I’m sure this article will ring true with most of my friends. Joe, who moved out from the umbrella of corporate America to start his own company several years ago, sent me this article.  It’s by the creator of Dilbert, which once you read it, should come as no surprise.

Quick exerpt:

In those days, I was a furious bundle of ambition and determination. The old-timers told me I had a “rocket strapped to my ass.” All I needed to do was get my “ticket punched.” It wasn’t long before I was able to enjoy my second economic stimulus package: bad management.

Though most of my immediate bosses were entirely reasonable and competent, the organization at large was riddled with hamster-brained sociopaths in leadership roles. Surely, I thought, this must be a problem that exists no place else on Earth. Otherwise we’d all be living in caves and holding long meetings on the feasibility of using sticks as stabby things.

One day, a position opened above me, and I was the most obvious candidate to fill it. My boss called me into her office and said she had some bad news. She explained that the media was giving our company a lot of heat because almost all of our managers and executives were white males. Promoting me, she explained, would only make things worse. I asked how long I might need to wait for all of this to blow over. My boss was vague, but she said the timeline involved smoothing out the effects of two centuries of corporate discrimination.

The Perfect Stimulus: Bad Management