SSH in the Real World
A Gamma in the workplace
An SG reader shared his recent experience of a Gamma in his workplace
Gamma colleague raging again. His feelings were hurt yesterday morning during a discussion. His honor besmirched! So now everything must burn and we’re all in his competition… He is nearly impossible to communicate with. Takes everything as an attack, a personal affront, or some quadruple secret insult. Can’t ever just have a normal conversation.
He is a subject matter expert, but he’s really not worth keeping around because he’s too emotional.
I was really disgusted with him when he let slip one day that he thinks his family “sucks”. You’re the head of the household, dude…
If you’re a Gamma, it’s absolutely vital to understand that no one is even remotely fooled by your constant attempts to “manage” every situation. Regardless of what you might believe, people do observe your behavior over time, they recognize your patterns and tendencies, and they judge you for them.
There is no “making up” for your bad behavior of the past. It’s ALL on the record, and every single thing you do in the future is viewed through the lens of your previous behavior. And there is no amount of manipulation, spin, or reframing that is going to make things any better for you; to the contrary, everyone knows that you’re going to try to do that, and while they might humor you in order to keep the peace, they’re not actually fooled.
This is why I have no regard whatsoever for self-described “ex-Gammas”. There is no such thing as an ex-Gamma any more than there is an ex-alcoholic. Even when a man has his behavioral patterns under tight control and can convincingly pass himself off as whatever his current situational status happens to be, they are still there, lurking, just waiting for a moment of sufficient stress to break out and reveal themselves again.
If you were ever a Gamma, then you are still subject to your past behavioral patterns, and the more that you convince yourself that you are beyond them, the more likely it is that you will revert to them under stress.
This isn’t to say that one is forever damned for the patterns that engraved themselves on our psychologies during our formative years. Behavioral patterns can be consciously controlled, but they cannot be disciplined if they are denied. The more one learns about the SSH and its ramifications, the more it becomes evident that some form of Gammas Anonymous might be a very useful thing.
One thing I’ve learned about the SSH during my time as a reader is that it’s not some kind of personality quiz like most think. It’s a taxonomy, as Vox has said over and over again. It is a description of a man’s default behavior patterns, his natural tendencies when he acts unconsciously. What a man will do in a given set of circumstances—not what he wants to do, but what he will inevitably end up doing—defines his status in the taxonomy. Just as a lion will inevitably hunt and kill its prey, so will the Alpha dominate and lead. Just as a turtle will inevitably retreat into its shell when it perceives a threat, so will the Omega close himself off from others. This is not to say a lion cannot ever hide, or a turtle cannot ever fight back, but it does describe what these creatures will do nine times out of ten.
"Regardless of what you might believe, people do observe your behavior over time, they recognize your patterns and tendencies, and they judge you for them."
It's a form of solipsism to presume that since you don't often notice other people's behavioral patterns they won't notice yours.