How Hot Are You? Career Heat-O-Meter

By Duane Swierczynski

Where do you fall on the heat-o-meter?

CEO MATERIAL
HEAT INDEX: 451° F
The office literally can't run without you. When you cough, stock markets in Asia get jittery. You have dozens of allies; the conventional wisdom is you'll be running the place someday. In fact, you practically are.

OFFICE DARLING
HEAT INDEX: 115° F
You're known as the go-to person for pretty much everything: advice, a shoulder, Motrin. When employees don't want to bother the muckety-mucks, they come to you. You're a fixture at meetings.

MONEYMAKER
HEAT INDEX: 97.5° F
You coast along — in by 8, out by 4. No one knows you outside your department, except in a vague, "Hmm, she looks familiar" kind of way. You do your job. You're good at your job. But so is the person on the other side of the divider.

CUBICLE WARMER
HEAT INDEX: 72° F
You see a lot of people meeting, but you don't know what about. Instead of doing your job, you're loaned to other departments for "special assignments."

SEVERANCE FODDER
HEAT INDEX: 47° F
No one reports to you; you're not even sure to whom you report. Even the IT guy blows you off.

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