I have a story about my own work life that I think illustrates the nature of the Aries coworker.

First of all, I am an Aries and one of my best friends is also an Aries. I was working as a programs coordinator at a non profit when my friend, who was getting a degree, needed an internship for a credit. My workplace just so happened to take interns. Okay whatever. You can come do an internship with me I guess.

I could not, for the life of me, figure out what to give them to do. Finally, I decided to have them scan around eighty pieces of art that our senior citizens made and catalogue them. Why not? The project was big and it would keep them safely busy, I assumed, for the entire duration of their semester long internship.

The project, which was supposed to take them several weeks, only took them two hours. It only took my Aries friend two hours to scan 80 pieces of art, name them all, and also organize them by type.

The Aries coworker doesn’t know how to run out the clock. This is extremely frustrating to almost everybody they work with because Aries gets things that are supposed to take several weeks before lunch. The Aries coworker completes big projects in an hour or two with surging blood pressure, vape or cigarette in mouth, and heavy metal blaring in our headphones. We complete projects only reasonably well. It’s not going to be perfect. Some mistakes were made but we were never told that we had to get it perfect or even right. We were told to get it done.

No, the Aries coworker isn’t charging ahead because we want to be the best worker in the workplace. If you find that your Aries coworker has made a mistake in their work and bring it up to them, you will quickly find that Aries doesn’t really give a shit. If you were smart enough to find the mistake, then why can’t you just fix it on your own? Do you think that we exist to endure your nitpicking? No, Aries isn’t going for gold stars here. We are going hard and fast, fast and furious, because we are addicted to adrenaline.

“I’m done,” is the Aries coworker’s favorite phrase and your least. They look at you expectantly. What else do you need them to do?

You learn to shudder when you hear “I’m done” come out of your Aries coworker’s mouth because you know that an unoccupied Aries is a bored Aries and that a bored Aries is an Aries that will start demanding new projects, coming up with random and new ideas, undergoing new educational opportunities, and just generally causing a lot of trouble to your peace.

The other reason why Aries works so hard and fast is because we have no idea how to ask for help or delegate. If you ask them if there’s anything that you can help them with, they will look at you like they forgot you exist. They did. The Aries coworker believes that explaining how to do something takes much longer than just hunkering down and getting through it. This is why the Aries coworker is often irreplaceable but not for the reasons you think.

How could the Aries coworker explain any aspect of their work at all? Their notes about what they do, if not stored completely in their heads, were scribbled on the backs of their hands in the form of illegible initials and strange symbols that only they know how to read. Documentation? Systems and training? No, no, no. All of that shit is for people who like to talk about doing things more than actually just getting it done.

Aries cares about doing. They don’t care about preparing, planning, training, or building expertise. They think that you can do it or you can’t and, if you never just try, then you’ll never learn.

The Aries coworker doesn’t really believe that anyone can do what they do because they don’t think that anyone can be who they are. If you make the mistake of trying to replace them, then you will need to change the entire role.

As a rule, the Aries coworker is actually pretty low drama on an interpersonal level. They will come to a coworker’s party or hang out with you after work but they won’t remember anything that you tell them even if those personal details directly contradict your work persona. Aries often pisses people off in the short term but they seldom inspire long seated grudges.

There is, however, one thing that the Aries coworker does that frustrates those with long term ambitions to no end.

Aries likes to try new ideas out and they develop their own efficiencies in a way that makes them move super fast. This means that Aries, upon waking up in the morning with an idea about how to completely redesign the entire workplace structure, comes in announcing their new vision with the message, “Just trust me about this.” You try to argue with them about their new plan but they scarcely hear you.

The Aries coworker, because this is their idea and vision, goes to work trying it out with complete self abandonment and enthusiasm. After a week or two, they hit a snag. Once they hit that snag, Aries stops completely. “Oh, I guess this isn’t going to work out the way I imagined,” they happily inform you even though you tried to warn them about this anticipated obstacle in the first place using your powers of foresight.

Is Aries upset? No, they are not.

The Aries coworker is not precious about their energy. They like to waste energy. They will try things just to try them and if it doesn’t work out then it doesn’t work out. Aries will simply try something else. Why not? The first attempt was a good learning lesson and they anticipate their second attempt to be one too.

While other signs, especially earth signs perhaps, like to build on old work over time, accumulating more and more experience, Aries sees the accumulation of expertise and worrying over personal reputation as a burden. If you think that you know too much about what you do, then you’ll get mired by your own limitations and contradictions. You start to take yourself way too seriously. The Aries coworker is not trying to build authority over time and they refuse to take themselves very seriously. They are just testing for possibilities. They are trying to find the easiest possible way to do what they imagine could be possible but isn’t verified as possible yet. Hit resistance or an obstacle? Aries stops. There must be an easier way—something that they haven’t imagined or learned yet.

The Aries coworker will happily discard weeks or months or even years of work if they don’t think it will work out.

Aries is trying to reduce complicated things down so that they are easier and more simple. That’s why they’re fast and why they don’t take notes, by the way—because they create a lot of shortcuts. If what they have been trying is too tedious or involved, then it’s simply not the best way to do it. Once the Aries coworker thinks that going down a certain path isn’t the easiest possible way, they will stop and discard all of their previous efforts. They are willing to start over.

If you work with Aries and you find it important to save old work, then your Aries coworker might drive you nuts a little bit. “Can you tell me what you did last year?” you ask your Aries coworker. No, they cannot. Aries can hardly remember that far back. The Aries coworker also finds it appalling that one might want to repetitively do things again and again for years of their life just to call themselves an expert. Don’t they get sick of themselves?