Scolding is for something done wrong (in terms of ethics).
Scolding is not for something done poorly.
If a worker has accomplished their job poorly,
They should be advised, not scolded.
When advising, one should always keep in mind the difference between our anger from violated ethics, and our frustrated emotion. If one could not separate the emotions and behave the same way in both situation, then he or she is a juvenile inside a grownup’s body.
Back in my days when I served in the Air Force, my first mentee worked so poorly when he came to our base. He did not know how to use a shovel (I thought that was instinctive), how to clean the dishes, the appropriate ratio of instant coffee powder and water, had mistakes on the daily headcount report everyday for the first month, and more.
One interesting thing though, was that he never made the same mistakes, only to make new ones. Since every mistake he made was a new one, I always corrected him and never even once have I scolded him or was angry at him. It was annoying of course, to correct all the tedious mistakes that an average person wouldn’t have made. But then I thought, ‘who is an average person?‘. Everyone went through a different life and I’m sure every one of us would have tried their best in each of our situation. So as long as he never made the same mistake I was never angry at him, which was exactly what happened.
After a few months of programming my mentee with case-by-case binary logic, he turned out to be one of the best workers in our base. Other departments envied our office for our workflow which was fast and complete. He thanked me later on for not being angry for once, but I said being angry at that situation was not right.
I believe scolding a person cuts down their spirit. I also believe that an enthusiasm is the most powerful driving force of an individual, which should not be broken by others. As an optimist and a fatalist I believe everyone are making their best decisions in their own shoes. So the solution to teaching and advising should never be scolding, but listening to why they’ve acted that way, and correcting it based on the advisor’s sophisticated reasons.
Who knows? Maybe the advisor was wrong.
Jaesung Yoo 