Dancing with the stars...

At the workplace. All of them come to the place. Many talk. More send emails. Very few work. Really amazing. The rule of thumb in large offices is this: 20% of the folks at work always do 80% of the work. More intuitive way of putting it is: 20% work hard. And the remaining 80% hardly work. And it is this 80% which is more often than not star-struck. The question is why? And the answer is pretty simple. In today's world, visibility at workplace is more important than your work. Like it or not. This is a bitter truth. A person who contributes little but which gets noticed is more likely to make headway up the organization than one who contributes more but with little visibility. And yes, just to make it clear. Visibility does not mean contribution footprint in today's rat race. It plainly means staying in the radar of the management. Now, the question as to who gets elevated to stardom at a workplace?? More often than not, the lady or gentleman who contributes 80% to a job which in reality is 20% the complexity and priority of a core but less "visible" job. Stars at workplace. Their influence. Their importance. Their worth. And their very existence. All debatable. And yet a reality that is inescapable. Here is something more curious. When it comes to work distribution, you would naturally expect the so-called star to receive a larger share of the burden. But, real life situations hardly agree. In fact, a star will only do 20% of the overall task. And the philosophy usually at play is this: These folks by their very presence uplift the others to complete the remaining 80%. All this might seem laughable right away. But think about it. You will be surprised how much you can relate these numbers to your work environment....

At the workplace. Is it crucial to have stars? I dont know. May be. May be not. The answer lies in the definition of a star. I am not going to romanticize the notion of a star as one who works really hard and never gets his due. I visualize a star as one who inspires 80% of the workforce by doing 80% of the work. And the remaining 20% of the work is a learning curve for the rest so that they too can establish their mettle and become stars. Personally, I never did have any liking for stars. Nor do I have time and fascination for stardom. I would rather have 20% of the workforce as stars, real stars. Rather than 80% of the workforce as no good false stars. About my own workplace. I am yet to form a complete opinion. But the experience so far indicates that 80% of what I wrote today is accurate with regards to my own work environment. Ending with something to think about. How does a star feel when the stardom is gone???