Rosh Katan
/by Mumpy
It’s a new year and I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m going to be a Rosh Katan from now on. For those of you who don’t speak Hebrew, a Rosh Katan is somebody who does the minimum that they can get away with and doesn’t make any extra effort. It is somebody who doesn’t think outside of their own little world and is not prepared to see the bigger picture if it affects their comfort level in any way.
When I was a little mumpy growing up, I used to dream of being a Rosh Katan. I would stand in front of the mirror and practice my Rosh Katan face for hours on end. I knew that if I only dreamt big enough – I would fulfill my ambitions to become the world’s leading Rosh Katan.
But once I reached adulthood and started to work, my dream was replaced with stark reality. I found myself voluntary putting in extra hours at work, offering to help out on projects in other departments, proof-reading other people’s documents. I don’t know how it happened. One minute I’m 20 years-old, fresh-faced in a big city, happily grumbling “That’s not my job” and turning away – and the next moment I’m 35 and organizing print runs for the Support department.
The moment where I knew for sure that my childhood dreams had crumbled all around me was this week. As a technical writer, I am defined as part of the PM team and next week we are having an International Support and Sales conference in Tel Aviv. The PM team is presenting rival companies as part of a Competitive Analysis session. For some reason, I decided to volunteer my services and asked, no - begged, to help out in presenting the competition. So now I am going to an International Support conference and presenting 4 different companies to a large number of SEs.
And to add insult to injury, I just sneaked a peek at the new company’s organizational chart and to my absolute horror – I saw that I am now defined as a Manager. I guess there is no point in running away from the truth any longer. I am now officially a Rosh Beynani.
