As a young person I had a job at a computer repair shop. I might have been 19 years old. They did a 1 day working interview. I impressed them heavily with 10 repairs in the day, all of them solid and billable. They hired me. I was alarmed when they also hired a guy that blew up a customer's motherboard by plugging in the PSU cables incorrectly (This was the in the mid 90's).<p>It went downhill from there. I became the target of a lot of bullying and harassment from the alpha jackass, leader of the coked up jackasses that worked there, and eventually he gave me a degrading nickname that implied that everything I touched broke.<p>I was constantly stressed out, felt like the worst employee in the world (at that age I didn't know I was the victim at this point) and this self-fulfilling prophecy just made things worse. Suddenly I'd become bad at my job. I couldn't fix 5 computers a day, and they often came back with problems.<p>Was this issue <i>me</i>? No. the issue was a highly toxic workplace where I was berated for my successes ("Oh look, he fixed one, must be a F****n miracle") and expected to fail.<p>I'd have quit, but I needed the work. The manager, a lowlife cokehead and strip club aficionado, mercy fired me 2 months in. He saw the problem but didn't care to fix it. Of course, I was better off. They were a crooked shop to begin with and my reputation was at risk for having worked there even 2 months.<p>Many years later I am a well respected manager who <i>never</i> treats employees like this. I am well aware that if my employee is failing <i>me</i>, then in some way I am failing <i>them</i>. I work on the relationship with the employee as much as I work on the issue. I encourage their successes, help them work through any issues, and show confidence in them until they start showing confidence in themselves.<p>I can honestly say this approach has worked wonders, and I've seen huge HUGE turnarounds in employees who thought they could never make it. Now they're rock stars.