The CIA released a guide once in how to subtly resist a hostile government from the inside, in a corporate setting. It said things like “Always set a follow-up meeting to every meeting”, “Never commit to anything”, and “Reject everything you’re asked to review with vague comments”. It was practically a perfect portrait of my boss at my last company, who was lauded as excellent by management.
It got me thinking: If he was considered indispensable while basically following a guide on destroying the company to the letter, then how bad could I ever be?
This is going to sound fucked up, but a few years ago I was really struggling with a job and there was immense pressure for me to quit.
At the lowest of my lows, I was browsing the internet and stumbled upon some incompetent fuckery shit that Trump pulled off and immediately understood his appeal to people: if he can fuck up so obviously and on a large scale and still show his face, why can’t I?
It’s easy to hold someone accountable for messing up a small thing, but holding someone accountable for messaging up something massive? You kind of have to admit some fault in allowing that to happen yourself. By trying to hold them accountable you have to admit that YOU also screwed up. That’s harder for people to admit.
Agreed, and I had fucked up big and it took me years to make up for it, and I eventually did, even become good friends with my boss over time.
But at that moment, back then I was so ready to end it all, and the realisation that - yes, you can get away with being an absolute fuckup in full public view and survive - was a weird comfort for me at the time
The CIA released a guide once in how to subtly resist a hostile government from the inside, in a corporate setting. It said things like “Always set a follow-up meeting to every meeting”, “Never commit to anything”, and “Reject everything you’re asked to review with vague comments”. It was practically a perfect portrait of my boss at my last company, who was lauded as excellent by management.
It got me thinking: If he was considered indispensable while basically following a guide on destroying the company to the letter, then how bad could I ever be?
This is going to sound fucked up, but a few years ago I was really struggling with a job and there was immense pressure for me to quit.
At the lowest of my lows, I was browsing the internet and stumbled upon some incompetent fuckery shit that Trump pulled off and immediately understood his appeal to people: if he can fuck up so obviously and on a large scale and still show his face, why can’t I?
It’s easy to hold someone accountable for messing up a small thing, but holding someone accountable for messaging up something massive? You kind of have to admit some fault in allowing that to happen yourself. By trying to hold them accountable you have to admit that YOU also screwed up. That’s harder for people to admit.
Agreed, and I had fucked up big and it took me years to make up for it, and I eventually did, even become good friends with my boss over time.
But at that moment, back then I was so ready to end it all, and the realisation that - yes, you can get away with being an absolute fuckup in full public view and survive - was a weird comfort for me at the time