Obstinate control freak rules at work (and in society) defying common sense...
I hate this bloody minded attitude in companies where some obstinate control freak inflicts blanket rules that utterly defy common sense. To me it comes across as not truly valuing the staff they employ. Any attempt to question the logic of the rule is met with a wall of bloody minded defiance and outright obstructionism because they simply don't want to give in and instead want to dominate (and undermine) everyone by inflicting their rules on everyone. Its blatantly Passive-aggressive Narcissist behaviour. Which is why they can always think up partly believable excuses to fool people to try to justify their actions, but their true intentions are simply to dominate others.
Its a big problem (for employees) in big companies. The bigger the company the more Passive-aggressive Narcissists you are likely to find, but they are also in small companies as well, where they can rule over all as the boss of a small company. (Its not just more people in a big company, Passive-aggressive NPD's are attracted to powerful companies where they can play their power games over people as they fight their way up the office corporate structure).
(Passive-Aggressive Narcissist behaviour comes from a fear of dependency on others (a fear often caused by the way they suffered excessive control as a child. That control at times can be so extreme that they cannot even learn to express their emotions clearly so they hold it all in, filled with growing resentment towards others around them and a deep determination to never be dominated by anyone else ever again) and these people are often very good at hiding their true intentions (they are very two faced schemers) so most people most of the time wouldn't even fully realize the full extent of their true game against everyone else). They will even undermine the successes of others around them, if it helps their goal of fighting for dominance in a company. They take the joy out of doing a good job for some companies, because whatever you do, they seek ways to undermine you.
An aggressive Narcissist is easy to spot and so easy to get out out the way of, but a Passive-Aggressive Narcissist can take a long time to see through their words to see their true intentions and so in the long term they can be utterly evil people to work for as they bring you down. They can really run you into the ground. All the endless excuses from them twist your mind every which way, yet behind it all, is their scheming manipulation of others as they undermine others and so maintain dominance. (Sadly they make very good politicians. Its why many politicians like this lack so much empathy towards others). A Passive-Aggressive Narcissist is the purest definition of the Machiavellian pattern of behaviour defined almost exactly 500 years ago (in 1513) by Niccolò Machiavelli).
The problem is these people seek positions of power in politics and in companies (and they don't like to be dependent on others, so they fight to the top in power over others) and sadly they are enough of them in society that almost all of us at some point in our lives will end up working with one of them. They can be very difficult people.
Ken Thompson should tell them outright he isn't taking the test and that if he is forced to take the test, he isn't going to work with the person forcing him to take the test. Because Google will have one eye on the PR implications of someone as high profile as him speaking out against being treated like this. I suspect that could be part of his plan in publicly speaking out about it.
These Passive-Aggressive Narcissists in companies are the reason why office politics can be so infuriatingly bad at times. But then their whole life is one long political battle for power over others. No wonder they are such a danger to fairness in society. They don't want fairness, they want power over others.
There is a pattern to their behaviour, you just have to learn it, but its well worth learning it, to see how to avoid them and to help to protect yourself from them. (I was seriously thinking of using the Big Brother Icon, because this Passive-Aggressive Narcissist minority in society are the core driving force behind why we are sliding into this ever more controlled world (especially as they are determined to exploit ever more technology to give them more power) and its why that kind of world, regardless of which technology of control is used throughout history, it always ends up so bad for the majority of people because at the core is this ruthlessly controling minority).
:(
C language inventor spurns Google's language exam
