droid

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}.