CORPORATE TAROT: The Gameboard 🔮

It’s Friday again, so apparently, we’re doing another Corporate Tarot Pull. Two weeks in a row. Yes, I’m aware this looks like I’m developing a routine, but please don’t encourage it. It is a brief, mysterious alignment of mood, caffeine, and adult responsibilities. It will not last.

One card. For the collective. No incense. No dramatic whispering. Just workplace physics.

🃏 THE GAMEBOARD
Upright meaning: If you refuse to learn the game at work, you don’t become enlightened, you become easy to move around.

Because “I’m not political” doesn’t stop politics, it just means you’re letting other people write the rules while you’re busy being morally hydrated. Now I’m not saying you have to be fake. I’m saying you have to be literate. Every workplace has a board with invisible rules:

-what gets rewarded vs. what gets praised
-what “alignment” means when priorities suddenly “shift” (magically, with no owner)
-who gets heard when the room goes quiet
-what “urgent” means when it’s always urgent (so… nothing is)

You can dislike it. You can roll your eyes at it. You can have a group chat about it. But if you pretend you’re not in it, the game still plays… and you may end up in Free Parking but not with a seat at the table.

Reversed meaning: This is where “opting out” starts masquerading as a personality, it sounds like:

“I don’t network.”
“I don’t self-promote.”
“I’m staying out of it.”

And sometimes that’s integrity, sure, but sometimes it’s just choosing invisibility and calling it peace. But never forget, your work doesn’t automatically speak for itself and if you allow it, it whispers… or mumbles, and it’s likely to get filed under “Great idea” and promptly sent to the upside down.

And YES, this shows up IRL too. Obvi.
Families have gameboards. Friend groups have gameboards. Love, lust, and dating have an entire casino floor. Even your own habits have a scoreboard that tracks what you actually do (not what you meant to do after you “get through this week.”)
Refusing to name the rules doesn’t make you above them. It just makes you surprised by outcomes that were… honestly pretty predictable.

Your one clean takeaway: Learn the rules without letting the rules own you.

If you want a simple compass, because again obvi, use the SNAK approach:

SKILLS: get undeniably good at something that matters
NETWORK: build real relationships, not transactional collecting
ACTIVITIES: choose work that’s visible and valuable, not just heavy
KNOWLEDGE: understand how decisions, power, and priorities actually move

That’s how you stay honest and effective. Don’t just practice, become more adept at play.

So where have you seen someone “opt out” at work and pay for it later—and what’s your best move for learning the game without losing yourself? Asking for a friend 😉

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!