Actually, as an extension of the OP topic (at least in letter if not spirit), what does one do to go about developing Fe? That's to say, not an Fi user trying to mimic it, but an Fe user trying to grow into their appropriate maturity.
My organization just completed a Reduction in Force (RIF) last Tuesday. This is what I think I noticed between the Fe users (FJs and TPs) and Fi users (TJs and FPs) during this five to six month period of wondering if you would be one of the losing your job.
Bare with me, I swear I have a point. This is about Fe being aware of the social context, so I'm going to give a snapshot into something that is dripping in social awareness. All I can go by is who seemed sensitive to what and who was willing to speak about this process, how they felt about it and how they came to the conclusions they did. Everyone
regardless of how I've typed them were upset by the RIFs. What I'm referring to is how I noticed people responded and the commonalities I noticed between types. I work in a feeling-dominated environment with a close split between FPs and FJs.
There's a lot of factors involved in a RIF in a medium-sized organization. If this were a large company where a whole division or department would be cut I think it would've felt less intensely personal. Since we have around 200 employees and layoffs were completed in such a way that one or two people from every department were offered up to layoff, the whole process became one of political maneuvering to be a favored employee.
FJs seemed
externally the most sensitive, upset and worried. FJs verbalized what was going on with them which is Fe seeking external confirmation of internal feelings. There were many complaints of physical afflictions, i.e., not sleeping or eating/overeating, worrying, stomach problems, nervousness and anxiety.
Now I'm going to divide by SFJs and NFJs. SFJs more often voiced practical but very relevant concerns. Such and such just bought a house, just had a baby (they'll lose their health insurance), so and so is sick (health insurance again), why is this happening entering the holiday season, so and so's husband was laid off as well, how am I going to prepare my finances to cope with this, etc.
I haven't identified as many NFJs at my job, one INFJ, and two women I strongly suspect are ENFJs. What I noticed with them is the railing against the general principle of the whole thing. How were the decisions to lay people off made? How were people singled out? Was it based on favoritism? This process was not objective: I know such and such was protected by a higher up. How does leadership plan on dealing with the workplace morale? To be honest, NFJs seemed much more nihilistic in their appraisals of the situation and made statements such as the "emotional hemorrhaging" of the organization and stronger conclusive statements than SFJs.
Generally FJs seemed connected to the
who and
what a bit more.
FPs
to me seemed to be a bit slow on the workplace gossip regarding the RIFs. I've got to say, the gossip grapevine (I'm pretty sure that's a product of Fe) has been unnervingly accurate about who was getting laid off. One thing I noticed was that when the names of those who were RIFed were given, many of the FPs didn't know who the people were, compared to the FJs knowing who people were. My division director (an ENFP) was not at work on the day the RIFs occurred, wasn't here last year when they happened either, so now I wonder if she is so uncomfortable by the whole process that she just doesn't come in to work. She has not made any attempt to have a division meeting (most other division directors have already done this) to discuss what happened. My immediate supervisor, an INFP has not said anything to me regarding the RIFs. If I were dependent upon her to give me any information about the security of my job, I'd be in the dark.
IxFPs generally expressed reluctance to talk about the whole thing, although they definitely felt the tensions. During this period, I envied their ability to cocoon themselves, they seemed better able to block out the negative noise. This is a good and bad thing I think, because I wanted more reassurance from the FP leadership in my division, but it was not there. I don't know if it had anything to do with type or just general managerial skills. I also noticed a difference between NFPs and SFPs during this; SFPs seemed more willing to talk about how they felt, what they thought, and how the sitatuation was affecting them. I'm sorry to say but it seems to me that NFPs took a mental vacation.
Thinkers generally seemed more angry. This goes for female thinkers as well. Most of the thinkers that I associate with are ISTs so this is skewed. There was more proactive behavior with the thinkers, i.e. actively looking for a new job. One ENTJ manager (my girlcrush
) said she was fighting to keep everyone in her department. The one older ENTP man I know hasn't mentioned anything, but he's a higher up and I doubt he would be RIFed anyway. The two INTPs didn't seem to know anything.
The person I am most impressed with during this whole situation is an INTJ division director. I know quite a few people in his division and he let the people he knew were getting RIFed know during the summer. They left on their own terms about about two months ago. The only reason why I know anything about these people is I saw one of them crying when I was walking down the hallway and asked if she was OK and she told me.
I guess all this is probably a Fe spew, but it also may show how Fe works. I know all this because I'm generally hypersensitive to the atmosphere, almost detrimentally. I'm not saying this to brag or show how "exquisitely sensitive" I am. I feel that this has been more of a hindrance than a help, because I've let the stress of it all affect me. I've noticed that the people who were likely not to be affected by the RIFs had a different air about them than the little peons who would be affected and to me seemed unconcerned. I've learned a lot about who trustworthy people are and those who I should avoid. I've learned who the real leaders are at my organization and the ones who respect their employees enough to do things the right way. I noticed a lot of things but it's too much to write here.