And becomes a hero to exploited labor everywhere.
You’ve had a terrible boss before. You may even have one right now. They manage up instead of down. They don’t fully understand and appreciate the work that you actually do. They fail to see the big picture and get bogged down in irrelevant details. They are more concerned with looking good individually than they are about achieving wider objectives.
I get it. We’ve all been there.
The problem is that we are all utterly replaceable. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve spent honing our craft, how many regional sales awards we’ve won, or what an admirable job we do holding our liquor at the office holiday party every year. There is always someone else who can do our jobs. Always.
The system is designed this way, to make us all expendable and keep us compliant. It doesn’t matter how many “exceeds objectives” you got on your last performance review — if you step out of line, you will be replaced with someone who won’t because, unfortunately, there is no objective organization that measures each and everything you do on the job, quantifies your performance and value mathematically, and tells the world exactly how good you are.
Unless you are a Major League Baseball player.
Last week, Rafael Devers told his boss to this (first base) job and shove it. He then proceeded to go 10-21 with two homers, a double, and a steal as he put up a 1.386 OPS for the Boston Red Sox over the ensuing six games. And yesterday, Devers was named the American League Player of the Week.
What Rafael Devers just did was, essentially, to live out the dream of disgruntled employees everywhere. He sauntered into the boss’s corner office and kicked his feet up on the desk, making sure the blinds were open so everyone else on the floor could see him do it.
Congrats, Raffy. The overworked and underpaid paper-pushers of the world salute you!