more on charisma - Thursday July 8 1999    

Every time I get to the point where I want to break it to my boss that I don't think I'll be a summertime slave this particular summer, that I think I'm being exploited with low wages and long hours, I have some random brief conversation with the guy and I'm surprised to be disarmed by his niceness. I'd forgotten something important: he's not a monster driven by unrealistic expectations. He's a genuinely nice guy with a tough job that he's doing to the best of his abilities.

Mind you, it's not that I relate to him in any real way; we have little in common and we rarely socialize. What it comes down to is something basic in the human social subconscious: he's got a certain charisma that gets employees such as me to wordlessly accept our miserable servile destinies when we should really be unionizing and demanding better conditions for ourselves. All of us our silenced by stock options that may never be worth anything while we're steered about by experts like my boss with the inborn skills to do the steering. For my part, I'd hate to have his job and his responsibilites. I'm far too much of a lone gun with far too little faith in the tastes and abilities of others.

Think your computer is Y2K compliant? Think again.