Pros
Ask yourself this question: “Could I work for Tywin Lannister?” Tywin Lannister is smart, well-spoken, powerful, calculating, impatient, and ruthless. His ego fills a kingdom. He never switches off. He has a keen sense of how to negotiate with people who need him more than he needs them. You may be one of these desperate people. You may also soon realize your new alliance is worse than your previous fate. You may do things you can never undo. (FYI: Any “review” with a 4- or 5-star rating was likely solicited from the tyrant himself.) Are you looking for a place to settle in for a while? This is not that place. No one ever retires from Lancer. Four Masters of Coin (“Directors of Finance”) in three years and five HR managers in three years. (There really is no GoT equivalent of an HR Director – because, really, would Tywin Lannister agree to have an HR Director in his kingdom?) If given a long enough trajectory, everyone who stays is eventually axed. Your job, your boss’ job, your favorite Lancer peoples’ jobs will all be threatened on a monthly basis if not weekly. You will be put on trial for your life every day. If you take the job, be like Littlefinger or Varys. Have a grand plan for your life that doesn’t involve giving Tywin Lannister the kind of fealty you are going to have to fake. For Tywin Lannister appreciates no one. He will speak of his great “loyalty” to people, and you will think quietly to yourself: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. (Sorry. Mixing my media there. . . ) Are you a “collaborator?” Tywin Lannister is not a collaborator. If he asks you a question, think: TRAP. A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of sheep. It will help a lot if you are already practiced in the art of lying and backstabbing. If you already understand that you should trust no one. It is best to keep your own reality as secret as if you were sleeping with your own brother.
Cons
Sure, there is a remnant of humanity in Tywin Lannister. Tywin Lannister may surprise you now and then with something that resembles recognition, but you’ll soon realize the double-edged backhandedness that is the Valerian steel sword in your hand. Could you work for Tywin Lannister? Or more importantly, do you have to? If you can work for another company, then do. If you can’t, you’ll take the Lancer job and tell yourself it’s a placeholder until a better company scoops you up – and they may in that first six months, if your talents and soul don’t actively begin to decay in either the paranoid atmosphere, or under the soul-crushing workload. In that first six months, you might not be too contaminated yet. But remember - with the exception of Tywin - not even Lannisters want to be Lannisters. Despite your empathy for your colleagues’ situation, your good sense of humor will not be appreciated. And soon, you will lose it from lack of use. Instead, prepare for a lot of crying. If you yourself are capable of the fortitude it will take not to shed tears under these circumstances, you’ll still have to watch your colleagues and direct reports lose it, and frequently. Get out before you’re in too deep. Because nobody wants to hire a Lannister. They know you’ve been doing Tywin’s dirty work. If you are a woman, Tywin Lancer won’t sexually harass you – he’s far too busy and too disciplined to dally in that sort of thing. But he will look away when his lackeys (like The Mountain) do. And they will. You are thinking to yourself, “Ah! But a Lannister always pays his debts.” This is not true for Tywin Lancer, CEO of Lancer Hospitality. You will be offered a low salary because remember, he already knows you need him more than he needs you. He knows you have to take it, and he knows he’ll likely fire you before you realize he’ll never give you what was promised. He will underpay you by 25 to 50% of the going rate for your station. It will mess with your head, your finances, your private life, your resume, and soon you will believe you can’t leave. It isn’t that Tywin Lancer is an incompetent leader. It’s that he’s leading a world you don’t currently inhabit. So ask yourself, do you have to join this world? Because you just might be a Stark. You might have a moral code. A code of ethics that binds you to your subjects and your peers. If you keep your head, you may find you have a larger network of allies once you escape. Given the turnover, this is a sizable contingent of your future peers, bosses, direct reports, and clients. The Kingdom Formerly Ruled by Tywin Lannister is vast and wide.
