Linda Goodman's Sun Signs (41 page)

In spite of an often shy, gentle manner, the Libran boss is not an island. There's always a need to express herself in some way, to communicate with others. Though most of the communication is done through speech, she can also tell you whole volumes with his smile. She's sure to be intelligent, but if Mercury was afflicted by adverse aspects at birth, she may still be trying to convince herself that she is. Many Libran bosses are persuasive talkers and great debaters, who can sway a whole roomful of people effortlessly. Even the shy Libran executive who seldom tries to grab attention, can argue logically and convincingly, although this type will probably plan everything in his mind before she speaks. That's why the Libra is so quiet for such long periods. She's deciding what she wants to say. It's usually safer to take her statements straight after she's passed through one of her silent moods. She's less likely to change her mind. If she's rushed into making a decision, she'll mull it over afterwards, realize her first thoughts were hasty and do a complete turnabout.

You may find your Libra boss seeking your opinion frequently. Before you decide she thinks you've got a brilliant brain, remember that there are several motives for her flattering interest in your ideas. First of all, she wants to be fair. This type of boss doesn't want to make either an unjust or unpopular decision. Another reason a Libran feels compelled to gather up all the pros and cons of an issue is because, without access to all the available facts, she feels incapable of making a wise assessment.

The typical Libra boss who's trying to make up her mind whether to say “yes” or “no” to an important deal will take a democratic poll of her husband, the security guard, her assistant, the street vendor and her public relations manager, and it can have some pretty weird results. It's difficult for the security guard to give a logical opinion on how the proposed split might affect the shareholders of the non-voting stock. He may need some time to ponder it.

The street vendor may have a little trouble grasping the costs involved in a projected merger of two large corporations. For one thing, $200,000 for attorneys' fees may seem extravagant to him. He paid his lawyer two hundred dollars one time for legal advice, and he felt like a spendthrift.

That vice-president who continues to draw his salary while he's in the hospital with a nervous breakdown will really throw the Libran's assistant. After all, he's been on the verge of a mental breakdown for several years, and nobody ever coddled him like that.

The Starbucks barista finally makes up her mind. Forget the stock split; she's never trusted that word. It was when her old man split out that she had to start serving coffees to fund her college education.

The Libran's husband says, “You know what is best, dear,” but he makes it clear he privately thinks she should take a negative stand because he doesn't like the husband of one of the major stockholders.

The public relations manager never changes his opinion: “Damn the torpedos—full speed ahead!”— his advice on all problems.

Finally, the consensus is complete. Armed with this expert analysis, the Libra boss will still manage to arrive at a more logical, sensible final decision than nine out of ten people would make. It's amazing, but she does it somehow.

There could be still another reason this type seeks so many viewpoints when she's making up her mind. She may be one of those rare Librans who maneuvers to shift the blame for a possible mistake to someone else's shoulders. When things fall through, she can always shrug and say, “Well, it wasn't my idea to back away. The street vendor thought it was a bad move.”

However, a Libra boss who's managed to achieve harmony and unity of his mind and emotions can be a regular well of wisdom. For all I know, you may work for one. There are lots of them around, and they're nice bosses to know when you have a problem. They can come up with an answer that no one else could have thought of, taking everything into consideration and giving you an out that's both fair and smart.

The chances are that the walls of your Libra boss's office are not bare—the walls will normally be covered with pictures, diplomas, and good prints, hung in balanced positions, and the filing cabinets will be dusted. You can bet that there's a radio or CD player somewhere around so she can tune in to melodious sounds when things get too discordant and the nerves get dangerously jingle-jangled from the confusion of daily routine. The colors in her office will seldom be wild. No exotic lime green or brilliant tangerine that hurt her eyes. However, there may be just a touch of the oriental motif. Some Librans seem to lean slightly in that direction. Perhaps it's because of the legendary quiet, gentle manner of living in the Far East or the peaceful harmony of Eastern philosophy. She may even go so far as to have flowers on her desk, but if your Libran boss is a male, probably not.

There are more female bosses born under Libra than any other sign, though Aries, Capricorn, Leo and Cancer run a close second. Your female Libran will almost surely have a big potted plant in the office, plus a large mirror. She may not procrastinate quite as much as the men of the sign; since it's still a challenge for a woman to achieve a high level of command, she had to control her indecision or she wouldn't have made it to the top of the totem pole. But there's one area where she won't take long to make up her mind. Love. She's either already decided marriage is not for her, or she's constantly a little dreamy-eyed from a recent romance. It's a rare Libran female, executive or not, who can live without a valentine in her life. Though she's an expert at hiding her after-five activities, I can assure you she's not playing a game of solitaire every night. She may curl up with a good book on a rainy Monday, but most weekends will find her doing the town in a romantic haze. The haze, however, will be temporary. Her mind is too sharply logical to let sentiment completely blind her. Few Librans of either sex let the heart rule the head. Their heads are too hard and too bright to submit to the soft rays of Venus without a fight, another of Libra's strange inconsistencies.

In the discipline area female Librans can be somewhat harsher than the male Libran. If you make a mistake, she'll know it instinctively, and you'll get a strong message that she doesn't want to see it multiply into daily errors. Her voice will be soft, or slightly husky, well-modulated and perhaps a little drawling, and she'll seldom raise it. (With an Aries Gemini or Sagittarius ascendant, the air might get a little blue when she sees red.)

The Libran boss often looks as if she should be on the list of “Best Dressed Executives.” They have a knack for putting together a well-coordinated outfit and tend to wear expensive clothing. Librans tend to be the ones everyone admires for their poise and polished appearance.

When you're tempted to treat you Libran boss like one of the girls, don't get too chummy. Her friendly attitude may seem to encourage confidences, but she won't tolerate office gossip, and she'll stamp out any signs of it at the water cooler. Librans don't rise to the top by having a loose tongue. Librans of both sexes treat a confidence as a sacred trust. Some of them may talk a lot, and they all adore debating, but they're not gossips. There's a difference.

Both the male and female Libra bosses lean toward long, pleasant lunch hours. If they don't take them, you should see that they do, because they won't be their usual, liberal selves when they're hungry or tired. All Venus executives would be better off if they faced up to their need for periodic rest and snoozed for an hour or so each day. You might get the employees to chip in to buy an attractive sofa for the executive office, if you want to keep your Libra boss balanced. Librans are cat nappers, but they may feel guilty about it. The day your boss comes to work wearing a blue expression and sporting red eyes, with droopy, gray bags under them, is a day you'll want to avoid the sleep-deprived Libran.

Unless your Libra boss has a strongly independent ascendant she'll probably believe in unions. Anything fair is okay with her. Her sense of justice makes her a natural in mediating disputes. The Libran viewpoint on money is seldom neutral. She'll either be the stingiest executive in town or the most generous. Sometimes, she may take turns: be a tightwad in December and a Ms. Claus in July. There will always be a definite attitude at any given moment. She tips either a nickel or a five spot.

Sooner or later, you'll be invited to her home. Almost every Libran executive eventually wants to entertain her employees under her own roof, and she'll be an impeccably gracious host. But when you attend the party, keep in mind that the sure way to earn her disfavor is to be loud, vulgar and opinionated. Remember that Harmony is her middle name. Create it when you can—never destroy it or disrupt it—and she'll want you around without knowing exactly why.

Libra's occasional indecisiveness may annoy you; your boss may procrastinate and her dreams may need a little push now and then. Still, there's that smile, the respect you have for her quiet intelligence, and her willingness to meet you halfway. She doesn't want you to top her, yet she won't expect you to be her slave. She's neither a pusher nor a nagger, and she'll never betray your trust. When you add it all up, the scales balance in her favor. Hers is a blending nature. Your Libra boss really needs your cooperation to be a complete person, and a woman who needs you can get a firm grip on your loyalty, if not on your heart. Haven't you felt the tug?

There was once a Libran designer, who was brought to the west coast to do the costumes for a big movie, and he sat in his suite in a posh Beverly Hills hotel for six full weeks without making a single sketch. It wasn't because he lacked ideas. He was overflowing with them. It was the carpeting—that hideous, shrill, peacock blue carpeting. It gave him migraine nightmares. He couldn't even think straight, let alone create, and he didn't want to change his suite because he liked the view of the palm trees.

For almost two months the film was held up until the producer finally discovered the problem. As soon as he was made aware of the Libran's aesthetic difficulties, the offensive floor covering was replaced by new, wall-to-wall carpeting in an acceptable, subdued rose shade. If you're wondering why the producer was so understanding, he was a Gemini. Whether or not the designer's complaint was reasonable didn't concern him. The Gemini simply wanted to get things moving as quickly as possible, and he took the speediest way out. Both Aquarian and Gemini bosses are fabulous when it comes to handling the delicate Venus temperament. There's an intangible empathy between air signs. They're all floating around on some kind of cloud, but at different altitudes.

Please don't get the impression that you should run right out and find a rug salesman if you have a Libra employee. Not all people born in late September or October are irreplaceable artists with such sensitive nerves. But even the average Libra employee will work more happily if his surroundings don't distract him.

He'll also be more efficient if he isn't offended by the people he works with every day. A rough, sordid, unharmonious atmosphere may depress him, but uncongenial co-workers will really send him into a blue fog. He's as conscious of the vibrations of personalities as he is of the vibrations of colors, especially in close quarters. If your Libra employee has seemed confused lately, or not himself; if he's been turning in sloppy work which doesn't meet his usual standard, he's not necessarily slipping. Perhaps he's allergic to the mail boy or the cleaning woman. (I hope it's not his own personal assistant. The constant, abrasive pain would be unbearable.) It might even be the short, unsharpened pencils. Give him some nice sharp new ones, preferably mechanical pencils, change the cleaning lady's shift and keep the mail room staff away from him. Notice how his work improves immediately? He was just off balance.

When those Libra scales get tipsy, anything can happen. Both the male and female Librans can turn disgruntled and lazy and offer no excuse for their sullen silences. Such a change from their normal sweetness and calm is bound to unsettle your own mind a little, too. How can anyone with such an attractive dimple in his (or her) chin be so disagreeable? It's easy. How would you like
your
scales to be tipped sideways? It's not a pleasant feeling—rather like being on a boat that's rolling from port to starboard on a choppy ocean. Something may have happened at home to turn him around. Whatever the cause, it's a waste of anxiety to let yourself get disturbed when the Libra scales are unbalanced. It seldom takes long for the Libran to get them swinging harmoniously again. Then peace and tranquility will reign once more in your office; your Libran's work will be as inspired as ever, and you'll return to melting as usual when you get warmed by that incomparable Venus smile.

If there's a union of any kind connected with your company, the chances are the Libran employee will be right in there defending equal rights and fair wages. In fact, lots of people born under this Sun sign make unions their life work. The most important thing to all Librans is harmony. Perfect justice is their ideal. Unions offer him just too good a chance to pass up for his natural talent in settling disputes.

If there's no union to call for his fair judgment, then he's probably the one who becomes the peacemaker when office quarrels rage. The typical Libran is beautifully adept at clearing the air of disagreements. He defends both sides with a total lack of prejudice for either, makes opposing wranglers see each other's viewpoint, and finally tops it off by getting everyone to shake hands all around. The thing which may completely confound you is that he will instigate a few heated arguments himself. But you must remember that to him, these are healthy debates. He loves nothing more than batting the pros back to the cons, then switching to pitch the cons against the pros. In his eyes, that's not fighting. A good, intelligent argument is pure entertainment. It's better than going to the movies. He's usually cheerfully unaware that he's creating any tension when he drives his points home with brilliant logic, and causes others to strangle on their weak suppositions. As soon as his game of brain busting reaches the point where tempers become obviously frayed, he's dismayed. Then, if he's a typical Venus person, he'll quickly pour healing balms over the open wounds, and flatter everyone out of their bad humor with the sunshine of his smile. Frankly, you could kill him for manipulating you so casually.