Sarcasm: The Ultimate Career Killer

So if the first step is recognizing the problem then I am there. In fact I was there a while ago. It’s just that critical second step that continues to elude me. When I started my first full time job I realized that I was going to have to rein in the level of sarcasm I used in the work setting. So for the most part during my professional career I’ve shown a great deal of restraint in this area but as of late seem to having increasing difficulty activating my internal filter.

So let me begin by setting the stage. It was taco salad day in the employee cafeteria which is pretty much the standout menu item at our sad excuse for a cafeteria. People wait months for taco salad day and it always arrive with much fanfare. The cafeteria is always packed to standing room only capacity. I’m a particularly big fan of taco salad day so I had corralled a group of colleagues from my department to join me for lunch.

As we sat there the taco salad, witty repartee, and clever rejoinders were flowing like wine. It was almost reminiscent of that scene in Dumb & Dumber when Jim Carrey’s character is dreaming about being with the Lauren Holly character and he's sitting around with all of her friends and every joke he tells is the funniest joke ever told. Except in this version I’m the Jim Carrey character and everything is actually very funny. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but we were all very much enjoying our brief reprieve from the life-sucking force that is our day to day work life. As our laughter echoed through the cafeteria our boss made his way into the cafeteria. Fortunately our table was full and in fact we had started a waiting list so there really wasn’t room for Mr. Lifesucker himself. Our lunch continued without incident until our boss got up from the table he had been sitting at and made his way out of the cafeteria. On his way out he stopped by to say hello and commented “Well everyone seems to be enjoying themselves over here. You seem to be a very happy bunch today”. Then quicker than you could say career limiting move I replied “Well, I’m sure you’ll take care of that”. This of course resulted in uproarious laughter from the table. As we read the reaction on my boss’ face this soon turned into nervous laughter closely followed by the sound of a pin dropping at our table. My boss was obviously offended and made some awkward response about how we should get back to work and then walked away. At this point I officially felt bad which was not helped by the fact that the guy sitting next to me then said “Well, it’s been great working with you”. I felt like saying “I wish I could say the same for you” but I thought better of it since my inability to filter my internal dialogue was what had gotten me into this in the first place. I think I may end up apologizing to my boss but suffice it to say this incident served as a wake up call and a reminder that not every clever retort needs to see the light of day. I’m not really too worried about the “glass ceiling” limiting my career progression at this point. I’m way too busy building my own glass barricade constructed solely of offensive one-liners.