A Blankface (credited to Scott Aaronson) is someone, usually a service worker entrusted with a small amount of power, who would rather use that power to act as a cog in a broken machine instead of a human being with courage, judgment, and responsibility for their actions.
Blankfaces are almost always in a position to easily do the right thing and bend some minor rule or reach out to another department to get your inquiry resolved, but living otherwise powerless lives, they relish enforcing the most literal interpretation of the rules. These rules give them a semblance of power, and for them, taking ownership and doing the right thing feels like giving in to your demands—a loss of power.
Given a choice between doing the obviously right thing or stonewalling you to feel powerful, a Blankface will always choose the latter.
Blankfaces are almost always in a position to easily do the right thing and bend some minor rule or reach out to another department to get your inquiry resolved, but living otherwise powerless lives, they relish enforcing the most literal interpretation of the rules. These rules give them a semblance of power, and for them, taking ownership and doing the right thing feels like giving in to your demands—a loss of power.
Given a choice between doing the obviously right thing or stonewalling you to feel powerful, a Blankface will always choose the latter.
I never got the reimbursement they promised. Their Blankface administrator just kept sending me back the form, demanding more and more convoluted bank details, until I finally got the hint and dropped it.
by Lucent April 07, 2022
by Skankhunt52 July 25, 2019