I was on the train home from White Plains today, with my friends Anne and Faoud. We'd caught an express train, and had gotten the last 3 seats in a group of 6 seats. The other 3 seats were taken by a group of kids going to the city for some reason. (We didn't ask.)
The 3 of us were talking about work: The project I'm on, personalities we work with, and assorted idiocies perpetrated in the name of commerce in ways that only huge companies can manage. Think Dilbert here, if you don't get it. We were not really very quiet, and we were really going at it thru most of the trip.
As we talked, I noticed after a while that the two of the three kids that were awake, a boy and a girl, kinda punked out and dressed down, kept covertly smiling at each other, and rolling their eyes, all while trying not to let us notice they were doing this.
So towards the end of the trip, I just suddenly said to them: "I suppose you guys are bored by us by now?" The guy and girl gave each other looks, and the guy said "It is kind of entertaining, but I don't understand anything you are saying."
The girl then said the thing that totally made my day, possibly the most perfect analogy to working for huge corporations I could ever come up with:
She said, "It reminds me of the movie Brazil."
Anne was horrified. I was laughing my ass off.
So I guess Dilbert is no longer the benchmark for stupidity at work.