I work at a hospital, which generally means interacting with doctors, nurses, and their patients. My primary job (replacing computers, currently) at this establishment generally does not bring me into contact with management people. There are, however, those rare situations in which I do interact with the higher-ups of management and corporate leadership. These are special situations that require a certain level of social skill in an area that I like to call "kissing VIPs arses".

Today was one of those situations. Me and 5 other people were replacing PCs in the corporate headquarters of the hospital when we called in a manager to help us figure out a problem. Whilst we were all standing around the front desk watching our fearless leader, the secretary of the CEO walked up and, unable to keep her thoughts to herself, spewed utter stupidity over all of us.

Her: What are you doing? Manager: Trying to make your printer work. Her: Well, with the six of you standing around, it doesn't make a very good impression, you know? It's the VIP area?

We knew. It was the only place in the hospital with cherry wood desks, gold trim, flower arrangements and incandescent recessed lighting. And it wasn't just this secretary who acted as though we were riff-raff to be swept under the rug when all the "important people" came by. It was the front desk secretary, the people in their offices, and I could swear the janitor turned up his nose at me. And in the time it took us to walk back to the office, she had fired off an email complaining that we were ::gasp:: standing around in the VIP offices to our project supervisor.

The horror! The horror!

I don't begrudge the rich and powerful their money or power, they earn it through continuous hard work. Got rich? Good for you. CEO of a hospital? Awesome. What I can't stand is people like that secretary. People who know they have status, and so they flaunt it to everyone around them. What is it about being powerful and wealthy that turns people into self-centered, I'm-Better-Than-You-Are creeps? Human decency should not be based upon the size of one's paycheck. I would have no problem whatsoever with walking up to the president and CEO of the hospital and casually asking "Sup, dude?". Hence, I offer this message to people throw their weight around for the purpose of feeling important: While I may appear respectful to your face in the interests of a continuing paycheck, know that I have the greatest contempt for you and people like you.