Thoughts: Hannah's Blog

Spending close to a decade in the Corporate world, I get to see some patterns emerge in the kind of people that we work with. Haven’t been through much but just wanted to list down some list of characters that I have encountered till date. It brought me a chuckle to think back and categorise people into different criteria, sharing with the hope that it will bring out a chuckle in you too.

The Silent Worker –  He will be there in every team. Workaholic, doesn’t talk much with others instead let their work do the talking, prefers to keep to themselves, avoid fun and team events as much as possible. It would seem that their main goal in life is to work, but at home they maybe a whole different person altogether!

The Guru/Go-To person – This category sort of overlaps with the previous one but in addition, these are the guys who know everything and they don’t shy away from sharing information. For any sort of question you have, they will have an answer. Easily approachable. Clearly an expert in their area of work and everyone goes to them for all sort of guidance and issue resolution.

The Star Performer – The guy who gets awards all the time. He will be the one working on all high visibility projects, the big shot with all good connections with the higher up. The preferred person for any challenging new opportunity. Most of the time, the manager’s pet.

Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank. – Proverbs 22:29 NIV

The laid-back guy – The cool guy! Doesn’t bother about being in the limelight or not, whether work is there or not, whether the deadline is near or not. He is always chill. Probably the first one to call others for coffee/lunch break.

The Non-stop talker – The one who is capable of talking so much that a 5 min coffee breaks extends to half an hour. Can talk on any random topic. Can talk for any number of hours. Might have the bad habit of asking too many questions in the meetings and causing the meeting to be delayed. Especially those meetings that are nearer to lunch or evening closing time. He must’ve been the guy who asked doubts/questions during school.

The Emailer – The one who writes long emails. For anything and everything there will be an email and what could have been said in a few lines would run into paragraphs. Constantly does “reply-all”, keeps adding new people into discussion, keeps changing subject line in mails. To them, sending mails are indication that they are working hard, they even go to the extent of sending mails in the middle of the night. Don’t confuse them with

The Midnight Worker- Who prefers to be a night owl and work late at night or maybe to overlap with the US counterparts. They can never get up early in the morning and attend meetings, no they prefer nights wherein no one disturbs them. They cannot imagine sleeping before 2am and waking up before 10am.

The Status-updater – This is usually someone who is a bit higher up and have some set of people working under them. All they like to do is to get the status of what each of them are doing, compile them and share it across. Most of their day goes in meetings because of the kind of role they may be into. Moving on to a different category:

He who oppresses or exploits the poor to get more for himself Or who gives to the rich [to gain influence and favor], will only come to poverty. – PROVERBS 22:16 AMP

The butter-er – The one who keeps praising others with the intent of gaining something from them. They usually do it to their higher ups. They might talk so well in front of your face but they might stab you behind your back

The Credit Stealer – Who takes all the credit for what others have done. If there are any issues and something goes wrong then it is your fault, you will be blamed but if something goes well, then all the credit goes to them. Moving on to the managers

The Micro Manager – The one who always hounds you for status, don’t give you any rest until what they ask of you is done. Who wants to know your every move, needs to know daily status, weekly status, task list, ETA, plan for the future, roadmap and what not. The opposite of this is someone who doesn’t care what work you do or don’t do, unless your work has high visibility and if you don’t do it, it will land them in soup, only then do they come to you.

The Politician – The one who has higher powers, maybe above the manager. They get to choose who gets what and who needs to be eliminated. They have their own agenda and work at it with full rigour.

 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:12‭-‬13 NIV