There are some things I occasionally lose track of in my idealistic fervor. For instance:

• Managers get flatscreen monitors and their own color printers simply because they want them. Common sense and solid business reasons have nothing to do with it.
• Computers are allocated by snap decisions of middle managers. “Resource limitations,” “sensible priorities” and “budgetary constraints” are just so many meaningless phrases.
• Appreciation is best expressed, after an overworked and underpaid lackey has just moved heaven and earth to accomodate your poorly-conceived whims, by a simple “Thanks, I really appreciate it” and not, say, in crisp clean bills of reasonable denomination.
• The people doing the bulk of the work should under no circumstances have the gadgetry necessary to do so. Gadgetry is too valuable of a status symbol to be wasted in that fashion.
• Kiting off for the day less than five minutes after you’ve called your computer tech over to your office for support is a perfectly reasonable practice. It’s not like he’d need you to actually demonstrate the problem in question when he arrives, after all.
• And last but most assuredly not least, nothing is ever up for discussion. Being decisive means flattening all opposing viewpoints. This is, after all, a zero-sum game we’re playing.

I love my job. I even like most of the people I work with. I hate, however, the general corporate mindset. I hate it a whole lot.