Team Player

This is the time of year when upper management takes a look at the year ahead and decides to makes some changes. This usually means that it's time to cull the herd. 
It's not easy for them- or maybe it is- but it has to be done, in their estimation, to move the business forward in the direction that they want it to go. There's no room for pity and so the cuts are made and the affected players leave the stage. 
 I hate to see this sort of thing happen but I've seen it many times. In a place I once worked, there was always a question whether or not I would survive the annual round of cuts, but I somehow did. Others did not. I heard about what happened to them, how their lives after working at the company were fairing, but not for long. They disappeared, blended back into the workforce in some other way. 
      So I've been there. I have experienced the dread, many times. 
  There is a lack of trust that gets developed when you witness this sort of thing firsthand. Despite what you think are your best efforts, somebody higher up might think differently and there's no negotiating once they've made their decision. It's clean out your desk, you've got fifteen minutes, and then 'off the property' you go. It's quite humiliating, I imagine, to be walked out the door, blindsided, with a box of your things in your hands. 
Or to have to give up the company car you've been tooling around in and be chauffeured home. 
Those that remain are nervous, on their best behavior, and are exemplary team players- for a while- 'till the old acrimony and infighting resurfaces. But that's healthier than pretending that they all like each other and are getting along famously. 

We rock

rawpixel- Unsplash.com

    Having witnessed this over and over, methinks there must be a better way. Rather than things coming to a head, the result of the affected ones' making poor choices, being a wrong fit, becoming overwhelmed, being abrasive, and all the rest, what would it be like to work on real team? One that is functional, driven, capable, amazing? These exist. What makes those ones work and the other teams fail? What is their secret, their method of interacting? How do they address issues? Surely they could give the many struggling teams pointers. 
I know that there are tons of management books out there that talk about this but I don't want book learning, I've had enough of that. I want to get this right right off the bat right now. In order to grow my vision, I need to get on the right team. How is this going to be made manifest? Mission statement? Cash flow? Serendipity? Synchronicity? Right timing? All of the above?

It's hard to Make It Happen solo. With the right team.......
....the sky is the limit.

Cure All

       I have discovered, to my delight and dismay, that there is a substance in the world with amazing magical properties. This substance isn't found everywhere, only in certain places. With it you wield the greatest power. Without it you are as nothing. 
      Those given this power are ordinary mortals, just like you, who seem to be just like you, but once they have this substance in their possession they are changed by it. Nothing is ever enough for them once they have it, and nary will they give up a dram of it to those in need. Beyond all comprehension they act as despots, rulers without mercy, employing their new-found power to satisfy every desire it can possibly fulfill. 
      Those without this magical substance are ones bereft, shivering in dark places, relegated to dank environs, and looked upon with pity. To these afflicted the rest of the world is mainly unaware (and thus unable) to come to their aid. The local governors, those who are aware and in position to render aid, gaze with unflinching eye upon the distress of the afflicted for the governors only employ this magical substance to achieve their objectives. They do not themselves possess it, but give it to others, bestow it upon them, as reward. These boons, granted, are highly prized. The governor's blessing "Do what thou will with it!" is then given the fortunate whilst those lacking the substance are treated by the same governing forces with a disdain bordering on villainous and unchristrian. How can such a thing be?

The churlish look you get when you ask a favor

Rod Long- Unsplash.com

 "Is it not unfair that ones should have so much, and others so little?!” beseech the greatly displeased. “After all, are not people equal in the eyes of God?".
      "No!" say they, the possessors of the alchemical elixir. "'Tis fair that we have a greater quantity, for we are special! Different. Above and beyond the rest. No one can save you". 
      "But you can!” plead the lesser-than. "You, who have this astonishing potion, can show us mercy!"
"Nay!" say they, and the door slams shut. 
  Decades of this unfair and unethical treatment can pass, the powerful growing ever the more, the wretched slowly accruing, but never will they be able to match the power of those above them, who lord over them still (and undoubtedly will) until the bitter end. 
  No misery is greater than this, no offense more grievous, no chance at respite more hopeless, no cruelty more pronounced. 
  Those that have the fairy dust would argue that it is not so, things are not as bad as they seem. They downplay the impoverished one's suffering and ofttimes jest about it, telling them that they once knew of the astounding bleakness they're experiencing, the lack, the lesser chance at life, and survived it. 
    "But (if you ever did) that was so long ago!" howl the afflicted. "You, who claim to understand suffering, bring to us ever the more of it! We are not blind to your smirking at our travail, passing us by with thinly-veiled aversion, treating us with condescending air, and overall despising our very presence as if we were lepers. You once had no Golden Ticket! You once knew of pain! How can you be so heartless, so desensitized, so monstrous? So... ....inhumane?!”
    "We hear you not. Go away!”
    And again, the door slams. 
    Muttering, the disenfranchised shuffle away, only to dream, to scheme, to plot, to hope, to wonder when, or if ever, enough of the wondrous, strategic, and fabulously potent resource that the exalted have will come their way. Glorious, it’ll be, that day when they’ll see bright daylight again! On that day where they'll walk proud amongst their fellow men, heads held high and with confident hearty laughter, be enjoying life again!
  But alas, alas! 'Tis not yet!

Another night shift looms. Another night to only fantasize-

       -about having SENIORITY.