Throughout the winded course of my professional life I
immersed into several distinctively different corporate ecosystems. On the
surface there shouldn't have been much of a difference. Don’t we all have to go
for a job after all, to earn some money, to make our living? However, when digging
deeper, more arcane individual life concepts were revealed. This insight still
might not appear to be very surprising but rather in line with the experience
of many of us.
At first sight many of your cohabitants in the open space offices
don’t really draw much of your attention: Just uninteresting, average office
people with rather mundane, earthly desires for cars, holiday trips or detached
houses in some remote suburbs (and they're all made out of ticky tacky; and
they all look just the same).
But I should better have been prepared for surprise. On some
dull occasion, when forced into a travel companionship with one of these allegedly
unremarkable colleagues, perhaps while waiting for the bus to take us both to
a mandatory compliance seminar, I accepted my fate and started some small talk
to maintain an easy flowing conversation, meant to wrap the day into a gentle packing.
Then something unexpected happened: the ‘average colleague’ granted me some insight into his secret inner life, a rich world of personal interests, carefully
cultivated passions or private studies on side topics, which could well fill
the major subject.
What a contrast! During office hours they unresistingly accept
their fate, ducking away, completing their assigned tasks. During their free
time they switch the context completely, beaming themselves out of their
current space-time continuum to their preferred parallel universe. They are
studying old Egyptian hieroglyphs, are deeply involved in social care projects
or combine their several years’ vacations to traverse deserts or jungles by
foot or bicycle. How can they at the same time work in such a dumb job and
maintain such a rich inner life? Well, it’s not is spite but because of the
uninspiring day time job. Take it as compensation.
It might look like a strange passion, to dig such deeply
into the individuals’ very personal matters. But I didn't do it on purpose. It
just happened. When in my early years I once was on a consulting assignment for
a large chartered accountant firm at a huge Insurance corporation, my team mate
pointed me to an apparently strange phenomenon: “The employees here all have such a happy expression in their eyes. What
is so special on this environment? What is the real reason?”
Once aware of the situation they were easy to spot. The fast
dynamic body movements, the tall and slender appearance, the flickering glance,
the carefully dosed aggressiveness of their approach. They were mountain
climbers or marathon runners. Their career was on the fast track. Of course,
they were working extra hours – when worthwhile.
Carefully
they avoided the trap of becoming a domain matter expert. There were sufficient
sheep around, who were – in some cases – highly knowledgeable in their small
specialized niche. And those were happy to get involved and receive at least
some acknowledgement for their otherwise unnoticed efforts. No, wolves see
themselves as leaders. They excel in tactics although pretending to think
strategically. Decisions were happily taken, but from their specific career
centered opportunistic viewpoint. This approach of course did leave no room for
corporate or long-term considerations.
Wolves
were looking at sheep with disdain – however they needed them. Sheep lived in
fear of wolves or at least viewed them with incomprehension. But sheep in turn also
couldn't maintain their sheltered ecosystem without the wolves. They lived in
symbiosis.
And
if they did not die, they still live today - in banks, insurance companies and other lage corporations.
