Mediocrity

I’ve had the distinct displeasure of working alongside some truly mediocre people over the past few years, so I’d like to kick 2013 off with a few words regarding the mediocrity of my former colleagues. In short, I left a job because I was selling myself short, wasting two or three years of my career doing small-time shit—albeit for a decent paycheck—with coworkers who were so mediocre that now, after spending several months getting back on a more fitting track, I’m completely baffled as to why I stayed so long.

This past year was, for me, a guided tour of abject mediocrity—a revolving door where mediocrity left the building, only to be replaced by more mediocrity. This enabled me to pinpoint my own personal definition of the word—which, I think, is something you can only do when you’re confronted with mediocrity every single day for an extended period of time.

What is mediocrity, exactly?

Mediocrity is when you suck, but you have no idea that you suck because you possess neither the talent nor the work ethic to be able to make that distinction. In this case, we’re talking about three or four individuals who have no idea how bad they actually are. It’s frightening. I blame myself, though, because I never should have allowed myself to get sucked into their cesspool of suck the way I did. And boy, do you guys suck.

Mediocrity is when you don’t think there’s any need for you to get better at anything. When you tell people that having a college degree in a subject qualifies you to ignore advice and direction from people who are obviously far better than you at the professional version of that subject, you’re mediocre.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It must really suck to know that I was better than you at the thing you consider your life’s ambition when I was in seventh grade.

When you kiss the asses of mediocre people, thinking it’s going to get you somewhere, you’re mediocre. Concentrate on your work. Trust me, you need to.

When you confer with other mediocrities and hatch mediocre plans to produce dishonest, mediocre work, you’re a mediocrity of the highest order. When your ego is tied to the people you hire, and you refuse to acknowledge that you’ve given jobs to mediocre people when they consistently fail to perform, you’re even more mediocre than they are—and in the case of the people I’m referring to, that’s difficult to achieve.  

In short, I worked with a handful of people who are truly mediocre, and their little house of cards, if it hasn’t already (I stopped paying attention the day I couldn’t tolerate the mediocrity anymore and left), will eventually come crashing down.

And when that happens, none of you will be able to get jobs anywhere, because you’re all horrible at what you do.

Our paths will cross again someday, my mediocre friends. Keep that in mind. Just figured I'd check in and let you know I still find it embarrassing that I ever worked in the same place with some of you.