Idiots at the Wheel

I watched and read one day as a Facebook friend proceeded to have a meltdown on her wall. It all began with these words--My boss is a moron. From there, it got worse. She let it all out over the course of a day.

I know this person in real life. She is super nice and super smart. She does IT for some company. She is a total geek, but I know that she is a great employee. Unfortunately, she has a shithead boss. She is not alone.

Across this country, there are idiots in charge at every company. They do dumb shit. It is their nature since you don't get promotion for talent and hard work but for stealing credit and dodging blame. Most are gutless turds except when they are yelling at you. Then, they feel manly and can salvage the bruising their egos took from their own bosses. From the pointy haired boss in Dilbert to that clueless fuck on The Office, the culture has a very accurate picture of the typical boss. He is an asshole and a moron with no grasp on reality.

What can you do about this? Well, you can always quit, but your next job is not going to be any different. You can try to use reason, but bosses are morons. If they were reasonable, they wouldn't be morons. You can yell, scream, and show your ass. But this just makes you look like the moron. It is a no-win situation.

The only way to win is to do good work. You're not going to change things. They have always been this way and always will be this way. So, just do your job. Go to work and do it to the best of your abilities. Enjoy the work for its own sake. Then, go home. If things go to shit, remember, you're not the one at the wheel.

The trick is to care enough to do your best but to not care about anything else. You aren't the one signing the checks. You don't own the company. You're not the one making the decisions. You are just following orders. Inevitably, they give you orders that are impossible to follow. Don't worry about it. Think only of the worst employees in your company and the fact that nothing ever happens to them. Nothing will happen to you either.

The proper attitude to have at a company is detachment and apathy. This is better known as "professionalism." To be professional means literally to not give a fuck. You do good work, but you don't care.

Inevitably, idiot bosses get fired. You can feel good about this until they hire the next idiot. Then, it begins again. You can't change this reality, so learn to live with it.

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