#ASKROB ADVICE – Why do we work with morons?

#ASKROB received this landmine from Carreeeeeeee S: Why do we work with morons?

There are a few reasons that morons persevere in the workplace despite their lack of cerebral endowment:

Humans (even morons) have no natural predators: As Mike Judge professed in the prophetic piece of cinema “Idiocracy,” humans today are only preyed upon by other humans in 99% of the world. When one moron loves another moron they will put their moronic junk together. In 9 months (or 6 months since they don’t understand proper neonatal care) a bunch of little morons will come out of the one moron. With better nutrition these days, and less severed electrical cables sitting in puddles of water for these morons to walk through, the moron phenomenon continues to grow.

Morons have a place: The great Ted Knight told us in the film Caddyshack, “The world needs ditch diggers too.” He’s right, many morons are willing to do jobs that I know would bore the living shit out of me.

Morons in high places: This one is tricky. A moron that starts out in a ditch digging position could  one day with perseverance, a little luck, and strong knees end up as head of the ditch diggers. Will they ever be a land surveyor, or to put it in white collar terms, a VP? Well, yes. See, there are these things called nepotism, favoritism, and reach arounds that help morons defy all the odds. In these instances, you pray to Yaweh that the person putting morons in power gave them a placebo project or position. Yes, it sucks that a moron rose above their station, but as long as they don’t blow up the world we live in, c’est la vie.

Morons in marketing: This makes a lot of sense when you think about it. We marketers start our careers not knowing the difference between advertising and the real grunt work of marketing. We basically believe we’ll get paid a lot of money simply for our ideas. This is especially true of us old guard Gen Xers. As we now know, marketing ain’t all sexy word play and stuff, but some of those original morons slipped through and held on.

Today, with digital marketing the norm, those that slipped have a spotlight on their foreheads because they don’t have a clue on how to plug in a toaster much less how to apply tracking attributes across an omni-channel touch campaign with programmatic account based follow-up. They also can’t fill the content marketing open maw of words needed on each of those omni-channel touch points, because remember, they thought marketing was just spouting off ideas.

Don’t worry, these people are Srsly fucked. Not today, not tomorrow, but I have seen them all fall from their once lofty perches eventually.

Who’s the real moron: Last I checked we still live in a free country, where employment is a by-choice endeavor. Is it the moron who stays in one place for safety, or the one who chooses to be surrounded by morons the real moron in this equation? Not judging, just saying. General rule of thumb dictates though, the larger the org the more cushion to absorb MPFs (Moron Points of Failure). The smaller the org, incompetence comes to light much faster. Life’s about choices – more so for non-morons.