My personal experience made me realize that the general notion can turn out to be incorrect.
During my stint with Thomson Reuters, I was part of a very vibrant and jovial team in the first 3 years.
The team leader was quite understanding and flexible about work.
In 2010, the tasks we were working on went through an automation process, and the team was split into several pieces.
Unfortunately, I and two of my teammates had to move to another department under a different boss.
The general opinion about the new Team leader
Before moving to the new department we had checked about the new boss with some of my colleagues.
As per their opinion, she was a terror and very stubborn with her teammates. She practiced micromanagement and everyone used to be scared of working under her.
Finally, the day came when we were part of the new department. We teammates were really worried about working under a stranger boss who was not people-friendly according to others.
Slowly days went by and we settled down with our work.
My experience of working under the new boss
1. She proved our expectations wrong in the initial days itself. I found the new Team leader to be very understanding and flexible about work.
2. Since our work tasks went through a revamp, there were a lot of client queries that had to be looked into. She gave us full freedom and there was no unnecessary intervention at all.
3. Since only 3 team members were there, work used to be quite hectic and the boss was generous about granting us leaves.
4. In the year-end performance evaluation, I got a really good rating and hike based on her feedback.
5. In short, this experience taught me that it’s too immature to judge a person based on what others say.
The most valuable lesson I learned from this experience is that unless and until you work under a person, you cannot judge their character.
Never be prejudiced as people may be nice in reality.
I hope sharing this experience will be a reality check for the fellow members of this community.