Linda Goodman's Sun Signs (53 page)

The first week on the job with a Sagittarius boss may leave you a little confused. You won't know whether to laugh or cry.

Is she a genius? Or is she clown. No, she's neither—but she's clearly a rude boor. At second glance, he has a touch of Don Quixote. But that couldn't be. Not when she insults you with such relish. Still, she does flatter you with warm sincerity. Look at her—as awkward as a three-legged colt. No, actually she's as graceful as a racehorse. What does she use, trick mirrors?

After the second week, you'll uneasily decide to stay awhile and see what happens next. By now, you're sure her father spoiled her rotten. (Wrong. He didn't have a chance. Did what she wanted to do.) Well, she's somebody else's problem, not yours. You're leaving soon. He's welcome to the woman—her husband, that is. You've begun to feel sorry for him. (He sheds a few tears of self-pity himself at times, but he leads an exciting life.) You're sure she secretly hates you. (She's crazy about you. Just brutally honest when you make a mistake and painfully frank about your faults.) You think she's going to promote you. (Not yet. She was just a little over-enthusiastic yesterday.) She invited you to lunch this morning. Now you can find out what she's really like. (She cancelled it. She had forgotten he promised to speak at the ASPCA meeting.)

Two months later, both you and your psychiatrist feel it's time to have a serious talk with her. You make up your mind: If she listens to your complaints about her erratic and puzzling actions, and she lets you know where you stand with her and the company, you'll remain on the job. Otherwise you'll quit. You will be firm. (Sorry. She just left for London.) All right, you can wait. So you'll put your cards on the table when she returns, and tell her exactly how you feel. Give her a few days to get back into the swing of things. She looks a little tired. But you're not going to let that impress you. By tomorrow she should be settled down enough to listen to reason. (You'll have to call the airport instead. She's leaving for Tokyo.)
Now wait a minute!
When is she going to light somewhere long enough for you to tell her what's wrong with the way she treats you?

You really want an answer? Never. Your Sagittarius boss greases the ball bearings on her skates each morning and casually glides around town, building one gargantuan promotion after another. She certainly doesn't want to stop long enough to hear you tell her about her faults. She thinks he's a pretty good apple. And she is, when you stop to think about it. Often, she's shy and helpless, and she needs to be understood.

But she keeps making those outrageous remarks to people. Why should she expect you to make excuses for him? Besides, a person can run out of excuses. (Call her husband. He keeps an alphabetical file of them.)

It's not fair for her to keep smiling so cheerfully, while she completely ignores what you're saying and refuses to stick to a schedule. (Call her father. He'd love to discuss it with you. Been waiting for years to find someone to sympathize with him.) What are you going to do? You simply have to do something.

You might try writing her a formal letter. Be sure it's logical, with no phony emotion or one-sided arguments, which make her the villain and you the righteous one. She's the righteous one. If you make a fair point, she'll consider it, and try to mend her ways, but she doesn't want to spend six hours discussing it. In his opinion, there are more exciting adventures than listening to a recital of why she's wrong. Besides, she's not going to change anyway, so why waste her valuable time? Doesn't she have any virtues at all? Well, yes, she does. Stop right there. Hang on to those, and forget the rest. Her father did. Her husband does. Imitate their wisdom.

You could start by checking off a list of her good points. Right away you have to admit she's seldom irritable. Only once in a while, when somebody tries to dampen the fires of her enthusiasm, or when that stuffy accountant wants her to remember what she meant by those figures in her expense report for last month. Generally your Sagittarius boss is a rather happy-go-lucky, optimistic, cheerful type. That's a plus. Now, what else? She's pretty fair about sick leave and vacations. Another good point—she's generous. Lots of bosses wouldn't have understood when you lost all your money at the race track and had to borrow a month's pay in advance. All she said was that you should have asked her which horse was going to win before you picked such obvious losers. But she gave you the advance and said you could pay it back a few dollars a week later. Another check mark to her credit.

When you impulsively broke off your engagement and then regretted it deeply, she gave you the afternoon off so you could patch it up. Before you left, she happened to remark that she thought you were the most creative employee in the firm, and her obvious sincerity picked up your droopy heart. It gave you the courage to run right straight into someone's arms with confidence, and the broken love affair was mended by nightfall. All right, so she's a pretty great morale booster. Anything more?

You kind of admire her because she's a non-conformist. She fights hard for what she believes is right, and it gives you a warm feeling to work for someone like that. It's sort of exciting to be around someone who defends lost causes. She's true to herself and her code, whatever it might be. That's refreshing, isn't it? Of course. Add another virtue.

But wait—what about that time you felt like a complete fool when you quoted the wrong figures at a sales meeting, and she led the laughter? Then she tried to fix it up by saying, “That's our boy, Tom, always throwing in a monkey wrench, but we love him anyway.” Don't think about those things now. We're dwelling on her good points, remember?

There's no denying a Sagittarius boss can keep you a little up in the air. It's hard to decide if she's a saint or a sinner, or a little of each. The latter is probably closer to the truth. It takes a spell to get used to the Jupiter executive. She's usually a hail-fellow-well-met type, but the Sagittarius honesty and desire to keep everything aboveboard (and I mean everything) can be a shock to more sensitive natures. This sign is so democratic, you can't help liking her. Still, her forthright manner and brutal frankness are sometimes hard to take. The Sagittarius employer is sincere and friendly, and it's obvious she isn't the kind of person to hold a grudge or deliberately hurt anyone. She has very few inhibitions, and correcting your mistakes definitely isn't one of them. Her criticism is done in the open, usually with a bare minimum of tact. Even the gentle archers never think of the wounds they're inflicting when they cheerfully point out your flaws with deadly accuracy. True, the compliments and warm appreciation far outweigh the embarrassments, but those painful moments stand out like sore thumbs. The December-born boss honestly believes that everyone wants to hear the truth. So she tells them. When she sees that she has offended, she can be the soul of contrite regret. Then she apologizes profusely and explains, frequently making it worse.

You'll seldom know where she is at any given moment. Sagittarius can be anywhere at a minute's notice. You'll learn that she's great at spotting phonies, fake salespeople with false pitches, clients with hidden motives and employees with hidden vices. She's not so clever about her love life. If she's single, she may keep the office buzzing with his sentimental journeys and her active romantic adventures.

She probably has a host of friends of all shapes and descriptions. Bank presidents, important politicians, carnival people, newspaper reporters, ministers, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, carpenters, radio announcers, society dowagers, weight-lifters, gamblers, chorus girls, architects, bartenders and college professors all trip merrily over her welcome mat at all hours of the day or night. She sizes up people with her own ruler. If they measure up to her standards, she loyally defends them.

She gives orders with a rather regal air, but she's so jovial about it, and there's normally so much logic in her methods, it's hard to take offense. Tactless and sometimes foolish, she nevertheless can call on his powerful intuition and lucky hunches to pull her out of almost any jam she gets herself into. (The romantic jams may be a little stickier, and harder for her to avoid.) She's a much deeper thinker than her casual nature would lead you to believe. A Sagittarius boss can give any attorney a good argument and normally come out ahead. If she's a typical Jupiter executive, she's probably had an excellent education. Even if she hasn't you'll never guess, what with all the knowledge her inquisitive mind has picked up along the way.

She's basically kind-hearted, but she's also ambitious enough to step on a few toes occasionally. Her memory sometimes fails in social situations, but rarely on facts. The archer can roll off the figures of his competitor's gross business and forget the name of his own tax accountant, who's been with her for several years. Although she walks with a free, active stride, now and then with typical Sagittarian carelessness, she may step into the wastebasket or set her drink on an important memorandum. But though her feet may trip over the computer cord, her mind rarely stumbles. Her ideas are frequently unpopular, and aimed way over most people's square heads, but nine out of ten of them pay off.

There are some shy Sagittarius bosses, but under the timid surface, Jupiter will control the personality. Even the retiring type of archer shoots her arrows toward the sky, and keeps firm grip on the bow. The extroverted ones love to talk and expound their favorite theories (plus most of their private thoughts). The introverted ones can manage a pretty fair monologue, too, when the mood hits them, and what they have to say is usually interesting or instructive. Your Sagittarius boss loves animals, bright lights, big plans, creative thinkers, good food and drink, travel, loyalty, change and freedom. She's cool to dishonesty, cruelty, selfishness, keeping secrets from her, stinginess, pessimism, possessiveness and hypocrisy. She's usually a lot of fun to work for, and she grows on you. You kind of get the feeling if you ever left her she would somehow lose her way, in spite of her egotism and independence. She won't, but stick with her anyway. Tomorrow may always be a large question mark, but today will never be dull.

Lots of employees, when you tell them how much money they can make after a year with the firm, plus the financial incentives after five years' service, show a great deal of interest. Your Sagittarius employee will not. He's far more fascinated by what you're going to pay him now—today. Tomorrow is far enough away, but next year is unthinkable and five years is forever. That's play money. He's interested in real cash. What happens later is up to the gods. He'll throw the dice and hope for the best. Usually, the gods will smile on him.

The Sagittarian is a delight to have around the office. He may knock over the filing cabinet or spill coffee on the outgoing mail once in awhile, but what's a little clumsiness, when he's so cheerful and willing to help? He's not a whiner or complainer. He's a positive soul, as enthusiastic and optimistic as you were when you first joined the firm, remember? The difference is that he'll stay that way after he's retired. It's part of his nature. Some of it may rub off on you, and who knows, he may shine some light on that dark corner where you lost your illusions, so you can polish them up and try them out again.

Sagittarius never does things halfway. The only thing he's slow to make up his mind about is marriage. In everything else, he's fairly speedy. There are, of course, some archers with Taurus or Capricorn ascendants, who move with more caution, but they're not slow pokes in either their emotional or mental attitudes. Normally, the typical Sagittarian is way ahead of you, and he certainly doesn't mind brightly calling your attention to it when he is. Humility is not one of his more noticeable attributes. Some Sagittarians wear a thin veil of modesty over their fiery egos, but if you peek through it, you'll see a self-confident person, who is really quite happy with himself in general. He may be a little unsure of himself in love matters on occasion, but who isn't?

Sagittarius may sometimes seem both casual and careless, but never let that lead you into the grave error of underestimating the flashing Jupiter intuition and often brilliant mental processes. There will be times when you have no idea where he's going or where he's been either. There will be other occasions when you'll wonder if he's really shy, or just biding his time for that plan he has pressure cooking in his brain. At other times, you won't have any room for doubt. He'll make so bold, you'll be aghast at his forthright statements. There will be little that's small about his gestures, ideas or actions. He makes large, grand mistakes and pulls in super duper winnings against enormous odds.

The Sagittarian curiosity may get on your nerves. He'll never be satisfied with simply getting instructions. He'll want to know the why behind your orders, and the reason for your methods. If your logic appeals to him, he'll praise you with his honest approval. If not, you may shrink before his equally frank appraisal of the holes in your procedures. That's before you collect your wits and become angry. Collecting your wits may be a necessary precaution in dealing with a Sagittarian, but getting angry is a shameful waste of adrenalin, because very few people can manage to stay mad at the archer. He's the kind you want to smack and kiss at the same time. Since that's impossible (the first is out if she's your administrative assistant, and the second is out if he's your sales manager), you may as well just give up.