I Am An Asshole

The bureaucrat, when faced with common sense or irrefutable logic, tells you that you are in the wrong line. – Dirk Britton

I dig my heels in over the strangest things. Giving in likely costs me nothing, resistance is a pain in the ass, the benefits of getting my way are often trivial, yet I do it anyway. That’s weird right? Seriously, I think that’s pretty weird.

Someone at work wants me to fill out some paperwork to correct an error. We both agree that there is an error and they are the only ones that can correct it. In my world that should be the end of that. Instead there seems to be a bureaucracy for bureaucracy sake step. I hate paperwork.

It would be easiest to do the 5 minute form, but I don’t think I will be able to. Instead I will spend 20 minutes thinking about it and then 20 minutes composing an email that is as gently worded as possible, but still points out this person is being a moron and there is no point or reason to fill out a form.

Asshole Update

I am more or less over feeling bad for being such an inflexible prick. I have moved on to a feeling of self righteousness. I’m calling it personal growth.

As I predicted I was unable to talk myself into doing the simple thing and filing out the stupid form. Instead I wrote a nicely worded email explaining the mistake and suggesting that a correction be made. Rather than do that it was passed along to my boss who has asked me to fill out the form.

… and the number one reason not to hire me

My response has been to do absolutely nothing. Fuck it. I have pointed out a problem that is costing the company money. The people that can fix it will not unless I fill out a form to abdicate them of any responsibility and erasing the fact that they made the mistake in the first place.

I used to work for a big oil company. I began to realize how much of my time was spent doing pointless bullshit simply because that was the recognized process. I moved away from big companies for exactly that reason. There shouldn’t be a process for fixing a hole in your roof. You just fix it. And so with feelings of entitlement and justifiability I plan on continuing to do nothing.

I’m considering going on a motivational speaking tour based on this story.

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