Re: Q to both candidates: preventing burnout by other contributors
On 29/03/2017 20:19, Chris Lamb wrote:
> Furthermore, putting people and teams together in real life is also
> another unexplored avenue. Whilst this speaks somewhat to my previous
> commitments for more meetups, the angle I am taking here is not waiting
> for the next {Mini,}DebConf or team summit but rather putting the two
> parties in the same room specifically to solve a social problem.
I was also thinking this was a good idea. Unfortunately, some situations
do not permit to put the two parties in the same room, which makes things
more complicated to handle. In such cases, one can try to mediate but it
requires significant efforts, time, real mediation skills and careful
wording. You can try to be very careful, and fail because your thought
was not described using the right words. It becomes even more complicated
when the victim in front of you is not able to accept any kind of small
error because in their perception, it might mean compromising with the
offender.
Dealing with such cases is really difficult. Even managers can have a
hard time with some employees because some offenders just do not care
about formal reprimands or having no raise. This is a question the humanity
did not resolve yet and we are not all competent in this area (especially for
persons coming from the IT world where we find it easier to interact with
computers... and even talk with our friends through computers and on
messaging systems where we do not even see their facial expressions).
I am really genuinely proud and really impressed with people behind Debian
Account Managers and Anti-Harassment team. They have been able to deal
with difficult situations and find the right words everytime. I can only
send them *hugs* for dealing with all that and show them the support they
deserve. I think we are really lucky in Debian to have those people. Not
all projects (or even companies!) have the same.
--
Mehdi
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