It was 3 pm and the AC was in full swing. My eyelids were
heavier than they were a minute ago. I glanced at the monitor every once a
while to assure myself that this too shall pass. I tried to speak up in between
so that my lead thought I was paying enough attention (which I was clearly
not). My mind was full asleep and I could have fallen flat on my face any
moment. Suddenly she said, “I know you can do it. You know everything”. And I
lost all my sleep. The ‘Knowledge Transfer’ session was over and I was expected
to know ‘everything’. I looked at my colleagues and realized they were totally
excited about the new project. I opened my eyes and looked around. My workplace
suddenly seemed categorized:
1. The ‘You
know everything’ people – All bosses, leads, senior professionals fall
under this category. This category enjoys the freedom and frequent
opportunities to say ‘You know everything’ to all the people working with them.
The other sentences that they use is ‘You can do it.’, ‘Ask me if you have any
doubts’ etc. But when you actually have doubts they are too ‘busy’ to help you
out. They make you feel like a Superman before they give you a critical task.
People wear ‘Superman’ T-shirts but sometimes you feel like wearing a T-shirt
that says ‘I am not a Superman’. Additionally, they have all the authority to levy
additional responsibilities on you (can be personal too). But you have to be in
good books of this category because they have full control of your career.
2. The
Blessed – Some people are just blessed with whatever skills. A few ones are
always in demand. If you have knowledge you can show off. The first category
fights to hire people from this category. People from this category are super
blessed to be never out of work. They earn all the perks, accolades, love, and
compensatory offs (the most important). They can demand anything from the first
category and believe me, they get it. They can make the first category dance to
their tunes. They are not really worried about their appraisals and feedbacks
because they know they are wanted. Basically, they rule.
3. The Butterflies – There was a saying ‘Jack of all trades but Master of none’. Well, people
from this category are the Masters of all trades. The above saying does not
hold true for them. The people from this category are everywhere and they are
good at whatever. The guy can be an award-winning employee and win a modeling
contest too! These people are social butterflies and hence are omnipresent. They
know everyone and everyone knows them. They are demi-celebrities. You can
easily recognize people from this category because they can be seen wherever
you go.
4. The resources
– A chunk of the employees fall in this category. The people from this
category generally come to work before the working hours begin and work till
forever. They seldom take breaks and are always tensed. They easily fall prey
to all the ‘important tasks to be accomplished over the weekend’. They worship
work. ‘Fun’ is a far-fetched dream for them. They are the ‘nice people’ who
never complain. ‘The more the merrier’ is what they think about work. They adhere
to all the deadlines and they are the only ones who take clients seriously. The
people from category 1 need people from this category. This category secretly
wishes to be like category 3 and is envious of category 2.
