Why do people power trip over stupid things? I can understand if the issue is important, but I’m baffled when some one goes on a power trip or pulls rank over something trivial like the proper way to fold a cardboard box. We had cardboard boxes for trashcans during the convention. They worked just as well as real cans, but when you folded the top flaps down into the can, the bags would get caught. In Philadelphia we figured out how to tape the flaps down on the inside so this wouldn’t happen. In LA they opted for folding them outside and the taping them down. It didn’t look as neat but the bags came out. As you can probably see, this is a small issue and really shouldn’t be something to get worked up about, but some people aren’t as rational as we would like to think. I was asked to make these cans. The person who gave the order also went for the extra ego boost by instructing me on how to fold the boxes. In his defense, he didn’t know that I had made about fifty of these cans in Philadelphia, but on the other hand, it’s not a job that needs instructions. I was willing to forgive the guy for being a pompous ass until we had this conversation.

“…And fold the flaps out otherwise the bags catch and I want one next to my desk.”

“You know in Philly we taped them on the inside so the bags don’t catch.”

“No when you fold them down the bags catch.”

“But I can tape them so the don’t.”

“Just tape them to the outside!” He said that while he turned around to storm off. He gave me a dismissive wave as he went (the why am I even talking to you wave). Now was that called for? I bet he would have thrown a temper tantrum if I folded the boxes to the inside.

He wasn’t the only person to try this I’m right do it my way technique with me in LA, but he was the last to get away with it. A cameraman asked me to send a golf cart to pick him up at the pedestrian entrance. The distance from the entrance to the work space was less than a block and he didn’t have any gear to carry so I should have told him no flat out, but things were going slow and I said I’d send a gear cart (they’re not very comfortable). He then told me to drive the cart all the way to the entrance. I’d been driving the cart all week and I knew that once you get the cart into a narrow space (like the entrance) it’s almost impossible to turn around (remember that scene from Austin Powers?). I told him that we weren’t going to send a golf cart all the way there. He told me that the other networks were doing it (with the smallest carts they had), but I insisted that it was too much of a pain to send the cart down. That’s when he said “Well I’m here and you’re not now send the cart!” I didn’t tell him off (God knows I wanted to) but I informed him in one of my more authoritative voices that the gear cart was too large to turn around. He decided that I was right after that and walked to the usual meeting spot. If I really wanted to get him I could have decided that a cart was to valuable to waste, but then I couldn’t say I was better than him and that’s all that really matters.