5 Simple Tricks for Destroying Your Co-Workers
While we'd like to believe that all it takes is hard work and talent, the bitter reality is that we need every advantage -- legit and otherwise -- to rise to the top. And that means you have to be ready to be a horrible person.
In these tough economic times, each of us is looking for ways to increase our earnings and secure our futures. While we'd like to believe that all it takes is hard work and talent, the bitter reality is that we need every advantage -- legit and otherwise -- to rise to the top. And that means you have to be ready to be a horrible person.Fortunately, like most people who read or write for the Internet, I am a terrible human being. Over the years, I've honed this talent, evolving from writing shitty little online comments to actually destroying other writers. Some of you newer to Cracked might not remember that we used to have a completely different slate of columnists - all of whom were obliterated by my fiendish, back-stabbing ways. I mean, think about it. How else could I keep this job? As my last column should have made clear, I'm not really funny and everything I say should be taken absolutely literally. So when some business affairs brought me to Los Angeles last weekend, I decided it was the perfect time to stop by the Cracked office, and secure my job via patented d-bag techniques. And now I can share these techniques with you, illustrating each with a real-world application to your friends here at Cracked. These tips will work for anyone. As long as you're a prick and out to destroy the competition, this 5 step process will move you to the front of the line, whether that is a line for blood bank donations, government cheese, or the third circle of hell.
Gain Their Trust
The first step in any evil plan is perpetuating the notion you're a nice guy. When I was a younger horrible person I used to actually cover myself in warpaint and carry a sharpened butcher knife to the office before trying to murder a coworker. But as you get older you learn subtlety is your friend. You want your evil to be a surprise.
Create Conflict With Others
Now that you've established yourself as a good guy. You need to slyly create dissension. Like wouldn't it be great if no one were plotting to destroy you because they were all plotting to destroy each other? Of course, it would. I set to work creating a divide between my peers. A novice would do this by spreading a rumor that one member of the office was banging the girlfriend/wife of another. But as only about half of the Cracked writers are sexually active and only half of that remaining number have successfully overcome erectile dysfunction, I thought the approach lacked credibility. Also rumors/lies have a tendency to backfire. Remember when you told all your friends that the girl who wouldn't go to the prom with you was a huge lesbian? Remember how silly you felt afterward when it came out she was banging your phys ed teacher, and the captain of the football team, and your best friend, and even a certain non-kosher farm animal in an amateur porn tape that surfaced a year later? Yeah, it takes more than just a lie to do this right.That's why I sent this Tweet moments before I arrived.
Empower Their Worst Ideas
Well, apparently no cards fell and after a moment all I could discern was an awkward discomfort among my peers from seeing me in person. Maybe it was my raw sexuality. Or maybe they were just creeped out drinking beers with a guy who couldn't get a pigfucker to go to the prom with him. I mean, drinking beers with a guy who had a friend who couldn't get a pigfucker to date him. In any event, it was time to move on to the next step. This one might be my favorite. Y'see,sometimes the best way to destroy your alleged friends is to help them destroy themselves. Each of us contains the potential for our own undoing. For some, it's a death wish. For others, it's just incredibly poor judgment. Yet, most of us suppress these ideas for fear of making waves. That guy in the cubicle next to you who thinks the company should move to a four day work week because a happier worker means greater productivity? You should totally encourage him to tell the boss that. And so I set about speaking to my colleagues, finding out their deepest dreams and goals. Apparently, Soren wanted to leave Cracked to start a summer camp for young Aryan boys. Now we were getting somewhere. I spent all night whispering invented statistics in Soren's ear as he knocked back his Chocolate Choo Choos and Mojitos: "Did you know that young Aryan boys are the largest growing summer camp demographic in the U.S."; "Why just the other day at a Neo Nazi rally in Chicago I heard several Aryan parents complaining there was just no good place to send their kid for the summer", and "No, no, I heard that mixed drinks don't affect your abs as long as they're a primary color and come with an umbrella. Drink up."Cody wanted to do more
Feed Misinformation
This trick works as well in war time as it does for miserable cubicle-based jobs. Given that most of your peers are scared and pathetic, desperately clinging to the status quo while they avoid making waves at all costs, they will jump on any bit of information they believe gives them insight into how to go unseen. For example, your office might have a Hawaiian Shirt day. Incredibly, 20 people will show up in bright disgusting colors because NOT wearing a Hawaiian shirt will make them stand out.Now if you can get your coworkers to wear a Hawaiain shirt on a day that isn't Hawaiian shirt day, well, then you're getting somewhere. After several drinks, I applied this technique in subtle expert fashion: "Hey, I was a little surprised by the rain we had today," I said finishing my sixth Scotch neat. "I guess that's why Bossman Jack O'Brien says DOB writes like a fourteen-year-old girl who learned English as a second language.""What?" said Dan."The rain. I thought it was supposed to be sunny," I said finishing my seventh Scotch. "I brought my sunglasses and everything for the glare. Y'know, like the glaring continuity errors in all of Swaim and Cody's videos. Oh, sorry. Channeling Jack again. Waitress, is there even any alcohol in these? Bring me an eighth Scotch please.""Anyway, let's not focus on the boss's palpable disgust with all of your work product. Let's just try to get in his good graces. Since Jack's been on the east coast, he's totally gotten into Cirque du Soleil. Like heavy into it. I think he thinks that's the future of the Internet.""French Circus Performing Artists are the future of the Internet?" Swaim questioned.I swallowed my ninth Scotch. "Totes."I saw Soren smirking, and I realized I was being foolish. I was dealing with some of the finest writers on the Internet. They weren't going to fall for some absurd line of crap and sell out their artistic visions in the process. Then I saw something blue out of the corner of my eye.
Murder
Sometimes, the first four steps don't work. Or at least they don't work fast enough when you've got a 7:20 am flight back to New York the next day and you want results before you leave. That's why I decided I should probably just kill everybody. But still, I didn't want to be caught. Also, I had left my war paint and butcher's knife back in New York. I soon devised a master plan. What if I pretended to commit suicide, but in the process murdered everyone? I could wait until they left the bar for a smoke break, leave a suicide note, jump off the roof and try to crush them all from above.I waited until the gang headed out front, and rushed up to the roof of the building while mentally composing my suicide note. If I flung myself off the building just right, I could snap each of their necks with a different one of my limbs, while using their now-dead bodies to brace my fall. Kinda brilliant.
I flung myself off the building, my face filled with California air, my eyes with visions of job security. But only a moment after leaping off the four story building, my descent came to an almost instant halt. I opened my eyes to find myself seated firmly on Swaim's shoulders. Fuck that fucker was tall. "Hey, whatcha doin' up there, buddy?" Swaim turned and asked."Me? Oh, nothing," I said, shimmering down the side of his body to the other writers below."Well, it was great to meet you, Gladstone," Soren said."I'll let you know when I'm back east," DOB offered."Which giant fake mustache looks more Cirque du Soleil-ier," Cody inquired."Aww, you really are a swell bunch of guys," I said. "Sorry for trying to destroy and/or murder you."
Gladstone is Cracked.com's Senior Resident Warlock. Follow him on Twitter. And then there's this. He has a website too.
