In an Insane Society, the Sane Man Must Appear Insane
This morning I'm reminded of the quote from Star Trek series, the Mirror, Mirror episode where Kirk, Bones, Scotty, and Uhura are in a transporter accident and are sent to an alternate universe where the Federation is evil and plundering everything in their path:
In an insane society, the sane man must appear insane.
It was quoted in a movie as well, but the title of that movie escapes me this morning. Suffice it to say that I feel like that sane man in an insane society right now.
I was talking to a high-level manager at The Shop the other day, and they were facing a difficult decision: confront their own people with their lack of skills, or come up with a "story" to tell them that makes it not their fault, but the fault of others, and arrive at the same place. But it isn't really the same place, is it? In one case, the person has to come face-to-face with the fact that they aren't really doing the job they think they are doing. This is hard. It's emotional, and it might possibly even get ugly. But it's the truth.
In the other case, the person not doing their job is allowed to believe they are and able to blame someone else for the situation. That's not the same place at all, is it? Nope.
But it saves this manager the effort of having to confront these under-performing individuals. And for this manager, it seems, that's a win for them, and that seems to be the best thing to do. Sad, yes. For it's the manager's job to actually manage people. Not tell them stories. Not blame others. What is going to happen if some day the truth gets out? Not good, I can assure you. Not good at all.
And it's like this all over this place.
About six months ago, a co-worker was getting sick of the work, and I don't blame him. He started looking. I told my manager/partner about this several times over the next six months, and then yesterday he informed us all he was leaving. No surprise to me, but a huge surprise to those not listening to me. Significant loss to the firm, but they all acted shocked. I'd been telling them this was going to happen for months, and they have the nerve to act shocked.
Crazy.
Over and over this place seems to be making the most short-sighted, ill-informed decisions possible. It's almost like they want to pick the wrong decision. More often than not, they are successful in that goal, and their choice is a spectacular failure. But the real question that I keep coming back to is simple: What am I going to do about it?
I can sit here, complain/document/laugh at the insanity, I can leave and laugh all the way to my next position. I can stay and try to fix things - knowing full well that the odds of that are long - at best. What can I really do?
I'm not a partner here. I'm not even a senior manager. Heck, I'm not even a manager. I'm a coder. What can I really do? Really?
Well… I guess the only thing I can do, is either stay and do my job to the best of my ability in a completely insane environment, or I can leave. I've already asked - several times, to move our little group of two, off this floor - maybe even out of this building - just to get away from the insanity. But it's falling on deaf ears. I'm sure as much as they think I'm a pain in the neck, they feel far better with me "right here" as opposed to anyplace else.
And then I can leave.
Don't want to leave. Really don't want to, but I don't see a lot of options. I'm really having a hard time dealing with this insanity, and that's what it's really going to take to "fit in" here - become one of the inmates in this asylum. Not quite sure that's where I want to be. Would you?
Just don't know.