Working in the Regional-Third-Party-Call-Center, I’ve rethought my previous post on Technical Name Calling.

If you recall, I cited four classes of jobs:

• Zombie
• Monkey
• Grunt
• Jockey

I’ve refined my definitions, and I think the job roles make more sense now:

So lets try again:

• Zombies: As before, I suggested this is a job that does not REALLY require a warm body. A computer could do this job, but either the technology is too expensive or the company is too cheap or incapable of implementing such a solution. So these people are doing simple tasks a computer could do. Often very scripted, and very repetitive, and no decisions really need to be made. If A happens, do B. If C happens do D…
• Monkey: This is a job which requires a warm body, and the ability to make simple decisions. Monkeys can be trained to do repetitive tasks, and they work well in trees (Decision Trees, that is.) Give a Monkey a Decision Tree and they can do the job effectively. If A happens do B or C, if D happens after B, you can try E or F.
• Grunts: This is the Brute Force labor. Again, very repetitive, but not enough to be automated, and requires some human creativity and ingenuity, and some previous education/training. Grunts are usually analysts, or low level coders. There is often a lot of daily work, and very little glory. But if you have a good grunt behind the scenes, you often have some great data to work with and make decisions with.
• Jockeys: One might think the Jockey positions is very cool, but think about the situation. You work for an owner, who gets all the profits. You race as fast as you can, in a straight line, with little creativity and some strategy. You are generally one of the little people, and in the end, the Horse gets all the credit and the fanfare. These are fast paced jobs, where the product or the end result is more appreciated than the work you perform before, and during the execution, to get there. Jockeys come and go, but the Horse lives forever, even after it goes to stud (or the glue factory.)

I’ve been looking in my new cubicle jungle, and classifying some of the roles I’ve observed. I see a lot of Zombies, a few Monkeys, and one or two Grunts. I’ve yet to see a Jockey. Though, Jockeys are not often seen in a call center, they are more seen in places.

I don’t know about you, but I’m liking this classification system for cubicle line workers.

I should write a book, it would be a cubicle jungle best seller: How to Manage your Monkey.
Or “Turning your Monkey into a Jockey”.