Which animal are you in the office jungle?

A new book demystifies office politics and corporate life with the help of nine political colleagues you are up against

Seema Raghunath

At the workplace, you are where you are because of merit. Your skills are a matter of envy. Your ethics are unquestionable. Your colleagues feel comfortable around you, and your only strategy is doing your best. In a nutshell, you are doing everything right — if it were an ideal world. But you see others, far less competent than you, being promoted. Any twisted conduct in office leaves you flummoxed because you can never anticipate such moves. You may steer clear of politics, but it never leaves you alone.

The Corporate Jungle (HarperCollins) by Seema Raghunath, is a guide to understanding co-workers and their strategies. 'Organisational political savvy does not mean playing politics — it means the ability to see things beyond face value and be able to comprehend how to defend/protect oneself and one's turf,' explains the book, which Raghunath, a leadership coach and professional in strategic HR and organisation development, calls an outcome of a workplace journal she maintained for over 15 years.

"Influencing skills, finding one's alignment, and collaboration are common terms that reflect the positive side of office politics. But its negative facets are often ruled out which does not help anyone," says Raghunath.

The book discusses lip service, secretive cliques, sustained attacks on reputation, and other workplace strategies. It also classifies political co-workers in nine categories, using animals as metaphors. It acknowledges the complexity of human behaviour, and that a person may be a blend of two or more categories. Are you trying to keep up with a jaguar, or is a suckerfish clinging on to you? Find out.

The Apes
Ambitious and quick learners, they find a muse in the workplace and ape them to eventually become them. For this, they get temporarily subservient, but soon, they start behaving as equals, and present their muse's ideas as their own. But because they act like someone else, they get exposed eventually.

The Jaguars
They are agile, aggressive natural leaders with superior intelligence, and they know it. They are charismatic, and eloquent to a fault. It is easy to feel baffled working with them, and you often get left behind. They are egoistic and vengeful, and can get highly political to get things done. But they value intelligence, and working with a jag, as the author calls them, can bring out the best in you.

The Snowys
Imbued with dog-like qualities, they represent faithfulness, blind trust and sacrifice. In exchange for this, they ask for career protection. Less capable than an average employee, they make up for it by their willingness to please, doing favours and acting as free informers. Much of their career growth has to do with their smooth-talking ability. They never lead, in fact, they take pride in being followers.

The Lions
These self-directed and energetic individuals are much like jaguars, minus all the politics. They are highly capable and fearless, seldom think about consequences, and see things as right and wrong. Their principles afford them arrogance. Unless the workplace is run by a lion, they tend to get shortchanged. Stepping out of the corporate set-up to do something on their own that comes with high social responsibility is common among lions.

The Cats
In their eyes, they are nothing less than their bigger cousins, and pretend to be lions. They talk too much, tend to over intellectualise everything, complain a lot, and as a result, annoy others easily. They are capable of ingenious thoughts, but can never become lions because of their inability to accept a better idea or any opposition willingly.

The Grizzly Bears
The most unpredictable office creatures, they can be nice one moment, and seethe with anger the next. They are exceptionally intelligent, which they feel can let them get away with arrogance and low conformity to rules. They get into verbal duels often. Attrition is high, where bears are bosses.

The Chameleons
True to their name, they are fickle, and have no reservations about shifting camps. They are highly contradictory and unpredictable. The only thing constant with them is their desire to improve their own position. They are the weakest links in a team, and handling one can be tiring business.

The Morphs
They form the majority at the workplace. Innately apolitical, they know they are not the movers and shakers of the organisation. Work-
focused and harmless, they could show shades of other animal types sporadically. Victims to others' strategies, they discuss politics passionately after they have been hit by a blow.

The Suckerfish
Weakest in the order of organisational creatures, they grow because they consistently attach themselves to the big fish along the way. Unlike Snowys, who are faithful, they are parasitic in nature, and enjoy the pseudo sense of power they get by hanging around with the right people. They allow people with no skills to lead to cover up for their lack of skills. Low on ethics, they are great networkers.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!