Knowledge is a useful thing. Having been in the workforce for 17 years, I’ve collected a good deal of data. Much of it is cross-platform, meaning that it holds true for certain job descriptions no matter what the industry. Admin is pretty much admin. It’s what I do, and I do it very well.
When I say I do it well, what I actually mean is that I don’t do it horribly. And in my experience, that means I’m quite a prize.
The world is full of horrible admins. Cram-packed with them, in fact. I’ve supervised them, replaced them, been replaced by them in lean times, and sat in testing rooms with them, mowing over their scores like a half-ton John Deere. For every thing I can do halfway decently, there are at least a hundred people who cannot do that thing correctly to save their lives.
This is not braggadocio. It embarrasses me sometimes how half-assed my work is. And yet, barring broad layoffs, my jobs have always been as secure as I want them to be, for no other reason than my supervisors’ fear of who else might be out there to replace me.
Since this realization, which has come gradually over the years, my Calvinist fears of consequences for laziness have diminished greatly. I certainly don’t relish a talking-to, on the odd occasions when such things occur, but I am secure in the knowledge that this step comes quite a ways before an actual firing in the admin world.
Libertarian types go on about how you can’t fire union people or socialist Frenchies, but for all practical purposes, it’s pretty hard to fire admins even in the freest of markets. That Kristofferson song will tell you about what freedom is. If your two choices are mediocre and worse, it doesn’t feel much like real choice.
It’s what we do in politics. Most people decide between the lesser of two evils. My candidate, the one who represents all my values, never runs, and so I cast my vote in the direction I deem least likely to screw me. Even in our highest offices, we make the choice between mediocre and worse.
Whither excellence? Certainly it exists, but in finite quantities. I personally believe it is squelched by the way our society is structured. On the odd occasion someone makes it through the mangler untainted by institutionalized mediocrity, but far too often even these bright candles are extinguished shortly thereafter. If you make more money by being naked and stupid on the teevee than by thought and innovation, you end up with a country where being intelligent is a liability.
So here I sit, mediocre, but with aspirations of excellence thus far unrealized. Connection?
There once was a man who was none too good,
And then I’d say he was none too bad.
At times he was mighty good for a spell,
And sometimes he’d go out and he’d raise a little hell.
Mediocre Fred… Mediocre Fred
Fred went to work from 8 to 5,
And he punched a clock to show he was alive.
Went to church every Sunday morn’,
Sometimes he wondered why he was born.
Mediocre Fred… Mediocre Dull Fred
Fred went to the movies every Saturday night,
Liked to watch TV and the western fights,
And he paid his taxes most every year,
And on a hot summer day, why, he drank a little beer.
Exciting Mediocre Fred… Mediocre Fred
Well the days went by, all dull and grey,
And he didn’t think much and had little to say.
And when the full moon rose he’d limb over the moat,
Find some people sleeping and he’d BITE THEIR THROATS!
Mediocre Fred… Mediocre Dull Fred
- Mediocre Fred, by the Smothers Brothers