Image courtesy of brunkfordbraun
I’m going to ask you something you’ve probably not been asked before in the context of your work: Are you a ninja, a pirate, or a zombie? Or a bit of all three?
The Ninja Attitude
The Ninja is sickeningly efficient. He gets up at five am. He reads blogs about “life-hacking”. He custom-codes his own Firefox plugins. He multitasks by listening to audiobooks at triple speed whilst jogging to work. He sets up complicated systems to manage every aspect of his life. He knows twenty uses for a paperclip. His computer is, frankly, a bit terrifying.
You might be a Ninja if people have said:
- “I don’t know how you get so much done.”
- “Why do you need three computer screens?”
- “What do you mean, hack a moleskine notebook?”
The Ninja is efficiency taken to its extremes – without much regard for effectiveness. He has no hacks for finding purpose, joy or meaning in life. He treats all work as equal, and gets bogged down in trivia. The Ninja has achieved an empty inbox – but at the cost of an empty life.
You can escape the Ninja trap by:
- Unsubscribing from blogs with “hack” in their name.
- Taking some time out to focus on the big picture (even if that means letting the emails pile up for a while).
- Remembering that “fun” isn’t usually found on a to-do list.
The Pirate Attitude
The Pirate lives life on his terms. He rolls out of bed late (and questions why the rum is all gone). He doesn’t work unless he wants to. If this leads to client or boss issues, he’s always got an excuse and a cheeky grin. He’s driven by profit, and won’t waste time on anything that doesn’t make money immediately. He cuts corners, drops commitments, ignores emails and rarely answers the phone. If it’s not fun and/or profitable, he won’t do it.
You might be a Pirate if people have said:
- “I don’t mean to rush you, but you said we could have it three months ago…”
- “Is that ethical? Is that even legal?”
- “You %&*$!”
The Pirate can be quite effective – for a while. His ruthless focus on the bottom line means that he “cuts the crap” and focuses on what makes money. But after a while, the hordes of furious customers, disappointed clients and irritated fellow employees start to cause problems. The Pirate goes for short-term fun over long-term fulfilment, and inevitably ends up disappointed.
You can escape the Pirate trap by:
- Being willing to put in hard work for future, rather than immediate, monetary reward.
- Focusing on good relationships with customers, clients and co-workers. (It’ll pay off in the long run.)
- Thinking about your values. Are you really only driven by profit at all costs?
The Zombie Attitude
The Zombie is a model employee in many ways. He shows up bang on time. He gets on with the work assigned. He never asks for more work. He never asks for a pay rise or promotion. He never offers to take on anything outside his job remit. He never shows any initiative. His desk is unadorned with any personal items. He still uses Internet Explorer 6.
You might be a Zombie if people have said:
- “This is a bit of a boring job, but I know you won’t mind.”
- “You’ve been working here for twenty years?”
- “What’s your name again?”
The Zombie is unconcerned with being efficient or effective. He just keeps going through the motions. He avoids taking on any tasks which might involve his brain. He obeys orders unquestioningly, and never shows any initiative. The Zombie is going to stay in the same job, on a fairly low wage, until he retires. The Zombie will be confused if anyone asks what his purpose is, or what his goals are
You can escape the Zombie trap by:
- Waking up! Your work should be something that you’re passionate about (at least most of the time).
- Thinking about what you really enjoy in life. What makes you feel fulfilled?
- Taking a big step outside your comfort zone: quit your job, go travelling, live life.
What’s Your Work Style?
I could end this article with some supposedly perfect example of the right attitude to work (“the Superhero”, perhaps). But there isn’t one single way of working that suits everybody. The trick is to find your own style, to figure out what you want to get from your work – or what you want to contribute through it. That’ll depend a lot on what you value. Fortune? Fame? Family? Fun?
What would it take to make your daily work as fulfilling as possible for you? And, just for fun, how would you describe your work attitude in terms of popular figures (cowboy, spaceman, princess, etc…)?
About the author: Ali is a postgraduate student and professional writer. She runs Alpha Student (grab the RSS feed), a blog which aims to help students get the most of their time at university.
Good stuff. I’d say mostly I’m a pirate ninja with slips into the zombie zone. Although I think the game is all in public persona, what character to those around you perceive.
Okay, so now you have described three work attitudes that basically no sane person would want to have….. In what way is that helping anyone? Ah, I see… you are doing the zombie style right now…
The quality of this site is declining. That is a pity, really.
Hey Chris,
Sorry the post came across that way, and thanks for the feedback. Of course I don’t think anyone is really a total Pirate, Zombie, or Ninja in terms of their attitude to work! I thought this was a fun way of getting people to look at the areas in which they might be slipping a bit.
The examples are caricatures, but I’m sure you can see a little bit of yourself in at least one of them (I think I have aspects of all three!) if you look hard…
Best,
Ali
A “little bit” of myself? You are not really setting ambitious goals with regards reaching some basic level of accuracy in your descriptions, are you? Of course there is a little bit of me in one of the described characters. Then again, I am sure the average cat can recognize herself in at least one of the descriptions. I am quite happy not to know ANYONE who is described remotely accurately by these attitudes.
Actually, somebody recogizing himself in one of these attitudes is obviously in the wrong line of work. As is his employer for not immediately recognizing something is horribly wrong.
This is one of the best Post about this Topic i have ever read!
I honestly don’t know why…
I tend to slip into the Ninja category if any. The difficulty is that all three of these are unhealthy work/life models. They all offer some good things, but are essentially poor choices.
While there is not one behavior that fits anyone, I would suggest that most people don’t really fit into any of these. Rather, everyone may have ninja-tendencies and pirate-tendencies. What is needed are some models of good work attitudes and behaviors. There can be a number of effective behaviors, why not focus on them?
Hiliarious article, I am totally a Ninja, in more ways than one. If you want to learn how to have a top secret Ninja Backup Plan, check out Live for Improvement.
-Dan Malone-
awesome article. The “What is your name again?” part made me laugh for a second. I’m more of the Ninja than anything else. Good article.
Hey Ali,
It is interesting to see you match up attitude with characters. Great article.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
Thanks for this piece (hey, I just commented on you at TCB — go Ali!) It seems the overall message of the article is that, if you use efficiency or following a routine as a way to distract yourself from your overall vision of what you want in your work, you’re going to limit your fulfillment. That’s a trap that a lot of us can get stuck in at work and it’s a helpful thing to keep in mind. Best, Chris
Hi there
If I think about “working” on my website and blog, I’d probably say “a bee”.
I’m busy, busy (too busy sometimes). I’m driving to spread and grow and flourish – bit like pollinating. And then the flowers blooming would be all the people benefiting from my work.
Also, bees are collective, they almost represent a connectedness or, dare I stretch it to “consciousness”? That’s what I’m about – purpose and connectedness.
Juliet
Well, according to this “classification”, when I’m in bed or not working, I tend to be a pirate – but once I get going, I turn into a ninja. Actually, I do listen regularly to my audiobooks at 2.5x speed while exercising or washing the dishes…
Hi Ali,
I’d categorize myself as Spiderman because I like super-heros.
I think of myself as a Spiderman because he has super powers to help other people. He’s someone who provides massive value as part of the work he does. And he provides massive value with very little effort.
For instance, I could write a really powerful book that affects thousands or even millions of people and not even break a sweat after the book has been written. In that way I’m providing massive value to a large group of people but doing very little work – sort of like a super hero might.
Spidy Senses are tingling,
I would be a lesser ninja. Trying to become a samurai who does what needs to be done without being asked to do so.
Ali, this was a fun post. I was a little disappointed though that all the characters you described were men – there are woman pirates, ninjas, and zombies too! Which one is most like you?
This is a great post. I am more of a Ninja
[...] 最近看了一片文章Ninja, Pirate or Zombie: What’s Your Attitude to Work?，将人的工作方式分为三种，忍者，海盗，僵尸。我看了一下自己，算是忍者。这是节选：“忍者热衷于提高效率，每天5点起床，他们会读life hacking之类的blog，会自己自己编码自己的firefox插件。会变以三倍的速度听电子书边工作。会把生活中的每个方面的事情都整合到一个复杂的系统中。他知道20中使用文件夹的方法。他的但脑，坦诚的说，有点吓人。” 如果你是一个忍者类型的人，你会听到别人对你这么说： “你怎么把这么多事情做完的？” “你为什么需要3个电脑屏幕?” …… 我虽然不会自己编码firefox插件，但是我会自定义无数插件，会把桌面的每一图标摆到最顺手的位置，会把资源管理器的每一个文件夹整理的很好，会把email的inbox清空。我虽然没有3台显示器，但是有两台的那段时间，我的确很开心。我会把桌子上面每一个物体的位置都计划好。我会有那种让生活中一切都有序的冲动。 但是，我发现，虽然我会费劲的把很多东西系统化，尽量活的非常有条理，但是结果并总令人满意。例如，我的确很忙，但是结果却不怎么好。为什么？因为身为一个忍者，过于在意效率，而忽略的效能，或者说价值。费尽心思整理的电脑，使用的时候并没有比其他人一般的电脑创造更多的价值。费劲搭建出一个有秩序的系统，却忽略了很多实际因素，比如可用性，重用程度等。 有时候我在想，我们这种类型的人之所以很忙，并不是应为我们真的有很多事情要做，只是我们不愿停下来，我们很珍惜时间，但是不知道如何将时间放到有用的地方。每天不停的做事，其实只是害怕停下来的那种荒废的感觉，其实只是换一种方式荒废罢了。 现在是每个忍者注意的时候了！首先，我们需要有明确的目标，需要结果导向，做每一件事的时候，不仅要衡量这件事是否高效，是否顺手，还要想想做的价值是什么，我为什么要把iGoogle整理的比谁的都漂亮，我真的需要从上面看天气预报么。其次，要学会容错，学会在不习惯的环境中生活和工作。凡是都有成本，建立一个良好秩序的成本如果高于你适应环境的成本，为何要去建造？还是目标重要。最后，要有乐趣，这一类人需要从to list中跳出来，寻找生活的乐趣。 好消息是，忍者型的人想达到任何目标都相对简单些，因为他们已经有了做事的能力，只是需要一些wisdom去引导。 至于海盗和僵尸，大家有兴趣可以看前面链接的文章，大致的，海盗就是利益驱动，短视的人。僵尸就是什么东西做完就好，没有自我驱动的人。 但是，不是每个人都仅仅属于一个类型，例如我可能是一个大忍者小僵尸。 [...]
[...] tackle, then take a break, wash your hands and look at it in a less critical light. I hope all you ninjas enjoy this little hack. __________________ I am devoted to learning. I think that we once knew [...]
Buy Tamiflu…
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Haha
Pirate when it comes to timings and stuff. Ninja when it comes to how my computer’s setup. And a total Zombie otherwise!
Great post!