Towards Mediocrity: Getting Laid Off for Being "Too Good" at Your Job...

Sometimes, I really think the world portrayed in the movie Idiocracy is not too far in our future...

Lately, my good friend @lucylin has been writing about "Midwits" but occasionally I'm not entirely convinced that the people who operate the gears of the world have any wits, at all.

I was actually about to write a piece on the hypocrisy of so-called "American Exceptionalism" when I got sidetracked into a long discussion about an almost 20-year old "spoof" project of ours that we're considering kicking back into life... and the broader experience of people being unwilling to support projects that were authentically beneficial while they were lining up to throw their money at this very obviously fake project... I guess the way some people will throw $100 at Dogecoin, but not at Bitcoin.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about Mrs. Denmarkguy's last "formal" work experience in the corporate headquarters of a major US (and worldwide) banking organization, serving as a personal loan facilitator for the sort of clients for whom a two-week trip to Europe costing $100,000 for two weeks is chump change.

With her psychology and profiling background, as well as her humanity and intuition, she was extraordinarily good at her job... and maintained one of the lowest "problem loan" rates in the entire organization. In fact, she was so good that her quarterly performance bonuses were sometimes three TIMES her base salary.

Was her excellence rewarded?

Well, after about 16 months, she came back from a week-long break to find her computer locked and a note to clear out her things and leave. The dismissal was on a total technicality like her application for that week off having been submitted in duplicate instead of triplicate, or it was approved by the division manager rather than the regional VP or something similarly petty and inane.

Of course, she still had friends inside the organization and the true reason for her termination was that they could hire three fresh college graduates to do her job and still pay them less than she was making.

Her case is by no means a unique example. A friend from way back was one of the best programmers at a Fortune 500 IT company where we both worked... a similar situation existed because he was just that good and able to use his skills to reap a lot of performance bonuses. In time, he became subject to a process of "managed attrition" in which his work environment was gradually made more and more uncomfortable and hostile in the hopes that he would quit rather than get laid off.

Clint hung in there for a couple of years before finally tendering his resignation... and, in due course, his job was taken over by three recent college grads who were compensated far less (combined) than he was making during his final two years.

One of our other colleagues and friends pretty much saw what was playing out, and instead chose to dumb himself down in order to hang on to his job.

Thankfully, I was not actually a company employee, but what they called a "Permanent Independent Contractor," so I had no serious stake in what I watched unfold... but I still got to witness it.

This shit happens all the time, and then we have the stupidity to sit around and complain about the mediocrity of everything.

On a more personal level, events like these make me wonder whether it is really even possible to create a so-called better world, or whether the entire notion of a true Meritocracy is just a pipe dream that will inevitably be undone by greed, stupidity and envy?

One of my Teachers/Mentors from some three decades back was definitely not a "Midwit." He observed that most people act our according to certain basic wants and motivations, mostly learned in childhood and during our upbringing. The nature of a person's motivation typically also determines where they end up within hierarchies and how they treat those around them.

Those who "want control" and those who "want approval" (and variations) often end up creating a highly toxic soup... but they are invariable drawn together.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

How about YOU? Have you ever been laid off for being too good at your job? Do you think most hierarchies are inherently toxic? Is mediocrity going to rule the world? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20210302 14:55 PST
0197/1440