I just got back from listening to my IEI friend talk about her various griefs for hours. I loved it. I really enjoy being the friend people know they can share their shit with. I love learning about them and their needs. I love being supportive for them. I love applying what they learn in my own life. AND THAT IS VERY GAMMA. It's in the wikisocion articles on gammas and how they prefer to talk about life.
I listened to my EII friend for an hour doing the same thing yesterday afternoon. 'I always feel better when I talk with you.'
I had a maybe 3 hours discussion on life and his relationships with my ESTJ friend in a messaging app LAST NIGHT.
I guess if you had a few gammas at your job that behaved the way yours did, you might think we're all business and abusive. We're not.
I don't relate to that at all ...that 'not listening' at all.
People have sought me ought for the last two decades to confide in me and get relief in sharing what they need to.
And at my job this summer, I am the one people come to when they don't go to HR, and I listen and commiserate, and then I talk with them about getting their needs met. And then I go do it.
And when I was teaching tech, the kids came to me when an aide was being coercive and denigrating to them because I paused more than the other teachers were and made special efforts to encourage them to speak up and get me if they couldn't handle something, including when I disagreed with their not correcting a teacher. I explained that it helps me when they share what they see and that the first person who could find a mistake I made and shared it with me during class would get to take the class toy home. And I disagreed that they needed to call me Ms. Nanashi's Lastname. The other teacher down the hall was SERIOUSLY upset by that. "They need to know who's the teacher."
'I'm almost six feet tall. They know who the teacher is.' I want them to understand how the ability really functions and to get that I have a first name, nanashi, and that I don't think I'm above them or their dictator.
I am more concerned with them developing self-advocacy skills, getting that I am human and thus fallible though good-intentioned and willing to grow and correct my behavior, knowing I'm their ally (not just their authoritarian leader), and they are co-creating the world we're in.
LIE are not Mr. Burns. We're shit at somethings, but we're VERY invested in peoples' lives and can be incredibly gregarious, loyal, supportive, and self-sacrificing. We don't only have characteristics of cruel, abusive leaders.
I have seen myself motivate and support people into excellence in their work or learning. AND A TON OF IT WAS VIA LISTENING TO THEM.
on LIE and EIE:
"These types like to find internally contradictory people, "dig" in them and create in them internal harmony and mood. They make for great artists, because they know how to and love to "become" one with an image of a man and play a role from his worldview. They are able to understand the essence of complex internal situations and make for potentially good analysts. "
and
"Search for internally contradictory situations, like to grasp their essence. Often realize themselves in art and writing, as this is also a good way to use the function. They are able to enter into various internal psychological states. A good speaker, as he is able to influence positively on the internal state of others. Their product is the "wholeness" of the internal state, and therefore they can find success in field of psychology, because it means that they are the healers of souls."
Aushra Augusta
AND
"as a suggestive (5th) function (LIE and LSE)
The individual longs for close personal relationships where personal and private experiences can be shared easily in an atmosphere of mutual trust, sustained by shared sentiments and ethical beliefs that make external expression of emotions unnecessary. The individual is inclined to take first steps"
"People of these types strive to find themselves in environment where they like everything and everyone. If they don't like something or someone - this is a reason to change their environment. Very receptive when he is told how someone else should be treated. When he does not know how to treat someone, feels uncomfortable - needs those who can explain this to him. Looks for a place where he would be allowed to communicate his assessments and attitudes. If this is allowed - the place seems welcoming to him. In this regard, he is very mistrustful and and often tries to rely on some objective data. Very suggestible by the valuations of those who are close to him, and through this he can be taken advantage of. Having found himself in some new place, if there is such a person there, he will try to listen to his/her evaluations and then adopt them as his own. The best place for him is where he has a circle of close and trusted friends. He likes situations where he knows or can accurately assess how everything should be treated and valuated: "this is white and that is black." If he lacks such clarity, he may feel uncomfortable. It is very painful for him to part with his groups of friends or team where he worked - memories will bring him to bouts of nostalgia. It is very hurtful for him to lose a friend, a comrade, a colleague, whom he has known for a long while. Same applies to his personal life. "
AND implying someone IS EVIL. When that's clearly corrupt information is enough to make a LIE dig in their heels and see you as someone on whom they cannot depend for counsel. Actions can be evil. People aren't. And when a delta person has worries, it's good to explain their concerns so that an LIE can implement safeguards to buffer the organization and people from those possibly impending threats, NOT to insinuate we should throw Beta person over the side into the ocean.
We're very active people. I've seen EIE and LIE shift mountains in a day. That words are easy to say does not mean they lack power. Thoughts and ideas contribute to most of the happenings in the world. And discrediting a person entirely and acting like they are evil does mean they can become endangered, and it's reasonable to protect someone from shit ideas like that.
crusades, stonings, scarlet letter, angry mobs, etc
and also undercutting them in meetings just from bitterness....turning a cold shoulder toward them to passive aggressively indicate what you aren't saying....trying to make them feel unwelcome and dangerous.....intervening to keep them from getting responsibilities they are capable of at work or a promotion they earned...there are a lot of ways ideas that someone IS BAD can mean a person is going to trouble them.
But the gamma described in the work scenario was simply distancing themselves from a delta who denigrated the Beta. That's not AGGRESSION.
And I know gammas are portrayed as cut-throat when we are comfortable with OFTEN non-harmful firmness on reasonable policies where other types are uncomfortable being firm about them. That we are seen as aggressive and cut-throat is a bad portrayal. Sure, any person of any type can be cruel and selfish. Doesn't mean gammas are especiallly so. The literature points to gamma being a quadra focused on giving for the greater good. People respond to and remember the negative more strongly, so of course, we are portrayed incorrectly as the ever cold 'bad guys.' But that's just not realistic.