[from android, SF terminology for a humanoid robot of essentially
biological (as opposed to mechanical/electronic) construction] A
person (esp. a low-level bureaucrat or service-business employee)
exhibiting most of the following characteristics: (a) naive trust in
the wisdom of the parent organization or `the system'; (b) a
blind-faith propensity to believe obvious nonsense emitted by
authority figures (or computers!); (c) a rule-governed mentality, one
unwilling or unable to look beyond the `letter of the law' in
exceptional situations; (d) a paralyzing fear of official reprimand
or worse if Procedures are not followed No Matter What; and (e) no
interest in doing anything above or beyond the call of a very
narrowly-interpreted duty, or in particular in fixing that which is
broken; an "It's not my job, man" attitude.
Typical droid positions include supermarket checkout assistant and
bank clerk; the syndrome is also endemic in low-level government
employees. The implication is that the rules and official procedures
constitute software that the droid is executing; problems arise when
the software has not been properly debugged. The term droid mentality
is also used to describe the mindset behind this behavior. Compare
{suit}, {marketroid}; see {-oid}.
In England there is equivalent mainstream slang; a `jobsworth' is an
obstructive, rule-following bureaucrat, often of the uniformed or
suited variety. Named for the habit of denying a reasonable request
by sucking his teeth and saying "Oh no, guv, sorry I can't help you:
that's more than my job's worth".
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {field servoid}{marketroid}{-oid}{salescritter}{scratch monkey}{suit}{tunafish}{wall follower}]