"But when you have to turn into a chrysalis-
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Sun Sign Scorpio - The Scorpio Employee |
you will some day, you know-
and then after that into a butterfly,
I should think you'll feel it a little queer,
won't you?" "Not a bit," said the Caterpillar.
Offhand, who would you say is the one person in your office who is the most self-contained? Which employee seems to have the most inner confidence, without being obvious about it, the steadiest eyes, the least excuses and the most poise? If there's someone on the staff with those qualities, does he give you the feeling he can take a compliment or leave it alone? Is he secretive about his personal life? Does he have a master plan for his future? Assuming all this is true, one more question: are the other employees a little afraid of him? There's no doubt about it. He's a Scorpio.
More than anyone else with your firm, the Scorpio employee is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. He's entirely self-motivated and single-minded. No one else can be so resourceful and so sure of his own potential The Scorpio has the power to make or break his own life, and he knows it. He never lies to himself, and rarely blames anyone but himself for his own mistakes. To whatever degree he chooses, this employee can rise, and hell expect few favors on the way up. He's the very last person you'd accuse of having an inferiority complex. (Unless he happens to be a gray lizard who has turned power inside out into silent defeat. Even so, it was his decision alone to do so. He was not a pawn of fate.)
It won't be easy to comprehend the reasons behind his actions. You've heard about the ruthlessness of this Sun sign, his desire for revenge, the Pluto determination to even the score, and it may puzzle you that these qualities seem to be missing in his relationship with you. They're not missing. They've been put on ice for the present, because the end justifies the means in his one-track, keen mind. He knows exactly what he's doing, but you may not.
Your Scorpio employee's reaction to you will relate directly to what you can offer him-what he wants from you and from life. If the average person opposes the Scorpio, insults him, treats him rudely, breaks a promise or steps on his tail, may the gods have mercy on him. He will rue the day he challenged Pluto. However, if you represent power and the fulfillment of his private dream, his reaction to the same treatment will be detachment. If you have something Scorpio wants and needs, he'll take almost anything from you with deliberate tranquility, and with-believe it or not-no retaliation or defensive stinging. The very fact that he's able to control his deep resentment and literally erase it from his mind is proof of his awesome inner strength.
Before you test the theory, make sure you know into which category you fall-the average person-which can include ordinary bosses, friends, neighbors, co-workers, servants, even relatives and loved ones-or someone who represents power, security and that private dream. Unless you're positive you fit the latter description, it may be dangerous to experiment.
Let's say you're a TV producer, and you've commissioned a Scorpio writer to create a script, tailored to certain specifications. After the fourth re-write, you can still tear his efforts to shreds and demand that he try again. You can say, "It stinks. Put more jokes in." What will the dangerous Scorpio do? He'll write another draft and put more jokes in. You have something he wants, you see. You have the power to produce his script on film and make it live. He may not agree with you completely from an artistic point of view, but you're the boss. You're the one who calls the shots-at the present. Later, when he's a success? You won't have to nervously wonder when he'll seek revenge for the past. That's not part of the Pluto code. You have given him power and you were the instrument to fufill his private dream. He holds no bitterness, but he'll make it clear his position is now changed and you're not to question his artistic taste or dictate how he expresses his creative ideas in the future. You'll get the message, and that will be that. Anyone other than you who criticized his earlier efforts, however, without regard for his sensitive pride, may have a few scars to show.
If there's one thing a Scorpio knows, it's on which side his bread is buttered, and who owns the marmalade. He's absolutely certain he will reach his goals eventually. Therefore, he's in no rush to knock down any brick buildings. Nor is he ashamed to submit to his superiors when it's expedient to do so. That's why your Scorpio employee is fearless. Confidence always breeds courage. To him, everything is timing. With some sort of deep, mystical penetration into the secrets of the universe, he knows when his time will come. This is not the hour to command, but the hour will arrive. No wonder he's not the anxious type.
I know a young Scorpio lawyer, who recently became associated with an important law firm, loaded with prestige and lucrative clients. His superior (and I'll use an anonymous name), Mr. Fink of Fink, Brink, Link and Katz, asked him to prepare a lengthy memorandum for a corporate merger. The request meant that the Scorpio lawyer would get no sleep at all, because Mr. Fink insisted he needed the papers for a conference at ten sharp the following morning. The next day, our hero was at his desk at nine a.m., alert, calm, and waiting for Mr. Fink to buzz him. He had stayed up all night completing the necessary briefs, and his wife wasn't too happy because he had to cancel the dinner reservations he had made earlier in the week to celebrate their anniversary. At nine forty-five his boss's secretary apologetically informed him that Mr. Fink had changed his mind. He had decided to hold the conference the following week. It was such lovely spring weather, he thought he'd play a few holes of golf with some clients from out of town. She murmured that her boss had said something about "hoping it didn't cause him too much inconvenience." You may suppose that, at this point, the Scorpio reached into his desk for a .45 automatic and headed for the golf course. But that's not the way the cookie crumbled. How did the Scorpio react to such boorish behavior? He simply shrugged. He smiled a cool, mysterious controlled smile, handed the secretary the finished memorandum, and said courteously, "Will you put this on Mr. Fink's desk please? I am going home to get a few hours sleep. I'll be back in time for my two o'clock appointment." Then, with the patience of Taurus and the discipline of Capricorn, he called his wife, told her he would be home for lunch and left. Moral: That Scorpio lawyer is aiming for a partnership at Fink, Brink, Link and Katz. Are you wondering if his wife had his lunch ready on time, after her disappointment the night before? Of course she had his lunch ready on time. The wife of a Scorpio? If she wanted to have any more an-niversaries to celebrate, she did. She's not his boss. Mr. Fink is his boss. This year.
If you're important enough to the future of your Scorpio employee, you too can be a Mr. Fink. It's on a par with being immune to nuclear power, but I don't think you should let it turn your head to the place where you get over-confident. If I were you, I'd keep incidents like the foregoing at the absolute minimum. But I'm glad I'm not you. I'm not sure I would have the nerve to play Russian roulette with Pluto.
You can expect the Scorpio man or woman to accept the inevitable with grace, if the stakes are high enough. He (or she) will check out the potential with an eagle eye, figure the consequences, mark the possible reward, and make the final decision to submit with a cool head and a definite purpose in mind. Most bosses appreciate and admire the Scorpio philosophy. He knows the price of success, and he's willing to pay it without asking for special concessions. When that success arrives, however, don't forget: it's half-time-change sides.
Compared to the attitude of the average worker, youll discover there's another quality to admire in your Scorpio employee. It's an old-fashioned word, spelled 1-o-y-a-l-t-y, rather a rare commodity these days. I'm not talking about lip service to your position as "boss" or the ingratiating, often hypocritical servility of the normal ambitious employee. Scorpios have their own sense of loyalty.
When I was with a radio station in a small town in Pennsylvania, I was permanently impressed with the remark of a Scorpio program director. The owner of the radio station was the meanest man in town. He was a cross between Scrooge and Captain Hook. About the nicest thing you could say about him was that at times he was meaner than he was at other times. He had one friend-his mother. Since he owned half the town, in addition to the station, he was smothered with respect and obedience. Although the Staff called him "Sir," smiled from ear to ear when he entered a room, and jumped to immediate attention every tmie he mumbled the slightest request, they made faces at hiln when his back was turned, and snickered privately at his, funny bow ties and squeaky voice. They would have considered his funeral an occasion for a holiday, and the favorite game around the office when he was out of town Wiis writing his obituary, with a prize for the most hilarious one.
The Scorpio employee never joined the game. He was always too busy with his programming. One day, a secretary asked him why he never contributed to the office hc>bby. He gave her one of those hypnotic Scorpio stares and said, simply, "He pays my salary. I work for him."
"What's that got to do with it?" she wanted to know. "lie yells at you in front of the
staff every morning and hfr, hasn't given you a vacation for two years. He never piiys you a compliment. Don't you have any pride?"
The Scorpio never changed his expression. "I can't deposit compliments at the bank," he said quietly. "I prefer C£ish."
"But why do you take the way he treats you?" she persisted.
His answer was brief. "When I take a man's money, I t^ke his orders. When I decide to stop taking his orders, I stop taking his money and leave. Do you have the pro-gram schedule for next week? I need to check it before -• I time the commercials."
The secretary silently handed him the schedule, he took Out his stop watch and went to work. A few days later, she a These workers are intense and tenacious. They're quite Sterious about their careers, and they never lose sight of the goal. Scorpios can be stubborn, rebellious, passionate and overbearing. But you won't often find them wasting office time by writing humorous obituaries. Death is a serious subject to them. So are you. You're the bridge to power. consequently, you're respected, until the Scorpio has safely passed across the stream to the other side. Smart strategists don't destroy bridges, and Scorpios are smart. Some of them are brilliant. All of them are shrewd and logical. You'll often find Scorpio men and women gravitating to work that involves solving mysteries and penetrating the puzzles of life, machines, facts or human beings. Lots of them are detectives, psychiatrists, scientists, surgeons, policemen, researchers, reporters and even undertakers. They must increase their knowledge each day they live, at the same rate they increase talents, abilities and incomes.
Never pry into Scorpio's private affairs. He will not tolerate that. If he likes you and his job, he'll be generous and fair. Hell give you eight hours work for eight hours pay, and he won't watch the clock if the project holds his interest. But remember that he will always be firmly committed to his own code and ideas. He will be true to them above all other loyalties, including love and ambition. No one but himself can force him to alter his views and opinions. It has to be done through Pluto power, from inside his own nature. If his decision is negative, no one on the face of this earth can slam the door more suddenly or more permanently than a Scorpio, even a door bearing the title Vice-President in gold-leaf letters. He'll take just so much, pay just so high a price. When he thinks the cost is too much, he leaves. That's the way he plays the game. His real loyalty, when all is said and done, is to himself. That's not always as selfish as it sounds. When he was very young, his favorite verse began: "This above all: to thine own self be true." He's always figured-if he does that- he can't be false to anyone.
"You may charge me with murder- or want of sense (We are all of us weak at times):
But the slightest approach to a false pretence was never among my crimes!"