Now that is an interesting topic. And i can answer it. And i'll leave the color and font off this time.
I can use myself as an example, and it's not fun, because i know it's easy to laugh at. But basically, it's about psychology. And astrology. And economics. And governmental doctrine. But i'll keep it simple and only go about psychology.
When i started working at about 14-15, at a warehouse, i was very green. After about 6 months, i could do the basic stuff, handle regular customers and pick regular goods, write up a ticket and such. But every once in a while, we got some weird happenings that i screwed up.
The reason i screwed up, was twofold: A) At home there was complete chaos. I felt like i grew up in a difficult environment, where there was little safety and not much in the way of support. And B ) One of the coworkers was a complete psycho of an asshole. I know i've written this many times before, but it's true.
One example: At one time, he would suddenly go completely crazy, force me into the inner office and tape me to the chair. A customer came towards the door, and he practically pushed the customer out of the door before he could notice me. 30 minutes later he came back and laughed, and cut me loose.
He bullied me all the time, saying super nasty things, making me nervous. He would also get physical and wrestle with me even though i told him many times i do not want to mess around like this.
When you live and work with difficult circumstances, you will not develop the confidence to deal with more complex situations. You may occasionally deal with certain complex situations, but you will not feel real confident doing it. You will not truly develop into it.
Same thing happened with my first real job as a masoner, which is the real point here. He was a psycho too, even worse than the first job i had. First year or so went okay-ish. He didn't talk too much, and was so-so, i could get along with him. Second year apprenticeship, he started getting crazier. Saying real nasty things, picking on details that i know doesn't matter (i've seen it later), and chewing me out for 15 minutes because i was 2 minutes late ONE single day in a year.
After the apprenticeship (which i passed with bonus remarks), and he increased my salary to minimum working wage (about 13$ an hour then, 2005 or so), he started getting even crazier. It was just him and me as well, meaning i had little place to turn. Also remembering, at home, there was chaos, so i had noone to turn to for support.
Now, when working in such conditions, yes, you get trained and you can do regular work quite well. I did do most of my work well. And i conducted myself well in front of people.
But there were signs that i was struggling. Sometimes i would mess up simple jobs, because i was so tired and frazzled mentally. I started getting panic attacks, didn't know it then, but super stabbing left side chest pain, requiring me to stop working for 5-10 minutes and just breathe slowly. Sometimes the pain would reside the entire rest of the day.
I will not lie either, of course i was not as fast as he was - i would not hesitate to say, he was probably one of Norway's best masoners. He was like an elite athlete. And props to him, he did the work for 5 regular workers. He had built his own brick house and was debt free by the age of 26, or so i heard.
During the 4 years i worked with him, i can remember him complimenting my work 2 times. About 5 days i remember going well, where he was nice and cooperating in manner.
Here comes the real point: After i quit there, i went 3-4 months before searching a new masoning job. This time, for a small-mid sized company with about 6-7 regular workers. When i started there, i was quite broken, a bit out of shape, and not really ready to work full time. But i pushed myself hard and wanted to make it work. I could do standard jobs, but was regularly tired.
But to the point of being an "idiot"...
(Continue in 15 minutes)