My Observation Starts With a Mess
Okay, so Monday morning chaos hit. Spilled my coffee all over the quarterly report draft Tina emailed late Friday. My desk looked like a brown pond. Grabbed paper towels, blotting like crazy, muttering under my breath about Mondays. Right then, my boss, Karen (known Virgo), walks by. She stops. Cold.
She doesn’t yell about the spill. Nope. She points at a tiny, smudged number on page 3 peeking out from under the coffee stain. Like, barely visible.
“That 7 looks like it might be a 1 now. Have you cross-referenced this with the raw data sheet from last Thursday? It should be tab ‘Q3 Projections – Final’. Check cell B45.”
I froze. Who remembers cell addresses? And tab names? But yeah, turns out she was right. The original was a 7, my draft accidentally had a 1. That coffee spill? Probably saved me from submitting totally wrong figures. Karen just nodded and walked off. No small talk. Just… accuracy.
Sign #1 Hits Me Like a Ton of Bricks
Right there. Hyper-Attention to Detail. It wasn’t nagging; it was almost a sixth sense for inconsistencies. Got me thinking: what else screams “Virgo Boss”? I decided to actively look.
How I Spotted the Traits This Week
Kept my eyes peeled during our team prep for Wednesday’s big client pitch:
- The Planner-in-Chief: Karen didn’t just schedule the meeting. She sent a freakin’ dossier Monday afternoon. It had:
- Agenda broken into 5-minute increments (seriously).
- A checklist for each team member (“Mike: bring prototype samples 3-5, charged”).
- PDFs of the client’s last three annual reports with key sections highlighted.
- Backup slides… for the backup slides.
We were over-prepared. Felt weirdly safe.
- Process is King (or Queen): Thursday, I submitted my expense report. Got it bounced back within an hour. Not because of the amount, but because I scanned the receipt sideways instead of upright. Needed re-scanning. “Policy requires upright scans for digital filing,” her email stated. No emotion. Just procedure.
Then came Friday feedback fun:
- The Constructive Critic: Presented a new marketing idea. Karen listened, took notes. Her feedback? Brutally specific:
- “The color palette clashes with the client’s established brand guide. Refer to section 4.2.”
- “Second paragraph lacks supporting data from the Q2 survey; add stats.”
- “Slide transition on page 6 is too slow; 0.5 seconds max is our standard.”
Ouch. But also… kinda helpful? In a deeply nitpicky way.
The Final Sign Was Hiding in Plain Sight
End of day Friday. Everyone’s fried. I see Karen meticulously organizing the supply cupboard. Pens sorted by color, sticky note pads stacked by size, labels facing out perfectly. She even wiped down the shelves. Not her job. Just… needing things Neat and Orderly. Felt totally on brand.
Wrapping Up My Virgo Boss Recon
So, yeah, here’s what my week observing Karen boiled down to:
- Hyper-Attention to Detail: Spots that tiny smudge before your coffee dries.
- The Planner-in-Chief: Prepares for your presentation harder than you do.
- Process is King: Will enforce the TPS report cover sheet. Every. Single. Time.
- The Constructive Critic: Delivers feedback so specific it includes slide transition speeds.
- Neat and Orderly: The supply closet sparks more joy for them than it ever could for Marie Kondo.
Working for a Virgo boss? Exhausting sometimes, sure. But man, you definitely learn to double-check your cell references and scan receipts straight.
