Atlas Smirked

Statutory Warning: You might just identify with this rather agonic narrative of inefficient people inhabiting this planet that you still need to live with, however much you despise them!

This has been brewing inside me for quite some time now. I did not realize this much in my college days, even though I did spot it time and again. But it became more pronounced in my work life. Practically every day I come across some inefficient person or the other; I don’t mind him / her until it affects me, but I boil when I end up cleaning someone else’s act. And here’s what worse, they have the nerves to ask me to accept such inefficiencies as the way of life. I wonder what’s worse, their casual remarks (read DNA) or my impending correction, until I have no option, but to settle for the latter.

Why? In Lord’s name, why, in the first place? Why can’t they just do their simple jobs? Why can’t they just listen carefully, read properly, speak authoritatively (the way they do when they have ruined everything)? Why can’t they be accountable? Do any of their senses work? And please don’t give me the ‘overloaded’ crap. For Christ’s sake, they aren’t overloaded. Given their track record (I am super-confident, I am not the only victim of their inefficiency), I doubt if anyone would load them with any work at all. It would be quite a feat, even if they complete the most simplistic of tasks.

And it isn’t even about perfection. That’s a far cry. It’s purely about doing what you are supposed to do in a simple and quite often well laid out Standard-Operating-Procedure (SOP) way. Is it too much to ask? I guess the problem lies with their commitment. Or probably with their motivation. Irrespective of how they perform, they would be guaranteed a job until eternity, receive hikes and promotions eventually; if not, they will find some other place to bother someone else. I would feel blessed in that case, until the position is filled by some equally incompetent authority.

The problem however does not end with the irritation or the ensuing correction. You cannot afford to antagonize the person by suggesting the right approach; you cannot escalate the issue for fear of complete rebuke or even worse a total reversal of the assigned task. And should you dare to confront inefficiency, the next thing you know, you would be outcast from your office floor, for people around you believe the one with the loud voice more than the one with the right thoughts. That’s one aspect that these inefficient jerks are most adept at.

So what do I do? Unlike Ayn Rand’s characters in her legendary (and my all time favorite) ‘Atlas Shrugged’, I cannot disappear to an ‘Atlantis’. I do not care about the world, but I do care about the ‘world around me’. I do not hold the world, and I cannot afford to shrug, the least I can do to restore some pride is to look into their eyes, and just…..SMIRK! And of course, carry on with the clean-up, waiting expectantly for the next consignment of inefficiency.