[WikiEN-l] Admin / experienced user flameout - how do we talk people down off the ledge?

[Fred Bauder]

>
> The other side of that coin is that when there are systemic problems that
> necessarily reduce in stress or even abusive treatment of administrators,
> you ought to be identifying and correcting that. Right now, you have
> exactly
> such a situation. Working toward identifying and correcting whatever
> cultural aspects of Wikipedia community compound rather than relieve the
> stress and suffering caused to administrators doing their jobs is an
> important priority not to be "crowded out" by the thinking that we need
> to
> learn to deal with oppressive bureaucracy or a culture of mob justice.
>
> With that in mind, there is a diplomatic pitfall to the approach you
> suggest. In same cases, focusing on helping administrators learn to "cope
> with the pressure" inherent to the jobs they've volunteered to do is
> going
> to come off patronizing. I certainly heard it that way when people made
> this
> kind of suggestion in real-time, because it was another example of
> someone
> telling me what *I* needed to be doing differently. I didn't feel like
> the
> problem was that I needed to learn to accept that I was being treated
> badly;
> it may well have been better for my peace of mind if I had, but that is
> not
> a solution that is going to help the project.
>
> So from a strategic perspective (retaining human resources) it's
> perilous,
> but also it might lead you to develop blind spots to real and solvable
> problems. You don't want to get into a situation where any time a problem
> comes up you recall that "Stressful situations are inevitable, we need to
> [take a break and cool down / come back later / apply whatever other
> therapeutic technique we've prescribed]" because then you'll not do what
> you
> need to do to fix a serious cultural problem that necessarily gives rise
> to
> administrator "flame out".
>
> My skin was already plenty thick. A lot of the people who have burned out
> or
> resigned as a result of this were experienced editors who knew what it
> was
> like to be under pressure for making a decision someone didn't like. You
> can't do everything right, but you can recognize problems and take steps
> toward addressing them. Helping people learn to cope with stress may be
> one
> prong of your attack, but it can't be the only one -- not here.
>
> - causa sui
>

Yes, we need to address the problems, not blame the victims and help them
cope with nightmares.

Fred