Habitat

Its me again, talking about my experiences in the corporate world through the metaphor of a jungle or nature if you like. Now i want to talk about habitat or the environment and management. Honestly i'm not quite sure how to talk about this, because I have never really been through multiple of work environment since i'm still young and inexperienced, but we started this so let's do this.

So everyone of us really wants to find the best kind of place where we can grow personally and professionally, but we all at some point got lost in the process or made ourselves believed that we are we are meant to be only to find ourselves searching for greener pastures. If you are in that kind of situation i have newsflash for you – THATS NORMAL! Why? That is our nature we will never stop till we find our habitat and when we do find it we thrive.

One of the things that I have learned in my short work experience is that people thrive in different environments and it's usually affected by their personal experiences and choices why they stay in a said environment. Don't get me wrong I haven't been able to experience all the environments that I will be talking about but it's going to be fun talking about them, think of this as a National Geographic but instead of being narrated by Sir David Attenborough it's narrated by me, Jared.

The first environment that I have experienced when I was a fresh grad was what I would call a PRAIRIES or the PLAINS. It's green lush and well it's everything and nothing a fresh grad would expect, but if you were a veteran, this must be one of the reasons why you left your previous organization, because as human beings we are always looking for greener pastures. But the Pasture is a type of environment where most of the competition is, as the name suggests it's a wide open field with nowhere to hide. You are utterly exposed. From afar it may look inviting because of it's lushness but the underlying factors of it's that stands on top a pile of S-H-I-T. Yes, shit. This realization came to me from my very own boss, he told me about it clearly, that to grow a lush green pasture you need to fertilize it, and that means you have to deal with a whole lot of shit. The pasture is an invitation, and the ideal environment for most. The Pasture offers more opportunities and a chance to get to prove your worth. Depending on your species you may thrive in this environment, which I will talk about in another entry. Usually this is the starting point of the jungle, or a patch of land where resources are abundant and free for the taking but with the risk of being cut down, unless it is manned or guarded by someone of higher power or authority. If you survive the pasture the allure of the jungle will call for you and if you heed it, you will find yourself moving away from your grazing and into a different world.

The succeeding environments is different from each other but there might be elements that are the same, but unlike the plains these are the places with higher competition, not only for superiority but also resources.

The Second environment is what I would call the DESERT. What is a desert in real life? In real life a desert is a place where there are little to no foliage, usually a place covered by sand. It's dry and barren and hot. Like HELL hot and in it lives some of the most venomous and toxic creatures in the world. In the workplace being in a desert I would say pertains to the management style of the bosses.When you are in a desert you and your coworkers are in constant heat from the management. Being assigned in a desert means that you need to be heat resistant if not fireproof, you must have the patience of buddha, be able to work with little to almost no resources at and a must drink a lot of water. The people that work in this tend to have short tempers and agitated by sudden changes and demands coming from above. But in this type of environment there are those that thrive, and do well. The people who do well in this type of environment are like the Tributes from District 1 and 2 from the Hunger Games. They work well under pressure, like they are fighting for their lives, and when they finish they are like the champions.

Deep within the Desert environment there is also what we call the OASIS. To be honest, I hate the oasis. Let us define the what is an oasis first, it is the lush patch of land in a Desert, bountiful, with a water source and life is thriving, and everyone wants to be there, because when you are in the Desert you crave for the basic necessities - tools you need to do what you need to do. Tools that only the Oasis can provide, but like a germaphobe the oasis never seems to be able to permeate the arid Desert. In the workplace the people who are in the Oasis are those who are those who can provide the necessities of the employees who are under heat, but for some reason they could not or would not. To be fair your bosses mean well in general not only for the company but also for you, but most of the time it is evident that when they cannot provide your are left to your own devices. Then those who are in the oasis are understandably reluctant on going out of their comfortable Oasis. The employees in the Oasis are well provided and have enough resources, but sometimes they get too comfortable in their places that they forget that there are those who are still in the desert and may need their help, sometimes you understand them, but sometime you just won't.

So we travelled to the hottest region maybe it's time to go the cold parts now. In my opinion and I never consider myself as an expert in anything there are a lot of things that can be considered when we talk about cold, like cold management, cold relationships, cold policies etc. Honestly the coldest environment I have been was when the AC was at 16 degrees celsius and it was raining outside making the office temperature so low that I was hoping to get a big blanket and sleep. But that kind of cold can easily be adjusted, crank up the AC or get a jacket, problem solved. But a cold management is a different story.

The places want to talk about are generally known as the TAIGA and the TUNDRA Disclaimer, I did a few weeks of research before writing this part because I am clueless about these biomes and do fear that I may make a mistake. Even if I am allowed a few creative licenses it's a bit weird if it's got too much holes. So let's move on.

Based on my research (Wikipedia, National geographic) a TAIGA is a woodland just below Arctic Circle, during the winter months they reach temperatures as low as Negative forty degrees (-40) Celsius with snow storms and winds that brings that can freeze almost anything. In my corporate jungle this is the time in which there are Conflicts in the workplace and no one seems to dare make the first move to fix the existing problem. The cold wind blows through the environment and may cause the halt or freezing of operations. Everything is at a standstill, and if not resolved this may cause the organization thousands if not millions in costs. But being in the Taiga means that the environment does go through the four seasons and winter turns to spring, so in the workplace if someone with enough sense will try to break the ice everything will move along and restoring the operation back to normal.

Next stop is the TUNDRA. Characterized by the ice covering everything the land called permafrost. This type of environment is the direct opposite of a Desert, the desert is the one filled with pressure and churns you till you break, the TUNDRA is a different story. The tundra the region located in the poles of planet earth are the places where it's a desert of snow and ice with, no plants grow in the permafrost and with so little rain all year round. In the office when management do not practice hands-on approach but has high expectations the employees will feel like the management is cold. Only churning out expectations with no clear-cut instructions or goals makes it impossible for most employees to figure out what to do. The management has non-contact relationship and doles out inadequate rewards or compensation for results. The people who survive through these environments are those who are good in puzzles or has expert in dealing with people who barely talk. They fight for survival everyday and willing to tame the harsh cold and all of the beasts that lived on and under the ice. They are expert hunters whose instincts had been sharpened by training and years of dealing with the same situations. Like the song they're words are, "The cold doesn't bother me anyway".

The last environment is for me the most complex and interesting one - the RAINFOREST. It is plentiful, it's luscious, it's paradise. You can see it with many successful organisations, the ones that provide the amazing benefits with chances for a better career through talent cultivation. They nurture their inhabitants by knowing and providing their basic needs at the same time challenging it's employees to improve themselves, a chance to sharpen their claws and fangs. To be able to adapt to the environment and to find their own niche. But like the garden of Eden it is home to snakes, venomous vipers that are always waiting for their chance to strike. These scaly scallywags are out for blood, to take advantage of the resources given, and to prey on those who are naive or the one who are too weak. The multitude of species that thrive in this near perfect environment gives us a glimpse of the Corporate food chain and how the flow continues to ensure the survival of the organisation.

The rainforest is an amazing environment that tries to support almost all things in it. In the workplace you might see this as the perfect workplace, not to cold and not to hot and provides for your every need. The environment is also defined by the management, if they are generous givers yet fair leaders it will help with the continuity of the prosperity of the environment. Because it provides it is easily abused by those who have been conquered by greed. People in your workplace usually wants more, they can be selfish and deplete a resource until it's all gone.