Some Lumps are simply spineless, deathly afraid of making a decision.
They’ve long since determined that the best policy is just to lay low
and pass the buck. Some are jaded and cynical. They’ve been there and
done that, and nothing much impresses them anymore. They don’t see any
need to act decisively, or maybe they just don’t see the point: It
wouldn’t do any good, anyway. Some, nearing retirement, are motivated
purely by reluctance to lose their high salaries and accompanying
pensions.
But some Lumps are much more calculating. Lacking genuine ability and
creativity, they’ve determined that their surest and safest route to
the top is simply to go along to get along–to spout the party line,
support whatever the higher-ups are doing, and otherwise not do much of
anything lest they risk doing the wrong thing.
In any form, Lumps are incredibly harmful to an organization. They’re
responsible for most of the negative attributes that people (including
students) rightly associate with bureaucracy: interminable waiting, “red
tape,” buck passing, narrow and rigid interpretation of policy,
stubborn intransigence.
They’re also a drain on group morale. Although perhaps not as
actively vindictive as authoritarian power-mongers,most Lumps will throw
their colleagues under the bus in a heartbeat in order to preserve or
advance their own careers. It’s not that they don’t like you. They just
don’t care about you.
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