Brown Crayon in the Workplace

The MOLE ▼

“Telling my story of what I experienced in the workplace.”

Do you have the “Mole” in your office? How do you deal with their efforts to increase transparency and information flow to management?

At work, you might have individual activities to manage. But unless you run a one-person outfit, you are most likely to be part of a bigger team of colleagues with different skills.

Then there are the other unique species that has mastered the art of camouflage and flourishes in the no-mans land between the team and management. They lurk around the office trying to be a special friend. But just because you don't see them openly doesn't mean they don't exist. They look like regular folks, they laugh at the same jokes you make about management and they also stay back late in the office with the rest of the team to show solidarity.

The ability to stay below the radar helps them achieve another key function - operating in the stealth mole to make a mountain out of a mole-hill. The innocent grapevine that the team uses as a pressure release mechanism gets (mentally) recorded, spiced-up and delivered to an information-starved manager who might otherwise be socially cut off from his team. For the mole, the significant erosion of personal goodwill is a small price to pay for the sense of control and security it seems to provide.

The animosity, the negative vibes and the wrath that moles incur from the rest of the team members get more than balanced out by the support they command from the powers that be. If at all there's a confrontation with a team member, it's clear where they'll get their backing from.

There's also a scarier mutation of this species - the shameless “Mole.” These are people who started off like any other regular rookie moles, ignorant of their true potential. After years of fine-tuning their art and getting the trust of their mentors, they've come out of hiding and moved on to the next level. They now look at the camouflage part as an extra burden on their limited resources. Everyone knows who they are and what purpose they serve. So no need for them to put on a holier-than-thou act because their survival will be through other rookie moles.

Through meditation and prayer, I saw the vision of the “Mole” before leaving my job. I worked eight years in an organization with this person being the mole but not knowing until the last three years of my employment. I always felt in my heart that some things were off. I continued to work and carry on conversations with him somewhat business as usual. Like they say, keep your enemies a lot closer than your friends.

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Pen Name: Brown Crayon (pseudonym)