The Antiocracy

We are few, but we are easy to spot: we usually carry around large caffeinated beverages, can be found in little clusters, brainstorming and scheming, and tend to be the ones management can’t quite figure out what to do with. We are passionate, inspired, creative and innovative, but we rail against the Machine with every turn. We don’t take no for an answer, we know all the “guys” behind the scenes, and we keep managing to pull off miracles no one said could be done.

We are the Antiocracy.

Most of the anticrats I’ve known have had extensive and intense careers in the private sector before joining the ‘Service. (OK, one of them is ex-military - does that count?) They have long since learned valuable lessons about networking, workarounds, and backup plans which many long-service bureaucrats have never had to learn. (Long-timers, by contrast, have always “had people for that”. People with access to vast resources and endless BF dates in the event the projector doesn’t work...)

Not us. For us it is no coincidence that “deadline” contains the word “dead” in it. Dead air, wasted time, it’s all fatal to a business relationship out there in The World.

Transplant someone with that attitude into the ‘Service and you will see two things happen: a slow, twitching adjustment period as they try to wind down their working metabolism, (acclimation usually takes anywhere from six to 18 months) and sadly, possibly the breaking of a few hearts. Nothing torques up an anticrat more than when “we can’t do it that way” gets between them and the execution of a really good idea.

And that’s when we separate the real anticrats from the pretenders. Like my friend "J", who somehow got IT to change their minds and give us what we wanted – at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. He is my hero – but at the same time, I fear for him. Will the System wear him down? How many more of these battles is he good for before he, like a few good ones before him, says enough?