What really matters?

As some people reading this blog know, I've been having a few political difficulties at work, of the sort that you'd be upset about if they happened to your friends. I've been openly attacked a couple of times, and a lot more than that in the background, and sometimes it's been hard to keep it all in perspective. But equally sometimes it just takes a phrase to snap everything back into place. Some friends with the same problem had been down at my new desk talking about it all, and as they were leaving the wise old owl next to me leant over and said that when he thought about sacking someone, he always asked himself two questions: is this person doing their job, and are they disturbing the rest of the team (with a third question: could I easily replace them with someone who could do their job better if the answer to either of those were 'no')?

I thought about this for a bit, and felt a little more at peace with the situation, because in the end, it doesn't matter how much poo your company has put you through - if you can answer each of these questions well, then you're doing okay.