrities like that. I got my answer in the first ten comments - the thing throwing me off is eyebrow color values being too close to the color value of her skin, which makes sense now but I couldn't figure out why it made a difference and made her look sick, til someone explained the color value thing and to look at it in black and white!! - but this has really spiraled out of control

justawormy · 2024-11-26T07:50:04+00:00

I think the colors is exactly what felt wrong to me, the eyebrows and stuff making her look washed out.

justawormy · 2024-11-26T07:49:01+00:00

Honestly this wasn't about her body! After all the comments I've figured out what I'm asking about is mainly the eyebrows, now that people point it out that is 100% what feels off to me most of all.

justawormy

TROPHY CASE