This blog is a note to self.
While working as a data analyst at Merylitycs, part of my job was assigning daily tasks to the team. Some tasks were fun, others were dull. So I did what I thought was fair — rotated them evenly. Everyone, including me, got their share of both. I thought I was being fair.
So, I was surprised when one of the negative comments in my 360° review said that I assigned work erratically, and that it frustrated the other analysts.
Erratically? I thought I was being fair.
Turns out, I forgot to communicate why I was assigning tasks the way I did. The team saw my decisions but never understood the reasoning behind them. I was being honest and fair — but since no one knew that, they thought I was erratic.
The lesson (which I still haven’t fully internalized, by the way): you need to communicate what you’re thinking and why you’re making certain decisions. Otherwise, it’s a recipe for confusion and frustration for everyone.
I tend to keep my thought process to myself — sometimes because it feels obvious, sometimes because it feels embarrassing. But silence creates distortion.
I need to fight my instinct to “keep my thinking to myself.”
I recently came across this in a Morgan Housel podcast:
“Honesty is the best policy” — not as a moral virtue or the “right thing to do,” but as the best policy in a pragmatic world. A framework, a “mental model,” that works better than any other policy.
The truth is: honesty only works when people can see it.
And that’s something I still need to learn.