“Must be a team player”

Sometimes when you apply for jobs, you see a job requirement “must be a team player”.

It’s occurred to me that I fail in this requirement. I am most definitely not a team player. I mean, I could be persuaded to work as part of a team by a capable leader. But by and large, I don’t play well with others.

I’m either overly competitive, or I simply go off on my own and do things my own way.

I generally don’t conform to the norm, in all areas of my life. I’m always out there to rock the boat, to experiment with new things, to try new ways of doing the same things.

Sometimes I wish I could fit in. It gets lonely, doing things differently. People notice after a while, and soon you stop getting invited to join them.

I can understand. I can and do make things less pleasant for others because of the way I am. But it does get lonely.

I can, however, work well as part of a pair. I can team up very well with someone who, preferably, complements my strengths.

I can go into a deep dive. I can be singularly focused and be very good at it. But I can’t multitask. I can’t do multiple things at once and be good at all of them. Heck, I can’t even functional nominally while trying to do multiple things at the same time. I just don’t work that way, and making me work that way stresses me out.