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The Languages of "The Office"
Venkat Rao has followed up his analysis of office dynamics as reflected in The Office, which we discussed last month, with one titled Posturetalk, Powertalk, Babytalk and Gametalk. The Office is running a little thin of meaty examples to make his points in delineating the ways of PowerTalk — the language of the Sociopaths — so Rao reaches out to Goodfellas, Wall Street, The Boiler Room, and Making Jack Falcone. The entire analysis illuminates and is illuminated by a diagram of the disparate languages that Sociopaths, the Clueless, and Losers speak to each other and among themselves.
Look, I don't really care which one is better, but one is certainly more relevant. And that's the one that is currently on the air and has produced seven times more episodes.
I too once thought as you do. Then I met WAY more people than I ever wanted to. These sterotypes *DO* exist. They even strive to live up to the expectation of the sterotype. They are actually proud of the 'highs' and 'lows' of each one. They embrace it.
Are they totaly 1 dimensional? No. But they do not stray far from it. I can think of at least 5 people I have met (out of hundreds) that exhibit 1 dimensional behavior.
They do exist. Some have learned to hide it as they know what they do is somehow 'wrong'. Most people are a bit more well rounded though.
Also what you see on tv/movies is usually the exaggerated version. Why? Because it gives the show a focus.
The thing is, there really IS a whole lot of stuff to human interactions. Not quite as absurd as portrayed by that bit of Dune, but it can be psychotically nuanced, especially in situations where people have (internal) goals that are often in conflict (i.e. "tell your boss to fuck off" vs. "I need to keep this job" vs. "I don't want to be hassled" vs. "I don't want to be a doormat" vs. "I don't want my co-workers to think I'm unstable/unreliable" vs. "I don't want them to think I'm a pushover, either" etc.)
Most of the time, these levels don't matter much - it isn't like we're diplomats handling intricate protocol, the proper execution & understanding of which keeps the fate of nations in the balance. If you fail to ask a sighing, moping acquaintance what "nothing" means, the worst that will happen is your sighing, moping acquaintance will mope off to someone else to fish for sympathy, you know?
In the article, it felt like he was using extreme exemplars to really highlight the ideas he was talking about. It's often easier to use really SUPER over the top examples than it is to use more subtle ones, when talking about interactions.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
I'm not so sure. For one, I'm probably reading this slightly differently because the most I've watched The Office is during previews of reruns on an off channel interjected into Simpson's shows, so the character names mean nothing to me.
My career so far fits his stereotypical loser: due to my autism, I'm unable to make the low-work, high value deals of the sociopaths. Due to my idiot-savancy, I'm too smart to do any more than the minimum necessary. So I'm certainly usually in "wait out the clock mode" except for the few times a week somebody brings me an interesting problem and I jump into clueless mode enough for them to keep me around. (usually- doesn't always work and I've been both first and last laid off in downturns).
Despite my brilliant ideas, I do speak in something very like his Gamespeak, in that I view economics as a problem in Game theory. Due to that, I seem to run into mental blocks talking to sociopaths; the biggest two are their belief that *hard work=success* vs my belief in luck, combined with their belief in infinite resources available vs my belief in a finite world bordered such to create a zero sum game.
Due to that, we're talking different languages so much that the black line on this guy's diagram represents an utter lack of communication.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Mod parent up. The UK version is a real observation of life, much like The Royle Family, and its accuracy is what makes those shows great.
Someone once said to me: "Steve Carell tries to be funny. Ricky Gervais acts like a guy trying to be funny".
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2nd response: the reason there's nothing you can do about it.
The skills it takes to be a sociopath, be clueless, be a loser (and I think the original author must be a sociopath for choosing these labels) in the workplace are so mutually exclusive that one can't possibly be good at all three.
The sociopath is the ultimate salesman- his aim is to get the most reward for the least effort. I disagree with the author that he's the guy making the organization work despite itself- he's more a parasite on everybody else's work. But like all good parasites, he's always looking for an opportunity.
The clueless is the most honorable person in the office- they'll give you the shirt off their back, and they're on 100% of the time. Too bad they're usually on a task set by a sociopath or worse yet, doing something they don't understand.
The loser is the guy who can't make a good deal to save his life, and he knows it. Because of that, he does the minimum necessary- but he does do the necessary. He's the guy with technical skills who keeps your computer running, the guy with plumbing skills who keeps the water flowing in the bathroom. If he was paid what he was truly worth to the company, there would be no profit left for the shareholders, so they hire sociopaths instead to make sure he isn't paid too much.
Yes, all three of these are aspects of everybody's personality- but the skills to maintain them in the workforce are vastly different. So different that the further away you get from college, the more you'll be pigeonholed by others into one of these three categories. And there's not a damned thing you can do about it, because your talents are what they are and you can't change them.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Not meant to be a dig at the military- if anything, I have great respect for those willing to go above and beyond the "bare necessity" that I do.
In fact, I'd say that the country *owes* a full retirement to anybody who has ever been in combat- that "little bit of money off the GI Bill" is an example of the sociopaths politicians disrespecting the value of your service. The reason this stereotype calls you clueless is because you don't realize just how little they gave you in return for you risking your life.
But they're definitely an example of the "clueless"- because that's what the clueless do; risk their lives in return for a "little bit of money off the GI Bill".
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.