In my experience, assertiveness in of itself isn't a virtue, but knowing specifically who you can be assertive with. For instance, some random middle manager that is making things up about a problem they want you to deal with but sound like they're doing their job. In reality looks like a complete moron on your teams end and don't even understand what they're talking about. Also, the obligatory cc everyone involved cya tactic.
These people you don't want to be assertive to. You want to milk them, play dumb, and make them feel like they're always right? You know why? These are the ego driven "mommy and daddy never told me I was wrong" types that will rat you out with every fiber of their being because they think they're entitled it. It's best you make them think you are so incompetent that they don't want to work with you in general. The kicker is, you need to have many of your team members and managers on your side vouch for you. That way when they tattle on you, you've got a solid defense that will fly back in their face to stfu and deal with it.
It's pretty disingenuous and sociopathic, but in order to not get walked all over, sometimes you gotta humble yourself to save yourself some stress. Not like a company is gonna fire you cause some Karen doesn't understand the complexity of some programming thing but demands you solve the technical problem asap.
These people you don't want to be assertive to. You want to milk them, play dumb, and make them feel like they're always right? You know why? These are the ego driven "mommy and daddy never told me I was wrong" types that will rat you out with every fiber of their being because they think they're entitled it. It's best you make them think you are so incompetent that they don't want to work with you in general. The kicker is, you need to have many of your team members and managers on your side vouch for you. That way when they tattle on you, you've got a solid defense that will fly back in their face to stfu and deal with it.
It's pretty disingenuous and sociopathic, but in order to not get walked all over, sometimes you gotta humble yourself to save yourself some stress. Not like a company is gonna fire you cause some Karen doesn't understand the complexity of some programming thing but demands you solve the technical problem asap.