Office politics.

One of the things I loathe most in my everyday is this adherence to “politics.” Which is a polite, one-worded way of saying “I don’t care if they’re the biggest asshole you ever met, I don’t care if they’re embezzling money from the company, I don’t care if you question whether or not they even have a high school diploma–you must bend over backwards for this person, because they are of higher rank than you.”

This really pisses me off. The word “hate” cannot even describe how much I abhor the asslicking involved in way too many people’s workplaces, especially mine. I hate not being able to call a fucking tomato a tomato, and this office politics thing prevents me from that, through some kind of peer-enforced guilt system. What I hate most, though, is that there are people that LOVE the politics. I have one particular person in mind, but fuck, practically everyone I work with goes home and lights the candle under the spoon and shoots fucking office politics up into their veins, then collapses in happiness on their leather couches, basking in the awesomeness of what they perceive to be power.

And I suppose that it is power, the ability to make God-awful decisions without being chided by anyone, despite the fact that everyone knows better. In fact, the dickwad protected by politics even knows better, but he does it because he can. And so does the other guy. And by the time all that bullshit makes its way down to my end of the chain, I’m swimming in bullshit up to my ears and, as Igby put it, drowning in assholes. Every day I see ten grasping, poorly reasoned, completely childish decisions get made, and I exchange a knowing glance with my coworkers, move the mountains that need to be moved to make way for said decisions, and allow the hate to build within me. I really wish that we lived and worked in a society that required and encouraged us to question everything, instead of forcing us to be cowed by an idiot because he likes playing the game.

I think that once I make my desperate bid for freedom from The Industry, I will do my utmost to try to find work in a field that does not rely so heavily on office politics. Perhaps as a three-card Monte vendor, or a professional layabout. Surely somewhere a company exists that isn’t run by morons.