Attitude… a small case study!

I would like to relate two conversations that I had with two senior engineers in my team over the past 5 days…

Firstly, about them: Both highly talented, hard working girls, good with communication and technical skills, about exactly the same age and same experience and similar backgrounds…

Here’s the scenario that both of them had been placed in over the past year…

For various reasons, we had to put them in quick succession on multiple projects, in multiple technologies, each involving varied team members….

I was doing my yearly review and here’s how each went:

Engineer 1: Started with a highly charged emotional tone… “I am being constantly moved from one technology to the other, I am not growing, I am losing my identity, I cannot focus, I am not enjoying it!!! I have been irregular because I was unwell and in spite of that I came although I took more than two times the number of permissible leaves… the company supported me because I am good, and I am not liable to the company’s decisions. I want to quit!” She cried and it ended in melodrama!!!

Engineer 2: Started with thanking me for being put on multiple projects and technologies that helped her expand her view to various business scenarios, various team members, various processes and implementation methodologies… was excited at the opportunity of being able to work on so many things that has now given her the ability to multitask, prioritize, understand business pressures and appreciate the role that seniors play more! She looks forward to the coming year with greater enthusiasm and hopes to take on bigger roles to help the company more.

Engineer 1 was drawing about 25% more salary till date, took way more leaves and did not complete a single project throughout the year; started bad mouthing the organization and we severed her employment.

Engineer 2 averaged 60 to 70 hours of work each week throughout the year and has become a core member of the engineering team and has committed to take on a big project to market completely and hopes to lead the entire program including its marketing and business aspects in the months to come….

What type of an attitude would you rather bear??!