Ray Of Sunshine In The Ivory Tower

Every company has it's own culture: some are much more "people" focused, others are more focused on innovation and vision, but whatever the corporate culture evidently people chose to work for a specific company based on how they feel that they will fit in. Even as a graduate entering the job market for the first time in your life, you wouldn't necessarily chose to work for an arse-hole company even if they paid you lots of money (ok, there are some who will work for the big $$$, but those are the ones who tend to pass away early, often under violent circumstances.)

It has now been nearly 2 and a 1/2 weeks since I started at my new company, and I have now started to get a good idea about internal politics, and the "true" corporate culture: the one they never tell you at the interview. The culture they so desparately go to extends to hide carefully...

My desk is on the 5th floor of our office building. I'm part of the IT department, which, I suppose, acts like the foundation to support the business; it's ironic that all the "business divisions" are located in the floors above us. We are the "engine room" of our company. However, the further you go up, one gets closer to the "Ivory Tower" where all the high profile people and their elitist "boys" are seated. The Ivory Tower is where the coroporate finance, corporate strategy, etc. goes on, and that is also where most of my project's team members have their desks. And in the open, Scandinavian-style cubicle opposite the CEO's office sits "Ray of Sunshine".

Ray of Sunshine is definately bright, full of energy, charismatic, rich, and to look at he is a classic, oriental "tall, dark, and handsome" person (if that is your taste). Most people in my dungeon department when they hear of his name either blush, or shy away as they say:"Sunshine of the Ivory Tower... He's your project manager, isn't he DWR? What is he like?" In honest truth, after spending 2nights and 4 days on a business trip with Ray of Sunshine I can tell all the little people who work on the 5th floor in my department that he is a prick. A chauvenistic, air-headed, prick who knows sweet F.A. about Business IT, and he's always full of shit.

How did I come to this conclusion? Simple. He called me "Babe" in front of my Big Boss, the VP of Regional IT, when we were invited out for dinner in a posh restaurant. Sunshine *acutally* had the audacity to say to me in his drunken state:"Go on, babe! Give it to me, babe!!" -- what a prick!!!

Must admit that I pulled Sunshine aside later on in the evening and told him off for treating me this way, but if he is a classic example of how the workers of the Ivory Tower behave, I have a rough 18+ months -- perhaps even YEARS -- ahead of me... The Ivory Tower has a very different culture to the friendly one in the Engine Room.