The Promotion of Stupidity

One of the things that has always perplexed me in corporate America is the rewarding of stupidity. I like to call it the Promotion of Stupidity and it's running rampant in corporate America.

This is how it works: If you do something completely stupid and ridiculous, it is almost guaranteed that an email announcing your promotion will be circulating the company before too long. It's almost like being rewarded for sucking at your job.

Another thing I still haven't figured out is why corporations promote people when they don't know what else to do with them. Doesn't it seem obvious what you should do with someone that isn't needed?

I especially love the "What Do I Do?" promotion. This is when you have a coworker and nobody has a clue what that person does. Every company, heck more like every department of every company, has a person like this. And the crazy thing? The what-do-I-do people seem to be on the constant up-and-up. It's almost like companies make up job titles to accommodate this category of employees. And what's really interesting to me is that when these phony promotions are announced, a job opening for the previous position is never announced along with it. What does that tell you? How about this: That person doesn't need to be replaced because they don't do anything. See? It all makes perfect sense.

I worked under this one manager who had the opposite of the Midas Touch: Everything this person touched turned into budget deficit garbage. But yet, this person kept moving up. And up. And this really made me wonder if the company was trying to fail. I mean, if we're a lead by example kind of society, and the appointed leader is a few seconds short of a minute, don't you have to wonder what the bigger picture is?

Of course there is a lot more to discuss on this subject, but I'm aware of the consequences. The question now is whether I want to continue digging myself into a hole with a shovel. Or, if I'm ready to switch to a backhoe...