civil engineering. i'm a construction engineer. the eng dept isn't, let's say, influential in my organisation. the sales people are. yet sometimes, you have to tell sales people that there is no budget for what they want, or that it is technically unfeasible, or that the timing is impossible, or that the process is different from what they want, and yielding to them would cause problems for everyone else down the road.

makes you unpopular. it makes you right, but unpopular. so i found myself in the paradoxical situation where my department, including my supervisor, was beginning to rely on me for opinions, decisions, courage and as a 'guardian', but my company doesn't think i'm good enough to pass probation. because i have no social skills. this is deduced from the fact that i piss off sales (although IT, procurement, and other uninfluential departments rather like me, or at least don't dislike me), the fact that i rarely smile in the elevator, like read magazines alone during lunch and don't say hi to people i apparently should have said hi to. so basically, even though i can work with a dozen suppliers, contractors, 2 dozen engineers, consultants etc, because two or three sales people disagree with me, i have no social skills. bloody extroverts. and this is when other people on probation still don't show nearly equal grasp for their work, and other people's work, as i did.

the only thing that saved me was the fact that my supervisor and my boss (both the former one and the present one) used their social skills to negotiate an extended probation for me, in order for them to report to HR what i've been doing all along for the first year anyway. and then defended me when i'm right, against my detractors. they're great people. you don't find people like that often.

the problem with engineers is that we don't advertise our own nearly enough. leaves you open to character assassination by others.

well, anyway, now i've learned the hard way to watch my back at work.

actually, if they had brought up social skills by observing that i have trouble generating rapport with local authorities, etc. i would have taken them seriously, as that would have been a valid observation, and really is my area of weakness. but still, that can be worked on, and better than having so poor a grasp of budget and scheduling that you end up costing the company lots of money for not doing things first time right. but hey, if the company wants to shell out lots of money in losses for a guy who smiles in the elevator a lot, it's their money, right?