It Takes A Village Idiot To… Wait…

I used to work for this complete self-absorbed jerk who was completely whimsical and lacked any form of patience, empathy, modesty, or gratitude. While my direct supervisor wasn’t very proactive or professional, I was very happy with him, since he at least provided a good foil for the owner, often by talking him out of stupid or even dangerous ideas or at least sheltering us from the “village idiot,” as we called him. I shall never forget the legendary words my supervisor said after I told him I got certain instructions from the Village Idiot.

Supervisor: “No, absolutely not. There’s a reason we put it out like that; we’re not gonna change it. Just wait here. I’ll be the one having that discussion.”

People like the Village Idiot, however, have this kind of instinct to know who is easier to intimidate. So if he wanted to force some whim through after all, he simply waited until a day in the week where the supervisor wasn’t around and tried to bully people into going along anyway.

At some point, the Village Idiot wanted to completely reform our department without any thought about whether his vision was realistic or not. As I said, he didn’t have patience, so what he called a plan was more like a vaguely defined goal that we all had to do NOW! (Or even faster.) But somehow, of course, he knew that our supervisor wouldn’t go along. His solution? He waited until the week when the supervisor was off on holiday and then had a meeting where he told this to everyone — and, of course, heard their ideas only to ignore them. Yeah, it didn’t really go anywhere, but not only because of his lack of developing a plan.

See, his poor planning skills and his lack of empathy often didn’t make him realise or care about employees having a life. So what happens if you announce a meeting two days in advance? Exactly. Six people show up — out of twenty-five or something. And that’s what you get for thinking that the whole world revolves around you.