Ultimate Job Security: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In fiction, there are certain characters who may be damn good at what they do; however, their general behaviour should have gotten them fired or at least severely disciplined long ago. If the good guys have this, expect it to be eliminated when the [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]. Common to [[Work Com]]s, and [[Cowboy Cop]]s. May be decreed by [[Status Quo Is God]].

 

Compare [[Contractual Immortality]], [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], [[Mildly Military]], [[Nepotism]] and [[Permanent Elected Official]]. Contrast [[George Jetson Job Security]]. For office conflicts that seem to have no outside recourse, see [[No Such Thing as HR]].

 

* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' has Gaoh, who constantly and deliberately injures opposing players, even to the extent that they will never be able to play again. Everything Gaoh does is strictly within the rules of football, as he's never seen hurting a quarterback after he's gotten rid of the ball. He's just insanely strong, such that he can cause bruises with his pinky.

** Forget the opposing teams, the main example is Hiruma. Of course, it's more his extensive blackmail files that keep him from being expelled or banned, but even those rarely get brought up later on because, hey, he ''wins''.

* ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]''. In the first episode cyborg girl Henrietta flips out and kills an entire roomful of terrorists. Jean wants her reconditioned despite the objections of his brother, but Chief Lorenzo overrules him. Justified as Section 2 is a new unit that's still [[Interservice Rivalry|proving its worth against rival departments]]—it's better for Lorenzo to pass this off as a success than admit to glitches in the cyborg program.

{{quote|'''Lorenzo:''' "I agree Henrietta's got some problems, but she's an excellent assassin. Besides, we got the man we were looking for, and lost none of our own. You need to look at the bigger picture, Jean."}}

 

* ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. Although he refused the position of Chief Judge when offered it, Dredd is not just unfireable; because of his capacity for saving the world, he's literally one of those types who are too indispensable to be allowed to die. There were a number of times when he resigned, but it was never because of him being forced out by someone else.

* ''[[Tintin]]'': Thomson and Thompson are probably the worst detectives in the world (they were reasonably competent in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' [[Flanderization|but then...]]), yet they keep being sent on important missions. The pinnacle of this trope at work is undoubtedly ''Destination: Moon''/''Explorers on the Moon'', where they are assigned to protect the Syldavian space program (!!) and end up reporting for duty wearing [[Gorgeous Period Dress|traditional Greek outfits]], "arresting" a doctor's skeleton model, and accidentally stowing away on the Moon rocket (thus jeopardizing their oxygen supply) due to deciding to "guard" said rocket and believing the launch was at 1:34 ''P.M'' as opposed to 1:34 ''A.M''.

* The title character of the comic ''[[Gaston Lagaffe]]'', he's asleep more than awake on his job, his backlog of work is enough to fill the whole office, he accidentally set fire to things several times, keeps playing with toys during work hours, builds crazy inventions and lets them loose in the building, at least once blew up part of the building and on all occasions there where managed to mess up the signing of important contracts. Yet, no matter what chaos he causes and despite him only having a minor job as a office courier and errand boy, he never seems to get fired.

** Well, he was once put in charge of the company archives, and turned it into a veritable sea of books and files, where only he could find anything without full spelunking gear...

* In ''Dark Reign: The Hood'', the Controller's power play and constant attempts to undermine the Hood's authority are outweighed by his intelligence strategic acumen. Realizing he can't kill him, the Hood places one of the Controller's own slave discs on him to keep him in line.

* Ola Bog Rise, the goalie from the Norwegian football comic ''Sleivdal''. Every player on that team are terrible - [[Rule of Funny|that's the premise of the comic]] - but Ola is the only one that the coach is, for inexplicable reasons, actually pleased with.

 

** Fortunately for the world, it is mentioned in the first film that he had been at "Marshall College" for ten years, and he is referred to as "Professor" which is the highest faculty rank, and not as some think a courtesy title (especially in [[The Thirties]]). Therefore he had published his articles, gotten his tenure, and then gone on to do what he really loved—which is what they all do.

* James in ''[[The Hurt Locker]]''. He disobeyed orders, messed around with the disarming procedures, left the base without any orders, went hunting insurgents through the alleys on the night without orders, backup or any clue about what he's doing, {{spoiler|getting Eldridge shot and severely wounded in process,}} and generally act like an all-around douchebag. One wonders how did he pass the EOD training, let alone keeping his job. {{spoiler|Twice}}.

* The nanny in ''[[Just Go with It]]''. She is clearly uninterested in her job and often uses her hours to do things other than take care of Katherine's children (such as hit on men and watch [[Showtime]]). But somehow, she stills holds down the job and even joins them in Hawaii.

 

* Foaly in ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' gets away with insulting his boss because his skills are literally irreplaceable. Not only is he the best techie they've ever had, but even if they did find somebody else who could at least do the job competently, the entire security system is rigged to completly fail unless Foaly himself acesses it.

* "[[Bastard Operator From Hell]]": Simon Travaglia. True, his job as a sysadmin is only partly protected by being very good at what he does, and largely by means of threatening, blackmailing and (in extreme cases) ''killing'' anyone who might try to replace him.

** Semi-justified in that she was tricked into it by arguably world’s greatest manipulator {{spoiler|Devil.}} and other Incarnations share the blame for {{spoiler|underestimating the Devil, as they make a deal not to interfere, so she has no one to help her figure the stuff out.}}.

* The Bursar of the UU in ''[[Discworld]]'', certifiably insane, but no-one else wants the job of adding up columns of figures.

** Ultimate Job Security comes as standard for UU wizards, the hiring process is less "become an expert in your field", and more "find an empty room, turn up at meals times, and try to keep out of the way of students".

 

** Though it does help somewhat that everyone at Dunder Mifflin seems to be pretty incompetent at times and the fact that, out of all the branches in a struggling economy, the Scranton branch makes the most profit (probably because of the much more competent employees).

*** The show seems to suggest that Michael is either kind of a paper-selling savant or has a lot of business savvy at the expense of all other intellectual abilities.

** Yes, but as far as Klink's superiors can tell, he's an ass kisser who is absolutely ruthless as a camp commandant.

** Schultz, on the other hand, is known to be incompetent to everyone who knows who he is and is usually very lax around his superiors. The prisoners count him as an ally (he's in on it, though he wishes he wasn't) and have to pull strings to keep him around.

* In ''[[Doc Martin]]'', Dr. Ellingham's first receptionist, Elaine, was lazy, disobedient, surly, and incompetent to the point of being a liability to Port Wenn's public health, but the [[Eccentric Townsfolk]] were so attached to her that the one time Ellingham tried to fire her, he ended up having to rehire her to make the townsfolk stop shunning him.

* Todd in ''[[Scrubs]]'' is [[Informed Ability|said to be]] a very good surgeon; however, he spends most of his time sexually harassing the female staff. More recently, he has also sexually harassed the ''male'' staff.

** May be justified by Becker being a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]].

*** becker owes her dad a lot of money her job is the repayment. this is in the subtext of one episode in season one. it's hinted he owes her wealthy father money.

*** Hawkeye and Trapper are a pair of alcoholic slackers who constantly play practical jokes on everyone else, but they and Charles brought the 4077th to a 90%-plus survival rate. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one episode when Henry said he would have fired them long ago if they weren't the two best surgeons in South Korea. This opinion comes to be shared by more than one guest star general.

*** Charles is a pompous, arrogant [[Jerkass]] who complains loudly about anything and everything and was seen making racial slurs toward the priest in one episode. But unlike his predecessor Frank Burns, he's actually a very competent, if slow surgeon, with cardiac expertise the others lack.

** Not that anyone in the 4077th wants to be there, but [[Crazy Awesome|Klinger]] is actively trying to get out on a Section 8, and they never even [[Failure Is the Only Option|get rid of him.]] Although when he tried to pull it on Colonel Potter in his first appearance, Potter saw right through him, told him to get into uniform and stop acting like an idiot. Klinger complied - for that episode. He still wore dresses during the Potter years until Radar left and he took over his position as Company Clerk.<ref>And who knows how far he would have gone if his actor, Jamie Farr, hadn't suddenly realized that his kids were of age to watch the show, and decided he didn't want them to be ashamed of their dad getting laughed at for wearing a dress.</ref>

* [[Agent Mulder]] in ''[[The X-Files]]'', and to a lesser extent [[Agent Scully]] and Skinner.

** Not anymore; not since he got a less understanding boss than Skinner.

** Somewhat justified, as he was already retired before the series and they dragged him back forcefully to head the titular team.

** And Samantha Carter got away with openly saying no to ''him'' in the first season at least twice, sometimes in situations in which a leader really, ''really'' needs to be able to expect that his decisions will be followed. This is ''long'' before [[Flanderization]] brought about his childlike third season personality.

** Also Lampshaded in a [[Clip Show]] with the new president marveling at how the entire team is still employed.

** Jack and Hammond seem to be good friends, and due to the secretive nature of the SGC, the rules seem to be a little looser... but Hammond nonetheless dutifully [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on it in one episode where he produces a file he's apparently kept on O'Neill's behavior since he joined the SGC.

** [[Truth in Television]], really. When the Chief of Staff of the Air Force made a guest appearance on the show, Richard Dean Anderson asked if there were Air Force colonels as bad as him. The answer? "Worse."

*** Most militaries have an unspoken rule that says that if your skills are truly irreplaceable, then they have to put up with you to get those skills, and that sometimes means frequently looking the other way when one of your officers is an insubordinate jackass.

** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' an IOA agent noted that Sheppard and others were often insubordinate. It was then brought up that they were the best at what they do.

** The [[Stargate Verse]] is [[Mildly Military]] in general. In the case of SG-1, O'Neill's insubordination isn't too much weirder than putting an archaeologist and an alien on a combat team. (Officially, that team is the "first combat" team, so in-universe it just makes sense to have a broad range of expertise on it, but the free rein given Jackson and Teal'c is as implausible as that given O'Neill.)

* In ''[[24]],'' it's common for characters to ''assault'' superiors who they disagree with or suspect of wrongdoing, and you'd expect to wind up in ''prison,'' let alone still working there. However, they still have their jobs when the dust clears. CTU's turnover remains high, though, for [[Anyone Can Die|other reasons]].

** Made all the more outrageous by the fact that in the episode in which Kirk ''is'' court-martialed, there is much talk about how upstanding a starship captain has to be. Kirk's supposed crime in that episode, which he is of course innocent of, is really a minor infraction compared to the stuff he really got up to.

** Justified in that if you have a deep-space exploration ship continually getting mixed up in situations where one wrong decision can lead to the end of human civilization at the hands of cosmic powers, and you know of only one officer who has the talent for continually making the right call in such situations, you keep that man employed no matter what he does. Organizational discipline is one thing, but species survival trumps it.

** It makes sense if you think of it in terms of the Age of Sail rather than modern militaries. The captain had ''a lot'' of power compared to what we think of today.

** One episode features a large group of Navy codebreakers who all fit this trope. Their commander flat out states most of them would fail the military psychological exam due to various mental disorders (neuroses, paranoia, etc.)

** There are those who would say [[Genki Girl]] and resident hot [[Lab Rat]] Abby would also qualify. She never wears a uniform, has strange tastes in everything, and doesn't take much better to orders from on high than Gibbs himself does, unless it's Gibbs who gives the order. However, she's also supposedly one of the single most gifted forensic scientists in the country, if not the world, and NCIS would not ''dare'' give her reason to leave, as most other agencies would be chomping at the bit to get her to work for them if she ever quit. It's explicitly stated in one episode that she receives a handful of lucrative job offers every year, and she turns them all down - because she loves NCIS, and Gibbs, too much to leave.

*** Plus she's friends with Gibbs. Shepherd tried to make her follow the rules. That lasted until Gibbs found out about it.

* Semi-subversion: The [[The Ditz|uber-incompetent]] Matthew actually ''was'' fired from his job on ''[[News Radio]]'' at one point; however, he got it back later in the season.

* In ''[[Torchwood]]'' Ianto kept a Cyberman in the Hub's basement (directly endangering the world) and disobeyed orders to shoot her. But he still manages to stay on the team

* The entire cast of ''Pizza'' <ref>the Australian TV comedy</ref> and ''[[Swift And Shift Couriers]]'' are ''terrible'' at their jobs, and are capable of screwing out [[Hilarity Ensues|routine jobs]], but manage to stay employed... the latter mainly because [[Only Sane Man|the hapless boss]] [[Butt Monkey|gets blamed for everything]], the former because the boss is just plain [[Ax Crazy]].

* [[Mad Men|Don Draper]] can apparently disappear from work for days (possibly weeks!) without any long-term consequences. But this cuts both ways, as Don discovers he can't have Pete Campbell fired for endangering an account, because Campbell's family is wealthy and connected.

** As Duck Phillips discovers to his dismay, even if Don ''were'' fired, he could always go straight to another ad agency because he has ''no contract'', and therefore no "non-compete" clause.

** Some of what happens on the show should get some of them fired. For example, Starbuck may be a great pilot, but her unpredictability would cause any leader to lose faith in her during one of her less lucid moments.

** Similarly, Apollo disobeys direct orders on a routine basis and ends up getting promoted up the chain of command.

** Tyrol essentially commits mutiny and is told he'd have been executed if he wasn't needed.

** [[Truth in Television]]: this actually happened a lot in the ancient world when one kingdom or empire would overrun another. While the top leadership and the elites were executed/dethroned/etc., the civil servants would be retained by the conquerors because they actually knew how to run the country. The Mongol conquest of China is a very good example.

* Patrick Jane of ''[[The Mentalist]]'' breaks laws left and right in his methods of solving murder cases. He's a pretty shady [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] and breeds trouble, yet the agency wouldn't dare fire him because he's just that good. However, every antic of his brings his supervisor, Agent Lisbon, closer to being fired in favor of someone actually able to control him.

** Of course, ''she's'' got Ultimate Job Security too, because if anyone ever fired her Jane would be... ''annoyed''.

* The title character of ''[[Get Smart]]''. At one point, the Chief actually does threaten to fire him, and Max replies that the Chief wouldn't dare: According to CONTROL's seniority regulations, if Max is fired, then the Chief would have to promote [[The Ditz|Larabee]] into Max's job.

* Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]''. Despite being corrupt and a bumbler, he remains sheriff because Boss Hogg wants someone he knows he can control, and the people of Hazzard County keep electing him because they'd rather deal with the devil they know than the devil they don't know.

** Previously, she had blackmail material on a fast-food chain and used it to get her shitty job back. Excusable only because she was pretty much dead inside at the time.

** Even earlier, Giles had this with the original Sunnydale High. Snyder quickly figured out why you should never mess with someone whose nickname is [[Names to Run Away From|Ripper]].

** For that matter, Snyder. His extreme disdain for children makes it clear he should be nowhere near the educational field. He got the job specifically to keep the Hellmouth and all the deaths it causes out of the public eye.

* [[The Ditz|Michael Kelso]] from ''[[That '70s Show]]'' somehow manages to become a [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop|police officer]], and despite all of his antics, he's never fired. These include breaking into the police academy, losing his supervisor's squad car, and setting the academy on fire with a flaregun. In one particularly funny instance he was "guarding" Eric when he was arrested after being caught in one of the group's antics (Hyde, Donna, and Kelso ditched Eric after the car wouldn't start). After it was revealed that he was also part of the prank, a senior officer shoved him into the cell with Eric.

* [[Castle|Rick Castle]] can always get his consultancy position back even if the police commissioner wants him gone by calling his buddy, the ''Mayor of New York City.''

* Almost every character on ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' is a complete screw-up who never even comes close to getting fired. It's [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] many times, and finally explained in the last episode when it's revealed that the owner actually wants the station to lose money.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** [[Truth in Television]]. Teachers, priests and similar individuals are easier to pass to another district or parish than to fire, defrock or send to jail.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Captain Bannon from the video game ''[[World in Conflict]]'' manages to be everything an officer in the Armed Forces should ''not'' be (cowardly, insubordinate, whiny, arrogant, incompetent and many more), yet the worst thing that happens to him career wise over the course of the game is a transfer to another front. Somewhat justified by the fact that World War III ''is'' occurring and there is a shortage of officers... though Bannon's bungling occasionally reaches levels where he could be considered a bigger danger than the Soviets. If it wasn't for {{spoiler|his Heroic Sacrifice near the end}}, he would have surely been court-martialed or possibly executed.

 

* ''[[Least I Could Do]]'': Rayne. He got a job as an executive at a multi-national corporation, with the goal of sleeping with the hot female CEO. He routinely sexually harasses all his female co-workers, including the aforementioned CEO and her assistant. He has climbed through the office's air vents ("You'll appreciate it if and when [[Die Hard|Hans Gruber]] shows up"), climbed the building with a homemade grappling hook when the lift was out, come to work dressed as a Stormtrooper (''[[Star Wars]]'', not Nazi) and once had a prospective employee used as a pinata. He keeps his job, because he's somehow increased company profits to record levels, and his perverseness/immaturity/loose grasp of reality seems to be seen by every other character as amusing or endearing. Yes, he's an outrageous [[Mary Sue]], but that's sort of the joke.

** It's interesting to note that this trope also applies to the aforementioned prospective employee. Despite being a complete [[Jerkass]] to everyone at the company ("So what's it like to be on the other side of the poverty line?"), including and especially his interviewer (Rayne himself), he ''still'' gets the job because he has all the practical skills required. One can only assume that the world of LICD has ''extremely'' strict equal opportunity employment laws.

** Heck, one of his idiotic decisions should have gotten his school ''shut down''. (He funneled the budget for maintaining the fire alarms into wall murals, and as a result the sprinklers don't work.)

* Josh in ''Comic Critics'' once left his job for months, and found it still waiting when he came back. As he explains it, he understands the storeowner's psychology in such a way as to avoid being fired: "I look at a life filled with bad decisions that led him to this point, and figure there's no reason for him to stop making them now."

 

* ''Agents of Cracked'' is an extreme example—Swaim manages to keep his job despite going on at least one ''killing spree''. And the kidnapping. And the bomb threat. And the sexual harassment. Him getting fired for selling jokes to the competition is thus quite surprising, but his comedy savant abilities seem to be the only reason the Chief lets Swaim stay.

 

* ''[[Futurama]]'' Ogden Wernstrom was given tenure by the mayor in an emergency, only to abandon the city in its moment of need. The Mayor's thoughts on the subject? "Well, I'd fire him, but he's got tenure."

** Which brings us to Zapp Brannigan, who somehow manages to keep his job despite being a vain womanizing idiot whose subordinates tend to die horribly.

*** Subverted in "Brannigan Begin Again" where he and Kif were fired after Zapp stupidly destroyed the new headquarters of [[The Federation]]. They were then hired by Professor Farnsworth, prompting Zapp to later hijack the Planet Express ship and try to use it in a suicide mission against a ''neutral planet''. Leela saves the day and is fully prepared to testify as to Brannigan's actions until she realizes that doing so would mean she'd be stuck with him - at which point she swears up and down that he was the hero of the piece, enabling him to get his job back and thus get him out of Planet Express.

* ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'': Bean Scoutmaster Algonquin C. Lumpus, who is generally extremely incompetent and apathetic, and doesn't even ''like'' being a Scoutmaster. {{spoiler|At least until the [[Grand Finale]], where he's finally removed... because it turns out he was never actually the Scoutmaster -- he'd actually locked the previous Scoutmaster in a closet and stolen his job; [[The Reveal]] here gets him imprisoned as a dangerous lunatic.}}

** It can be noted that Burns probably just doesn't care. He's cut so many corners in the plant that even if Homer was a model employee there'd still be glowing green ooze dripping from the ceiling. As for the dislike thing... keep in mind if you ask him at almost any point in time, he'll respond by wondering who this 'Simpson' chap you keep talking about is. Besides, you might as well apply this trope to ''everyone'' who works at the power plant, as they've all been repeatedly shown to be every bit as incompetent, lazy and stupid as Homer. If Frank Grimes hadn't been [[Sanity Slippage|driven insane]] by Homer, the rest of his coworkers would have made it happen anyway.

** The one time Homer ''was'' a model employee (in the [[Flowers for Algernon Syndrome]] episode ''HOMR''), he got the plant closed for its numerous safety violations because his job (after the first couple episodes) is safety inspector. So he's probably there on purpose.

* ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'' have never once shown any ounce of competence at their fast food job and have gotten the place closed for health code violations at least once, not to mention blatant workplace violations such as fighting each other in an attempt to earn workman's comp or going "on strike" and just refusing to work for no reason. Yet they were never shown having been fired.

* In a more realistic world, [[Gargoyles|Elisa Maza's]] tendency to lose guns, and her unannounced one-year disappearance, would have landed her several visits by the Internal Affairs department, if not outright dismissal. She remains a valued member of the 23rd Precinct.

{{quote|"If they survive, they're '''FAIRIES!!''' If not, '''I HAVE TENURE!!'''"}}

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', despite facing [[George Jetson Job Security]] in one episode, Heloise seems to get away with betraying her boss fairly often. This might be because the above mentioned incident ended with Lucius begging her to come back to work.

* Occasionally [[Lampshaded]] by Chief Quimby, who wondered why he continued to put up with [[Inspector Gadget]] after our hero had repeatedly blown him up with exploding assignment messages. The facts that the rest of the Metro City Police force was [[Police Are Useless|almost as incompetent as Gadget]] and the Inspector's extremely high success rate (most of which was due to Penny and Brain, although Gadget himself often made important contributions) probably had something to do with it.

 

* The U.S. Supreme Court. While it is technically possible to impeach and remove someone from the office a justice of the Supreme Court, the last time it was attempted was ''1804''. He was acquitted. Effectively, [[America (The Book)|the icy scythe of death]] snips judges out of office. Impeachment (attempted or otherwise) against federal judges, at any level, is quite rare, to the point where it's basically unheard of.

* This mentality and how it happens in real life was lampshaded by Jaison in ''[[Survivor]]: Samoa'' ,where he said that every job had two people like Natalie and [[Entitled Bastard|Russell Hantz]]. Russell Hantz was that person who was very good at the job but is ''clearly'' not working there to make friends, and is naturally the person who only cares about work and nothing more. Natalie meanwhile is the person who's there to make friends and is invited to all the office parties.

* Computer programmers sometimes jokingly call poor coding practices and examples thereof "Job Security". The reasoning is that they can't fire you if you're the only one who understands the code enough to maintain it.

** The above explains why Gerald Weinberg, in ''The Psychology of Computer Programming'' (written in the 1970s, and still applicable), states that if a programmer becomes indispensable, you should fire him immediately. On the other hand, Michael A. Jackson (not [[Michael Jackson|that one]], [[wikipedia:Michael A. Jackson|this one]]) tells of bosses who find indecipherable complexity a sign of genius and simple and elegant solutions just dumb luck.

* Tenure for academics is not quite this, but it's very, very close. Although granting it is supposed to be based on credentials and accomplishments, it's not uncommon for members of a board to try to block people they don't like from becoming tenured just because it means they'll be stuck with them as coworkers for the foreseeable future - sometimes decades.

* Bankers - Even when they got government bailouts, they weren't ordered to fire the people in charge.

** It's more complicated than "fire the people in charge." You have to "fire the people responsible," which is much harder to do, especially if it's not clear who was giving/taking orders that were economically and/or morally reprehensible. You don't fire the man on top of the biggest building if the one responsible is a floor down.

** Also see the note about California's payroll above. Some of the financial products involved in the crash (leading to the inevitable bailout) were so complex that only a very few really understood them well enough to help get the bank out of the hole they dug. Even reducing their bonus wouldn't really help, because they'd just walk and then the bank would be screwed... it was a really, really crappy situation for all involved, especially the taxpayer.

*** All but the guys with the ultimate job security...

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Occupation Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]