Well... hold on to your hat cloudsatall, because that's the way it is everywhere regardless of where you work or what you do. My wife has a saying that seems to hold true no matter where you go: "20% of the people do 80% of the work, and it's always the same 20%". I also had a philosophy when I was working (I'm retired now)...

"THIS is JUST a job. It isn't who I am and has anything to do with me. It's just a job. I'll do my job to the very best of my ability and take pride in what I do. My personal goal is to achieve a level of excellence that I can be proud of regardless of what anyone else thinks".

But, other than that, it's just a way of making a living. I can put up with any sort of idiotic nonsense someone else might do if what they do doesn't matter to me, EVEN if it looks like it will reflect on me. I just tell myself "whatever" and walk away completely OK. I mean, what is the worst anyone can do? Fire you? OK... Go for it! I refused to be afraid for my job and I did a better job because of that fact.

There are and will be a lot of really stupid, ignorant *** kissers and incompetent people you're going to need to be able to work with, regardless of your career choice. It never pays to ruffle anyones feathers or make yourself stand out in a crowd. Actually, in my 36 year career in construction, I was famous for flying below the radar...never making waves or upsetting the apple cart... just doing my job and being invisible. I did my job superbly and with great skill, but I never made any of the stupid stuff into a big deal. There is another wonderful saying that goes something like this: "The person that tries to solve the problem is often the one that gets blamed for causing it". Solving problems is great, just so long as it doesn't involve stepping on anyone elses toes or putting yourself into the crosshairs of higher-ups. The only time you can do that, sometimes, is if YOU are the higher-up.

AND, as usual, I'm probably getting too damned wordy and carried away here, so I'll stop now.

Dan