I believe that the old adage that 20 percent of employees do 80 percent of the work holds truer today than ever before. The 80 percent are what I like to term "floaters." They float into work and out; they float to the water cooler, the lunch room, other people's offices and cubicles—usually those among the ranks of the 20 percent who are really working. Floaters are often the folks who plan the surprise parties, go out for coffee and lunch, and organize the softball team. Obviously, they do have a function in the complex social network of corporate America. And they do one other thing: They are headcount, usually for egotistical managers who can't live without their contingent of loyal servants who worship daily at their fountains of glory.

By stark contrast, the go-to people have queues out their doors resembling the mob waiting outside Marlon Brando's office in Godfather I, with the exception that go-to people don't get their rings, or their butts for that matter, kissed and also don't have the authority or wherewithal to put floaters where they belong, sleeping with the fishes. Go-to people provide not only answers, but guidance, to other employees and bumbling senior management—yes, you guessed it—who are mostly floaters seeking esoteric wisdom (e.g., "For the millionth time, it would be better if you had run that query before 10 a.m. or after 2 p.m. because between 10 and 2, we have the most order entry activity. And your query to obtain sales figures for Goofy Ridge, Illinois, for the last 100 years runs for 90 minutes and brings the system to its knees and also brings tons more people to my office wondering why the friggin' system is so freakin' slow!"). Go-to people are helpful but can sometimes get a little testy.

Go-to people are best recognized by the bottle of Tylenol quick-release caplets on their desk next to the even bigger bottle of Pepto-Bismol superseded only by the vat of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. Their favorite expression when it comes to pain killers and coffee is "super-size me." Their fantasy is for the bottles of pain killers and bismuth to contain heroin and poison, respectively. They ponder whether a caffeine IV in the arm and a catheter (you know where) would make them more productive. Go-to people also eat at their desks or don't eat at all. They hold "it" in until they are about to burst and then have to jostle their way through the throng to get to the bathroom in time—or they just jump out the window.

Go-to people are organized and always busy—not working on one project, but multi-tasking on several simultaneously. Scientifically, they are an example of Sir Isaac Newton's first law of motion, which states that "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." This same theory also explains the behavior of floaters, whose natural tendency is to resist changes to their state of floating. This tendency to resist change to a state of motion (go-to people) or floating (floaters) is described as inertia. See, you can learn a thing or two about physics in this column.

Go-to people know their job and the business; they work on problems tenaciously and resolve them quickly. Often, this is not "quick" enough for the hordes of people at their doors and cubicles. However, if left to the barbarians at the proverbial gate, the problem would more likely be solved along the lines of the infinite monkey theorem, which states, more or less, that given an infinite amount of time, an infinite number of monkeys could solve a corruption of a SQL Server database or produce the entire works of Shakespeare.

Go-to people work hard and late and often on their sick days, vacations, weekends, and holidays (didn't someone just write a commentary on this topic?). And they often go home and have a martini or five to unwind and forget.

As some famous writer once put it, there has to be balance or equilibrium in the universe; so, too, in the corporate life. Bottom line: There will always be go-to people and floaters. However, if you are a go-to person, you need not take this unequivocal universal law in stride. Document your time and efforts in problem resolution—even if it means keeping a log. This is time well-spent because along with documentation of projects you have successfully completed and/or those that remain unfinished because of fire fighting, butt-saving (usually that of someone else), and playing the cavalry over the hill, your problem-resolution log may mean all the difference during evaluation and raise time because you will have evidence of what you've been doing. Yeah, I know you have heard this before and you don't have the "time" to keep a log. But do it anyway: Keep a running log; jot down a few words after each "visit" from the problem-laden or even while you are listening to the bearer of the problem. This way, you don't have to remember later or at the end of the week

Also, it is imperative to speak to your superior, constructively. While complaining is unseemly, you do need to make your superior aware of the added work you are bearing. Not making this person aware can lead to a huge misunderstanding in expectations, which can negatively impact your raise and/or promotion and ultimately leave you in the dungeon of resentment.

Moreover, you can't be the office carpet: If you perceive a pattern in the people/problems in which the same people have the same problems ad nauseam, you might want to bring this up to your boss and to theirs—not to undermine them but to get to the real cause of the problem: Is it the person, the system, or the program? If it is a system or program problem, perhaps you could outline a resolution and thereby elevate your position in your department and the company and possibly grab some time for a sandwich and a biology break. Uh, 'scuse me...

Maria A. DeGiglio is President of, and Principal Analyst for, Maria A. DeGiglio & Associates, an advisory firm that provides clients with accurate and actionable information on business and technology initiatives. You can reach Ms. DeGiglio at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..