Re: "Team Player" - Please Define?

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> Question for all listserv members:
> 
> I am looking at a tech comm job listing that states that the future employee 
> must be a "team player".  What is meant by this?  Specifics please.
> 
> Digression:  I have always been a firm believer in the old business saying, 
> "Only two percent(2%) of all people [employees] are problem solvers, the 
> rest are just along for the ride."  My belief in such makes it very hard for 
> me to envision a true "team" environment - where everyone assumes an equal 
> portion of the more difficult tasks.

You are correct Tony. There is no such thing as a perfectly equal work
environment. If there was such an environment, personal initiative would not be
rewarded and therefore, nobody would ever work beyond his/her lowest
capabilities. Inequality is the natural state of all social beings, some will
excel while others will fail. Not everybody gets to be CEO.  

The "team player" thing is just HR nonsense. It is like saying "detail
oriented" like that means anything in today's world. EVERYBODY says they are
detailed oriented. 

A true team player is probably somebody that would make you want to puke they
were such a goody-goody, teacher's pet goober. 

Some companies use the "team player" crack as a way to say "you better obey our
every command or else you're gone."  Others probably say it because they have
been burned with some anti-social types.  

Andrew Plato
Anti-Social Goober
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