Working in a Lala Company

A lala company is basically an enterprise which is run by a family or a family-like coterie. The coterie is a close-knit group of persons who are generally incompetent, unfair, non-transparent and unprofessional.

They indulge in dirty politics in office like manipulative foxes, discuss "strategy" in secret meetings like pugnacious crows, go for lunch like a pack of wolves and when any one of them is cornered, come together in a huddle like venomous serpents.

Working in a lala company is the worst kind of experience one can possibly go through in their career. There are no rules in a lala company. Whatever the main lala and his chamchas decide becomes the rule.

The main lala may project an image of being fair, professional and open-minded but is only comfortable with his chamchas around.

In the bigger meetings he may come across as someone who is very progressive but in private discussions (especially with the family-like coterie) the veil wears off and the wily fox beneath is so clearly visible that the phrase "abominable lala" sounds like a nice phrase.

The chamchas are characters in their own rights. They are like the four stooges who think the world runs due to them. They think the lala company, the main lala and they (the irritable chamchas) are the only ones who matter in this world.

They create a small hell-hole of a company, meet each other in secret meetings, form immature impressions about others owing to their own incompetence and immaturity, share unbaked opinions and thoughts about others with each other.

Working in a lala company would make you realize what being in hell is going to be like. You can sense inequality, arrogance, unfairness, non-transparency, professional immaturity, childish communications, disparaging remarks, and general lack of trust all around you.

The inner circle of coterie of chamchas is all that matters to the lala. If any outsider challenges the lala he is shocked. And obviously the coterie would never challenge him.

Some of the chamchas are real characters. They pass their responsibilities to the others. They shirk their ownership. They take others for granted.

Working in a lala company can be very energy draining. It can cause lot of negativity in the mind and is generally very humiliating.

So are you working in a lala company? If you said yes, welcome to the coterie-infested hell-hole. And all the best!

Remember, you are not in a professional workplace. And surviving the main lala and his chamchas is not easy at all.

Why Some Subordinates are a Pain in the Ass?

It is true that in some organizations the general culture is pathetically bad.

The main reason is that the company is essentially run by a coterie of bad-asses.

The top man is the root of the evil since his strategy is to thoughtfully ignore the immaturity and incompetence of the clowns that report into him.

The top man, is some sense, is the chief clown. He projects himself as progressive, passionate and professional but is just the opposite.

The person you are forced to report into is basically a clown whose only qualification is his blind loyalty to the chief clown. And of course, there are other clowns as well.

The clowns form a close-knit coterie of inner circle which holds back-door discussions and takes decisions which are neither fair nor transparent.

In such an organization the clowns are busy in creating troubles for those who are professionals and no do not belong to the old brigade of chief clown, clowns and the sub-clowns.

The whole situation is further complicated and convoluted by subordinates who are a pain in the ass.

The clowns promote and protect such subordinates.

So why does a subordinate become a pain in the ass?
  • The concerned subordinate has a hot-line reporting to one the clowns (the favorite clown) whom his supervisor is unfortunately forced to report into
  • The concerned subordinate is a workplace shirker
  • The concerned subordinate is a master of abusing "working from home"
  • The concerned subordinate is a like a bad apple in the team who spreads negativity
  • The concerned subordinate is not competent and tries hard to dump and push his work to others in the team
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown share the same bad attributes
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown are experts in writing long emails full of drama and utter nonsense
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown meet outside the office also
  • The concerned subordinate is an expert in playing the game of double-speak. He would tell something to the supervisor and something to the clown
  • The concerned subordinate is deeply engaged in playing office politics along with the clown
  • The concerned subordinate is highly manipulative (and in fact fit to be one of the clowns)
  • The concerned subordinate thinks he is bigger than the system
  • The concerned subordinate spends more effort in trying to show to others especially his favorite clown as to what he has done rather than actually working
  • The concerned subordinate gets unnecessarily worked up and agitated without understanding the context
  • The concerned subordinate is basically full of anxiety and always looking at things from a narrow-minded and constrained perspective 
  • The concerned subordinate will needlessly copy irrelevant people and especially the favorite clown in several emails

Working in a Coterie Driven, Small Sized but Wannabe Big Company

Working in a coterie-driven company can make you easily realize why professionalism is so important not only for organizational success but also for true employee engagement.

And if a coterie-driven company is a small sized but wannabe big company then you have had it!

In such companies, the top people form a close-knit coterie and make sure they maintain their inner circle status.

Simple things like budget for a department and for any activity that comes up during the course of operations in the year are not dealt with needed transparency.

Since the top man and his coterie are not professional to the required degree, routine decisions like approval for training require special treatment.

In addition, since the members of coterie are neither professionally competent nor operationally empowered they need to get the top man's approval even for seemingly simple things like training, seminars, etc.

And yes, if you are not part of the coterie, every penny spent needs to be accounted for.

In certain cases, where an approval is needed by the members of the coterie for something they do not taken ownership of (though they should), they keep on passing the buck and play behind-the-scene games.

The members of coterie work like a cohort with the sole aim of protecting their turfs and the fiefdom of the top man.

The reporting structure in such organizations is laughably inefficient at the best and maliciously unprofessional  at the worst.

The only aim of reporting structure is to maintain the hegemony of the top man and his coterie.

The other dangerous aspect of such organizations is the fact that the coterie is the inner circle whereas others are outsiders.

So if you are dealing with the coterie and the top man, beware. You must recognize you are in an unequal fight.

Competency has no place in such companies. The earlier and faster you realize and understand this, the better for your mental balance and professional journey.

The best thing to do is of course to move on, fast and without loosing any time.

And in case you have to tolerate your precarious situation for more time, you need to have loads of patience and stay clam and quiet.

Remember the following:

"Stay calm and quiet. You are passing through coterie-infested zone".

Good luck to you for moving on. And better luck till you have to stay put.

The Four Musketeers and Their Boss

This is about four musketeers and their boss. This is about the four musketeers who are running the show along with their boss.

The musketeers come together in case someone challenges any one of the musketeers or their boss for whom the four musketeers have absolute, blind loyalty.

Though the musketeers and the boss look different, they share a common trait - they possess toxic and malicious characteristics.

Musketeer 1 - He is there only to pull your leg. His only objective in life is to find out what you did not do right and then pounce on you with full vengeance.

Musketeer 2 - He is the epitome of how to survive despite complete lack of ownership. He is the silent schemer who would come across as very polite and polished but would be indulging in harmful tactics behind your back.

Musketeer 3 - He is the epitome of bad-ass behavior. He thinks highly of himself, indulges in manipulations, comes across with a sick "holier than thou" attitude and leaves no chance to pull you down.

Musketeer 4 - He is the king of non-professionalism and melodrama. He is expert in writing fuming and funny emails. He is also a true chameleon and master of multi-game. He will tell different things to different people and say that he has good relations with everyone.

Boss - He is the main culprit who promotes and nurtures and protects the musketeers. His main attribute is his expertise in working through the coterie of his pet dogs (the musketeers). He doesn't like criticisms.

Such a model also reinforces a bad culture where there are lot of back-channel discussions among the 4 Ms and the 1 B. The 4 Ms and the 1 B are like a small family of non-professional bad-asses.

The biggest problem with the 4 M and 1 B organizational structure is that it creates a comfort zone for the 4 Ms and the 1 B.

And also since it is based only on one factor - loyalty - this model leads to weak leadership. The 4 Ms and 1 B can perhaps be viewed as a synonym of weak leadership.

Why We Must Never Forget that Our Life is So Very Fragile and We Can Disappear from the World in Just a Second?

The sad reality of our life is that we keep on struggling, all through our life, till the very last day.

However, we must never forget  that our life is so very fragile and we can disappear from the world in just a second.

We can disappear from the face of earth in so many ways, at times in just a second:
  • We can suddenly meet with an accident
  • We can get murdered just like that
  • We can become terminally ill and wait for the last moment to arrive
  • We can die suddenly of some sickness or disease
  • And if nothing else, we will become old and die in any case
We struggle to earn money, to accumulate stuff, to gather experiences and to keep ourselves alive just one more day, one day at a time.

Of course, we do know, that the "one day at a time" will not work on the day we finally die. After we die there is nothing more left.

Each human being is no more than a "stuff" itself. It is like any other "stuff" that the human body needs to travel the journey from life till death.

The "stuff" needed is the food that we eat, the clothes we wear, the houses where we dwell and everything else we want to acquire to enjoy higher level of material comfort.

When we are dead, we cease to exist.

The human body that we used to call with a certain name, that used to look like a certain person and that used be "that somebody" in the social and economic order of how we as humans operate the world ceases to exist.

Death makes a certain human body to disappear into the world of nothingness. Those who are alive may create ways and means to remember us after we are dead but for us, after we are dead, all of that is utterly meaningless.

What's the point if people erect a monument in our memory after we are dead?

And dead we will be one day.

So it is important that we must never forget  that our life is so very fragile and we can disappear from the world in just a second.

And hence we should live our life as if today is our last day. On the last day there will be nothing like this way of living life!