There are some people that will figure out an answer but will still ask the question to confirm their reasoning was correct.
Yep, and I don’t have a problem with folks like that at all. In fact I tend to be that type. I think through an issue and do my own research, run my conclusion by my boss as briefly as possible to make sure I haven’t missed anything, then proceed. Those types of conversations take all of two minutes, as opposed to the twenty minute conversations I have to have with some of my employees who don’t bother to spend any time thinking things through at all. The ones that don’t think, well you have to start at the beginning with them so they understand why something is the way it is. And these are professionals in a science based industry, not 16 year old fast food workers.
I try to do the same before asking a question here on THR also, but so much of what we discuss is subjective, and I look back on some of my early threads and questions now and then, and just shake my head.
About a month ago I had an employee ask me how he should go about doing a small project. I started explaining and then realized he had done the last three projects of the exact same type. I said
“Wait a minute, didn’t you do the last one like this?”
“Oh, yeah.
“Go look at your own work!” I think he felt foolish, and he should.
I’m guessing this is the same type of person the OP interacted with.
I've had too many coworkss that come up with the absolutely wrong answer, and then happily go about creating a disaster
Me too. Lots of bosses who do the same thing. They don’t ask their staff and the decisions are garbage.
Well thought out and pointed questions are fine. Informed decisions are great.
Lazy thinkers with poor logic skills make more work for everyone else and collectively cost society billions. I work late 5 days a week in order to clean up lazy thinker's mistakes, while they go home at the end of their 8 hour day. At least I get compensated for it though.
Mistakes are fine too, so long as we learn from them. A substantial amount of what I’ve learned over the years comes from trial and error.