Bosszilla

The following statement is a palindrome of sorts, just that it is a statement and not a word.

"The nucleus is considered the boss of a cell".
The other way round, "Boss is considered the nucleus of the cell".
This is true in many respects, without the boss, the cell(or a business project) cannot function.
So a sensible and stable boss is what is the heart of every successful project.

But 90 out of 100 instances, the bosses that we get are insensitive, clueless about their team and grossly unreasonable.
These are what are defined in the urban dictionary as 'Bosszillas'.
A godzilla kind of boss.

It's important to understand that the boss is also an individual and hence his ablities are limited like any other mortal.
He is no superhero, so in times of distress, he would have to turn to few of his 'trusted beneficiaries'.

I have developed the following diagram which illustrates the various attributes of the boss and his team, the pros and cons of being in each spectrum.



The innermost part, the nucleus, does not need any description.
It's reserved for the boss!

Coterie :
This is what I earlier referred to as 'trusted benefciaries'.
These are the finite set of people who form the white protein layer, around the yolk.
They are super efficient, all of them. Bug busters, efficient machines who work tirelessly to deliver everything to machine level perfection.
On a scale of 100, some are 101, some are 90, but still the level of dependency that they create on a boss is totally irreplacable.
Pros :
1. Fabulous appraisals
2. Good recognition
3. You become a star at work

Cons :
1. You are overworked and overburdened.
2. Boss depends on you, so obviously you pay a price for it and that you do by sacrificing your personal life many times.
3. You get very less leaves.

EGOM :
This term caught my fancy.
This is a realtively new term which is widely used in the Indian democracy these days. It's the new 'in-word' in the corridors of power.
Whenever there is a specific 'high profile job to be done, the govt of India finds itself inept because the leaders are poor visionaries.
So the best person from the specific industry is picked up and made the head of the project. Such people are called : 'Empowered group of ministers', they are the real set of decision makers, the parliamentary minister merely signs the documents then.

Now in a project environment too, you would find many EGOMS, working behind the scenes, if the lower grade of the 'Coterie' works at 90% efficiency, you can find EGOMs delivering 90% efficiency very easily if not more.
But like the parliamentary scenario, they lack the political clout, to make it to the 'Coterie'.
It's like a situation where the boss cannot do without them(because they are the work horses and are more in number), but does not recognize them enough as well.

Pros :
1. Reasonably good appraisals.
2. You are not a star, but you are still looked upon as 'the few white collared people'
3. You get quite a bit of personal time in which you can do what you like.
4. You do not sacrifice your weekends.

Cons :
1. There always is a glass ceiling, which stops you from jumping to the 'Coterie'.
2. No matter, what you do, even when you perform better than a few coterie members, your contribution is forgotten pretty quickly.
3. You are sometimes frustrated with the happenings around.

The Waywards
These are the set of people, sometimes many in number, who come and go without impact.
The boss is not duly worried if they leave.
The mindset of the boss is pretty rigid about these people, so there would be more cons than pros being in this band.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" they say.
Bosses are not very different, multiply the agony by 2, if the boss is a woman!
The waywards are mostly the people at the 'bottom-of-the-pyramid' or people who have rubbed him the wrong way sometime or the other.

Pros :
None

Cons :
Too many to describe, and will include just about anything that can go wrong with your life.

If we equate, the office space with the game of snakes and ladders,
the ladders are always taken by the 'coterie' members.
the 'EGOMs' generally move step by step because of the glass ceiling, but get a ladder here and there, but they are far in between.
'The waywards' are alwars bitten by the snakes.

Either of these 4 bands, the one who calls the shots is the Bosszilla.
Love him, loathe him, you just can't ignore him.