Game copy kindly provided by Wonmin Lee, designer and publisher of Welcome to Sysifus Corp, for the writing of the story you will find below. It arrived with some coupons! Therefore, if you live in the USA, check below on how to enter the raffle to get one of four 20% discount coupons on the game!
My first contact with Wonmin Lee dates back from two years ago, almost to the day. It was October 2019, and I had the chance to make some comments to the rulebook then available. Fast (or not so fast) forward one year, and the game was getting ready to hit Kickstarter, being subsequently funded.
This September, Sysifus Corp was released. And soon after, the hunt for new dedicated and ambitious collaborators started! Now, let me
tell you of my time as an employee at Sysifus Corp...
Those days, filled with hopes, delusions, and disappointments, are still fresh in my memory. And I keep finding traces of those moments scattered all around the house, just like this crumpled paper, lurking behind the desk. I must have missed the paper bin shot that day…
I vividly remember receiving “the” letter, signed by The Bosses! It read “Dear Employee”, and that was me! “It is with great pleasure and pride that we welcome you to the great Sysifus Corp Family (…)”. I had made it!
A couple of weeks before, I was searching for a job. Then, I came across an advert from Sysifus, with its clean and minimalist look, the plain-white background, and the geometric shapes in purple, green, and red. I have heard of them before, nothing very specific, as far as I recall, but with a striking aura of being a fast-growing company, involved in some big stuff. Only much later I came to realise the precise positioning of those shapes, the cube pushing the cylinder over the pyramid, and how all of that was telling.
But let me not shortcut the account. The job seemed to be a pretty good fit for my skills, and the prospects of a rocketing career made the rest. In no time I was carefully polishing a motivation letter and upgrading my résumé. One must maximize their chances, and every tiny little detail may make the difference, in the end! Not long after, I received the confirmation letter.
Together with the letter, a welcome pack! You can tell of the work of the Marketing and the Human Resources departments: a New Employee Welcome Manual, covering all the basics of the daily routines; an Office Politics Cards Reference Index, detailing those more obscure policy aspects; and an Employee Datasheet, to keep track of daily actions and filled with small helpful notes.
The company motto, “Pushing our way to the top”, was ever-present, and I was already dreaming of reaching the top, even before having started!
I cannot deny there were also some intriguing aspects. For once, there are three bosses, not one. Then, there was that small reference to me as an “integral cog of the company", something I was not expecting within this grand and ambitious vision. I assumed it meant one starts small, before being able to change gears. Lastly, but not least, I was addressed as a mere number, Employee #318996, in the Reference Index. A bit too impersonal, but, who knows, more efficient.
Nothing too worrisome, I thought.
Nothing that would quench my enthusiasm!
Day 1 has arrived, and there I was, at 8 am sharp, in the Sysifus Corp lobby. Small surprise, there were other three new employees, ready to take the new hire orientation. Let’s call them Jane, Joe, and John, as I don’t want to disclose their true identity, for reasons that later will become clear.
Soon after we were handed colourful bright new outfits, easily identifying us as newcomers, for the entire company, while telling each one of us apart from each other. I got the red one.
Then came some good news and bad news. Starting with the good ones. We would be working on several projects, starting to build our career paths. That should lead us to meet each and every one of the Bosses, and to get recognition for our achievements. Sounds great! Then, the shock: The four of us will be competing for a single promotion opportunity. The rising tension and the nervous glances were palpable! On the back of my mind, I still hear the words, “We do not need underachievers.”
This will be no walk in the park, pardon, office!
The daily tasks were briefly presented to us by our supervisor, although this may be too much of a label, as we were, essentially, on our own from the start.
So, we will be fulfilling projects, moving around the office from project to project, placing memos, doing research, aiming to visit the bosses, each one of them. The daily working hours were to be distributed among three tasks, no more. Nothing too fancy, nor overcomplicated. And that is good, because we would be racing each other.
Besides, we were given some leeway, regarding the way to go. I felt comfortable with that, not having to adhere to a very strict routine, to obey orders and instructions all the time, to deeply rely on the other newcomers, ex-colleagues-to-be, now fierce competitors.
The first projects to choose from.
That’s a good feeling!
Ready, set, go.
And here we go. Here I go! Place. The first project I started. Move. My first steps around the office. Place again, move again, or do some research. First choices. The very beginning of my career path, both metaphorically and literally, as we roam across different sections of the office, one step closer to one of the Bosses and to the final Performance Review.
Things are getting busy, as we are four ambitious employees, and there is no time to lose. Jane and Joe went left, and they are sharing the same project for the moment. John is still behind, but no doubt he too will soon be running.
There are things I should tell you about projects, and which have not been disclosed to us in advance. Well, not entirely true, had you carefully read the Welcome Manual… But, well, let’s move on.
Once you embark in a project, you become part of the team and get some influence within the company. You are doing useful work and you are starting to get noticed. But beware, not all the projects are the same. Some will get you more influence than others, some will get you no influence at all. Inversely, some projects will open doors towards more directions than others, offering increased opportunities. You must choose wisely, balancing influence and progression.
Another note: all projects are Corp projects and not your own ones. Therefore, all employees have open access to all running projects, and thus obtain the corresponding company influence, regardless of who started the project. Project access is only physically restricted, that is, you must be able to enter the project section.
Having done some research, during this workday, it really opened up the world of Office Politics to me. You should know this is something that I am not very good at... But I realise it is a skill I must develop really fast, should I want to stand a chance of getting the promotion.
Then, there is also the lingo of politics, and causes, consequences, and collateral damage. Each action entails a cost, be it in company influence, as actions are not necessarily popular, in politics, compromising future actions, or even in both. There are different uses for Office Politics, affecting projects, employees, other actions, or even as a reaction to other employees. There are effects and upgraded effects.
All this will take some time to master, but time is scarce…
Follow the sticky notes, they said. From project to project. No fancy management software to keep track of projects and to mark the routes; just a bunch of sticky notes to guide you around!
That came as a surprise, in such a front runner company, but it is perhaps by doing things differently that they have been successful. I quickly adapted to the sticky method. Place new projects carefully, check notes, manipulate projects, re-check notes, if necessary, move, monitor the competition, keep moving, don’t stop.
Sometimes you seem to be blocked. It is then the time to use your memo sticker, as a substitute for sticky notes. Beware, though, they are as precious as they are scarce. Resources are tightly managed and getting new ones will cost you some workday time.
All was going kind of fine, until I was suddenly pushed back. Someone stole the credit of my work! John did it!
As a result, I was allocated to another project, the career path I was pursuing got disrupted, and I am now one step further behind the competition, and farther from the Boss. I felt the sting of Office Politics being used to hinder my progression.
Now you may start to realise why I did not disclose the true identity of my former colleagues: things were about to get nasty, and this was just the beginning! Ok, if that is the way to go, let's play ball! Let’s see who can stand the heat!
It took me some hard workdays, going back and forth and fighting the competition, to finally meet one of the Bosses. That was a first!
As a recognition for my dedication to the company, I was handed a Certificate of Achievement, and I was able to choose an extra permission to use to my advantage. Still feeling the pain of the earlier backstabbing by John, I decide to go for the Office Politics, hence selecting the possibility to do extra research.
Feeling empowered by the Boss was a sweet feeling, but I was well aware we are all chasing the same goal, walking similar paths, and with no free dinners on the menu.
One Boss checked, two more to go, before running towards the final Performance Review.
Some days have passed, and a lot of work was accomplished, while moving between different projects.
You literally run over projects to gain company influence and to reach the Bosses. You use all the company influence you get to manipulate the situation in your favour, to hinder progression of the three J’s, to get in the fast lane for progression.
Things are getting chaotic. There are no allies, at most tactical arrangements to avoid a running away leader.
Office Politics are ever-present. More times than I can count, I was pushed back, not to square one, but having to retrace in my footsteps, and to change my career track, again and again. That is when days started to look all alike. Project, move, research, memo, politics. Research. Politics. Move. Politics. Project. Politics. Politics. Politics.
“The key to a successful career in the corporate world is knowing how to utilize office politics”, The 1%.
I started to think in engaging in subversive manoeuvres, using some extreme office politics. Things such as inserting my own opinion, who would have imagined that! Or fanning the flames and watch things burn. Wild things as to form a clique, to achieve critical disruptive mass and shake the establishment. I even considered reporting to HR, or even just slacking off.
I will not lie. I resorted to some of those tactics, in an attempt to feel some kind of normality, or fairness. To no avail.
Suddenly, I was able to understand why the company bears the name of Sysifus Corporation! You know I am not that versed in ancient history, but I remember there was that guy…, Greek, I think…, with a similar name. He had a kind of an office in a mountain, and projects in the form of a boulder. Pushing his way to the top, only to come back down. Going up, and down again, without ending. Fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter. It feels pretty real to me, now.
I started to have a recurrent dream with the company logo! Yes, that’s right, the company logo! You see, there is a cube, in red, the colour of my suit, pushing a purple cylinder, all the way up a green pyramid.
I did it to the end.
I survived, but not unscathed.
I didn’t get the coveted promotion.
I do not want to be a “cog of your great company”.
Sisyphus no more.
I quit!
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For more information on the game check Sysifuscorp or BGG.
To read more stories in the blog check the tag Storytelling.
