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droid n.
[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".
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