Are you “blued eyed?” Yes. No, you are not! Take off these lenses; otherwise for taking to be blue eyed, your manager may give and leave you with a ‘black eye’. So, to be a blue eyed boy or girl, man or woman, does one need to have blue pupils? No.
Are you “blued eyed?” Yes. No, you are not! Take off these lenses; otherwise for taking to be blue eyed, your manager may give and leave you with a ‘black eye’. So, to be a blue eyed boy or girl, man or woman, does one need to have blue pupils? No.
So, who is a blue eyed person? What is meant by blue eyed? Where did this originate from? Let’s examine.
Blue is considered to be a royal color. It represents royalty, regality and superiority. It is a color of creation by Divinity. The sky is blue. The oceans are blue. The ‘once in a blue moon’ idiom is reflective of the attending significance. The rarity, hence the importance. The blue eye origins trace back to a decision of England’s Council of Ministers taken in 1610 AD. The anthropologists have unanimous view that all blue eyed have one ancestor. A genetic initiation that took place 6000 – 10,000 years ago. In conclusion, on the origins and importance, the color blue is uniquely significant. A distinctive position it confers. Hence the idiomatic coinage, “a blue eyed” person.
Blue eyed’s are persons who are highly regarded by some one and treated with special favours. The ‘blue eyed’ appellation is sometimes used derogatively – with underlying tone of being envious. Haven’t we all heard the whisper, “O, he is the manager’s blue eyed and so gets away with murder on the shop floor!” The desire to be blue eyed is everyone’s wish, but only the very few would admit. It is so because ‘flattery’ is viewed as its bed rock. It can become real derogatory if the individual is seeking to blue eyed, without evidencing talent and skills, is willing to compromise to no ends and is prone and susceptible to bending backwards, with absolute defiance to the challenges of the gravitational laws! But, with widespread recognition of attributes and skills, should any colleague become the blue eyed, then there can be no derogatory implication, to be titled, as such.
Blue eyed is usually ‘someone’s young man or woman who they like better than anyone else and therefore is perceived to receive better, than others. So, to acquire this status, the individual must back it up with skills, talents and an outstanding persona.
Being ‘blue eyed’ of the boss, you are likely to enjoy popularity, coupled with authority that gets derived by the affinity, the person enjoys with the boss. Since there is ‘authority’ and ‘popularity’ associated with this title, the owner of this coveted position has to demonstrate great skills of maturity in dealing, with co-workers. The ‘blue eyed’ possesses authority that has loads of potential to be mis-used or even abused. Alternatively, it can be profitably deployed for personal development and for being or becoming the instrument of harmony amongst the diversity of human behavior in the rank and file, of the organisation. The blue eyed must be careful to carry a balanced head on their shoulders.
The associated glory gets to the head, induces feelings of indispensability leading to attitudinal changes, that take the blue eyed’s to the summit of arrogance. And at that height, usually, the dizziness of reality hits and such come down hurtling towards ground zero. And, if you happened to be the ‘blue eyed’ of a Prime Minister, then with the PM being de-seated, these blue eyed find their place in “cells”.
In the corporate settings too, with every management change, the blue eyed suffers because the environment avenges his past mis-doings, by unburdening themselves of all related negativity about the ‘irresponsible blue eyed’ to the ‘New Boss’!
The new boss is always vulnerable – the intensity of the pressure to be recognized is powerful, and only maintenance of results is insufficient, they have to be seen as growing. Under this pressure, he lends his ears to all the ‘Roman's’, in the workforce; and these Romans are close cousins to fraternity of et tu brute! The clan of deserters.
If to the bad fortune of the new boss, the blue eyed happens to be talented as well, he is most likely to be the most feared, by the incoming manager. The consequence that invariably follows is that the blue eyed, since he doesn’t possess de-jure powers, but only the perceived de-facto powers, he is clipped, stripped and chopped, of it, publicly; so that the audience knows that the corporate's ‘Thomas Buckets’, shall also be put to Guillotine!
Many moons back, when I worked in the UK for an organisation, I found this young blue eyed of the managing director, who was rude, abrasive and firm, but it was closeted within the confines of grace and humility. I remind my readers, that rudeness is not being loud or the use of expletives in conversation – it manifests itself in all formats through different mannerisms. The politest words can be employed while still being rude.
In my career, I have been labelled many times as ‘blue eyed’ by colleagues and peer group. I think, I was. Not of one boss but of multiple managers. I delivered on time and gave ‘advice’ and ‘good counsel’ without fear or favour and hence became the blue eyed. Consequent to such recognition, I took no advantages. Hence the backlash of the ‘new boss’ was experienced only, once. The new boss, saw me as a ‘plant’ of the former boss, who had been elevated to a higher cadre, in another geographic region. So he (incoming boss) got back upon me through my ‘dearest colleagues and friends’. They who used to flock around me; they who saw in me being the ‘Queen Bee’, had gradually begun to detach and move away …. I become a corporate recluse! Life became miserable, dealing with turn coats. I sought help from global HR. The global head was a fair man, with tenacious sagacity in the understanding of human behavior. He related to my plight with least explanation and promptly ‘winched’ me, by transferring me, to the western hemisphere. The blue eyed's growth and demise is also realities of the corporate world. The blue eyed may not necessarily cause harm to any colleagues, but out of the need to curry favour with the ‘New Boss’, they would go head over heels, in creating doubts and suspicious about the blue eyed's ‘loyalty’ towards him.
There is more to gain and less to loose in being blue eyed. The trick is to have an uprightness that will blot out the possibility of being left ‘black eyed’!
The writer is a freelance columnist
