The GeekHiker

(Because occasionally one needs to post on less weighty matters. *)

To start, I’ll be completely honest: I never watched Conan O’Brien on a regular basis.

Not because I didn’t like the guy, or find him on occasion downright hilarious.  No, I’m just not a late night kind of guy.  That era belongs squarely to my college years.

Like so many others, though, I’ve been catching his opening monologues on Hulu ever since the tussle with NBC started a couple of weeks ago.  And I get exactly why he’s suddenly so popular.

The perspective of NBC, like most companies, is that the whole deal is just a business decision.  The current plan is not proving successful, so they decided demote some staff and move them around in the hopes of increasing profit.  Simple.

But that’s not how Conan, or most average folks, see it.

What they see is that management made a bad decision.  Management gave someone a job, and he came in every day and performed that job to the absolute best of his abilities. He wasn’t completely successful at first but, then again, neither was his predecessor, so surely he had some time to see improvement.

When management’s plan failed to work the way they wanted it to, they downgraded the employee after the mere seven months on the job, in favor of someone who, despite his greater seniority, many felt should be off enjoying a healthy retirement.

As you might imagine, a lot of working stiffs in America can empathize with this.  Management makes a bad choice, but it’s the employee who’s asked to absorb the consequences and take the fall.

Conan is so popular right now because he’s doing what most of us cannot afford to.  He was offered the lesser job, with the smaller office and the crappier working hours, and instead of taking it, he turned around to management, raised his middle finger, and said “Fuck you! I walk!”

He gave them two weeks notice, and spent his remaining time at the company trashing his cubicle.

It’s not an option most people have, and watching it has been cathartic for all of us.  Maybe we can’t do it ourselves when management screws us over but, boy, it sure is gratifying (and a helluva lot of fun) to watch someone who can.

(* Yes, I’m aware of them, which is why tonight I sent donations to the Red Cross & Doctors Without Borders for Haiti, plus an organization for Brandy’s HAD.  But who wants to read about serious stuff like that on a Friday?)