I purposely leave out specific complaints about co-workers on this blog. Nothing good can come from complaining about a specific person--unless he's now gone. :-)

Today's beatdown, and everybody has had to deal with someone like this, is the "name dropper." I'm talking about the person who, in an effort to influence you to help on his project where he isn't given any authority, cites the name of some higher ranking individual in the company in an effort to sway your priorities to his pet project. Usually it's a senior V.P. or the president of the company that gets named. This little butt-licker usually has some senior-level relationship in the company, and has probably made promises about something he understands very little about. He'll come by and ask about a project status, then say "well, Mr. President wants it done by such-and-such a date." My response is that Mr. President can easily communicate this through normal project completion channels, and I'll be glad to get right on it. Mr. Name Dropper, you're a little freakin' weasel, and you deserve to be shot with a pellet gun three times in the leg, twice in the neck, covered in diesel, lit on fire, and then flung around and released onto the nearest vertical hard surface. After this, anyone whom you've irritated (oh, yeah, that would be EVERYONE) can line up to take a crack at your skull.