There's this ESFj I know... my employer. He doesn't want to give me small, specific tasks to accomplish at specific times and manage the overall plans for the projects himself... he wants to give me projects that I figure out the steps for, and their timing. Okay, fine. Great, actually. But then he, without realizing it, messes up my plans and interferes with steps. Then he doesn't understand why I'm not actually accomplishing much.
He seems to think I can constantly alter plans without any consequence. He doesn't seem to understand that it takes longer to accomplish
anything when he's sending me in a different direction every few days. He comes up with new projects (large projects) for me to do while I'm in the middle of another couple of large projects for him, as if he has no concept of the time and effort it will take to do them or how they'll mess up the sequence of events and timing of the other projects. He just casually says to do it as if it's the easiest and simplest thing in the world.
Sometimes I wonder how it's possible that he's a rational type because of this (it seems that if I were less thrown off by having my plans and timing changed things could run more smoothly?)... but when I read the ESFj/INTj duality description, it makes a bit more sense. The lazy ass INTj doesn't want to
do anything and therefore questions the ESFj's many projects and his inefficient expenditure of time and effort. :wink: Seriously though...
When an ESFj says "Let's do this," I say, "Okay, let's do it" and make plans on how to get it done.
When an ESFj says "Let's do this," an INTj says... "Do we
have to?"
Would an INTj like to expand on this (or contest it) and give me some pointers on how to work more effectively with an ESFj? I was with an INTj for like 4 years, but when I imagine dealing with the ESFj by modeling the INTj's behavior... I can't imagine how anything would ever get accomplished.
To be clear, he's great, overall. Very kind, hardworking, extremely bright, good at what he does... ect... I took the position with him
because I could tell that he wanted to accomplish things and make his company grow significantly, and this inefficient interaction is the only thing slowing it down. We could have accomplished a lot more in these two years if we had a better system of working together set up, or if we communicated better perhaps? Any suggestions? I remember UPD suggesting in the past that I have weekly meetings where goals and time tables are laid out clearly, but the ESFj is very busy... always running around doing something... so this may be a lot to ask, especially during the busy season. And I'm not sure it would change much anyways, to be honest.