As someone who has been in a very similar position very recently, I can at least say I sympathize. Asking questions--lots of them, some of them immensely simple--just so I can be absolutely sure there is no misunderstanding between myself and my coworkers, over time resulted in very bad work relationships. It's one of the things that ultimately convinced me to quit my Networking job (to be fair, the company was in a bad place and went under mere months later, so it was a good choice). What I've found, personally, is that it helps to always have an advocate everywhere else I go. Even one will do--one person who I really get along with, who I can communicate really well with, and who will treat me with respect in the presence of other people who might otherwise not. There's a lot to be said for peer pressure. People are only likely to treat you poorly if they think you're without allies and therefore defenseless.
But finding such a person, even one, is difficult, and it doesn't help with interviews. Having very little free time or space to yourself to self-help is even worse. I've been lucky in that my husband has been working while I get ready to go back to school, so I have time and space to collect myself. It doesn't sound like you have that kind of resource.
This is the problem with the idea of self-sufficiency; I'm not sure it's a real thing. We all need help and acknowledgement from each other in order to function optimally as social creatures, and if we get isolated, we start to spiritually rot (for lack of better terms).
Sometimes, when I don't feel I can ask questions without people getting annoyed with me, I write the questions down and look them up on Google when I have time. The Internet is a relatively poor teacher, but it can usually answer most simple questions. So I have to delay satisfaction for a while, but I do eventually get my answers. It doesn't help when I need the answers immediately, but in the cases where they can be deferred, it works.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-01-25 07:00 pm (UTC)But finding such a person, even one, is difficult, and it doesn't help with interviews. Having very little free time or space to yourself to self-help is even worse. I've been lucky in that my husband has been working while I get ready to go back to school, so I have time and space to collect myself. It doesn't sound like you have that kind of resource.
This is the problem with the idea of self-sufficiency; I'm not sure it's a real thing. We all need help and acknowledgement from each other in order to function optimally as social creatures, and if we get isolated, we start to spiritually rot (for lack of better terms).
Sometimes, when I don't feel I can ask questions without people getting annoyed with me, I write the questions down and look them up on Google when I have time. The Internet is a relatively poor teacher, but it can usually answer most simple questions. So I have to delay satisfaction for a while, but I do eventually get my answers. It doesn't help when I need the answers immediately, but in the cases where they can be deferred, it works.