The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

‘Working life’ is identified as being synonymous with holding down a job along with the concomitant set of rules and regulations, good or bad. And since most of our adult life will be spent in the professional work-space, it is important that we get a knack of dealing with people we’ll meet there; early on in our professional journey. Even though I don’t have a vast experience working yet, but due to the diversity of working in both Private and Government Institutions, I have briefly tried to collect the learning’s from my journey.

Let us start with the Good. They are the ideal ones who actually believe in the holistic growth of everyone and believe in taking people along with them. They can be anyone; Project Managers, Directors, VPs, Colleagues or even our Cab-Mates, for them these titles don’t matter. They are the true leaders and when they talk, they talk like the company and not like employees. They don’t have the slightest ounce of jealousy, don’t micromanage and it is a pleasure to embrace their presence around us. They are the ones who know what they want from life and are in completely harmony. They value compassion and respect above skill-sets. Unfortunately, they are very few. If we find one of them, then we are plain lucky and we should make sure that they shouldn’t be merely our Facebook or LinkedIn connections but connections for life.

Next are the Bad ones. I don’t know how exactly to describe them but to put in a simple way; they are the insecure ones or the control freaks. Perhaps one reason why they behave in a particular way is because they have spent a considerable time in one company & now they are scared of change. They find short-cuts to stay and grow in the company. They may have strong subject matter expertise and it is a task to extract data from them because they don’t share knowledge. I believe they are our real teachers. They are the ones who give us lessons that stay with us for most part of our professional lives. However, while we should learn from them we should definitely vow NOT to become like them.

The last are the Ugly. Well, I’m sure this category needs no introduction and we all know who they are. Forgive me for my directness but they are the ones whose only business is to peep into other people’s life and do whatever it takes to bring them down. They are the perpetual whiners. They believe they are working for the company but in reality they are working for the pay-check that is credited into their bank accounts on the 1st of every month. It is nightmare to even talk to them for 5 minutes and if we get a reporting to someone who falls in this category, then God bless us. The only way I have learnt to deal with them is simply ignore them. They may do an irretrievable damage to our motivation at work, hence ignore them and keep moving forward towards your goal.

While my views expressed above may have some merits, they may also be far from the full picture. I think anyone reading this will be able to relate to it in some way or the other.