Its All in the Details- Virgo at Work

 

A favourite method of cost saving in the workplace is to reduce real estate footprint. This means fitting into a smaller space and horror of all horrors, having to confine your workspace to just one desk and possibly a small set of drawers. I am not really known for my neatness, so my space is usually in as much creative disorder as my brain.

Known as being the neat freaks of the zodiac, Virgo has the opposite, not entirely undeserved, reputation. I have known some Virgo colleagues who are able to maintain perfectly clean surfaces in the face of the Facilities mandated 30 linear cm of storage space, but I have known others whose apparent disorganisation rivals mine. Whether it is neatness of their physical space or a supremely organised mind, Virgo is constantly aiming towards some manifestation of “perfect”- whatever that definition happens to be at that point in time.

With the Sun in Virgo, you will be methodical, logical and practical. Hardworking and thorough, Virgo is the ultimate marriage of earthy practicality and the mental agility of Mercury. It is these traits which make Virgo employees both indispensable and undervalued. Yet publicly, Virgo will be the last to acknowledge this.

Many of us find it difficult to focus on the essentials and the details. As a result we take for granted those colleagues who can take pieces of information, organise it and break it down into concrete tasks. Rarely do we praise or notice that which is essential, so Virgos attention to detail is often rewarded with more work. When she inevitably collapses under the pressure of maintaining such high standards, we finally notice her absence by replacing her with 2 or 3 newbies.

Virgo is associated with the 6^th house, and the 6^th house is, amongst other things, associated with outsourced work and routine day to day work. The type of work that would send your resident Aries absolutely bonkers. This is what Virgo is good at- not that they really care to admit it- many Virgos (especially younger Virgos) would much rather have a different reputation.

The Virgo Sun does well at any occupation which involves attention to detail. She is good at counting things, crossing the ‘i’s, dotting the ‘t’s and any task involving organisation and assimilation of information. Two of the best Business Analysts I have worked with just happened to have Virgo Suns. Although long gone from the company, we still rely on the processes and procedures that they painstakingly documented and filed.

The hardest thing for Virgo Sun to define is what is actually “good enough”. This is one goal which is constantly changing as Virgo continues to judge herself and find the result a little less than perfect. Rather than understanding personal limitations or looking for the good in herself, Virgo will instead become easily discouraged. This has the propensity to lead to nervous exhaustion and burnout. The situation is not helped in that we rarely acknowledge the work and effort that was made by Virgo which leads her to conclude that her efforts were not good enough... and so the cycle continues.

A Virgo friend has her home office perfectly organised with a bookshelf full of labelled folders. Last year I decided to get in touch with my own Virgo and spent a very painful weekend doing the same. When my husband complained that he couldn’t do the taxes because he didn’t know where anything was, I was able to direct him to the fuschia pink folder clearly labelled “Tax Stuff”. In that moment my efforts were rewarded... and I don’t think I ever really thanked her.

So this week at work, take some time out to notice the details, the records that are maintained, the files that are updated, the format and timeliness of the minutes, the clarity of the project plan and the accuracy of the forecasts- these are all Virgo tasks, all essential, all necessary and all usually overlooked.