Bonhomie – adj. Good nature; pleasant and easy manner; geniality.
Bonhomie is from French from bonhomme, good-natured man, from bon, good (from Latin bonus) + homme, man (from Latin homo).
Quixotic – adj. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.
Since it’s been established that the government is basically an inefficient monolith, I think it was important to dig deep and figure out what it takes to be a big-shot at the local government factory.
The formula begins with a diverse selection of jargon and acronyms. Used ad nauseum are words and phrases like priorities, ‘wrapping my arms around’, vectors, developing, finalizing, mission statement, push back, backtrack, executive leadership, YTD, capture, consultation, and offsite.
To compliment this array of vocabulary, the overall contest is who can put on the best face for doing the least amount of work and ingratiating oneself with peers and supervisors. Combined with a calm, WASPy demeanor, one can expect a promotion if you can explain your inefficiency with as many as buzzwords as possible.
Here is my excuse for today “I backtracked on finalizing my priorities because there was pushback from leadership.”
