Office 'legends' can make

Andrew Mcbean

Andrew McBean is senior vice president of Dtac. Follow his column on the third Monday of every month.

I was one of only 2 farang (gaijin) to work in the main Japanese sales and marketing office where about 1,000 workers were based. I was to work in a department with 100 people.

When I arrived there, I was told my desk was next to the door, which was also next to the office boy. The director of the department sat opposite me at the other end of the office.

I set to work with the local team.

About two months later, I arrived at work to find my desk had been moved several rows and columns up.

"They must have needed my desk," I thought.

Another two months went by and I found my desk had been moved again, further up once more. Only then did I realise that I was being moved due to my gradual acceptance by the local team.

It is how we react to these statements or tests that go to make up our "legends" at work. Legends are enormously powerful and they can make or break managers and executives.

In Thailand, a useful phrase for legend-creation is "pud jing tham jing". It means you should always do what you say.

Action says much more than words and it is through action, not words, that you create legends.

Work legends are the same as normal legends. First, they are always more powerful than the person the legend is about. Second, people either have a good legend or a bad one. Third, the legend will almost certainly not be known to the subject. Fourth, the legend is almost always created before you even knew it started and, finally, legends are impossible to erase.

 "Did your boss go to your wedding?"

"No, he had an important golf match".

Implicit between the "oh" and the "it must have been important", is the hidden text, "well he's a goner".

"Did your boss visit when his staff was taken to hospital?"

"Yes. He cancelled an overseas trip to one of his best friends' wedding to be there."

That is exactly what happened to me. That night, my colleague tragically and unexpectedly passed away. He was only 27 years old and I still think about it to this day.

One more thing about legends - they cannot be faked.