7. Being A Douchebag Trumps Actual Competence - Star Trek
Life can be unfair, and many of us learn this fact no better than in the workplace. It sucks seeing a thoroughly incompetent colleague get promoted above you time and time again, and this is realised extremely well in J.J. Abrams' fantastic 2009 Star Trek, offering up an unexpected commentary on the nature of office politics. James Kirk (Chris Pine) begins our tale as a roguish upstart, a cadet who is arrogant, brash and defiant to authority on a regular basis. However, it isn't long before Kirk ends up becoming Captain, which given he was being admonished for cheating the Kobayashi Maru a short while before is just ludicrous. Put it down to Captain Pike's (Bruce Greenwood) respect for Kirk's father as well as Kirk's overwhelming sense of self-confidence that he's given the Captain's chair ahead of the countless more qualified people for the job, and it's a potent reminder that no matter how hard you work, some jackass is probably going to show up late, hungover and get promoted ahead of you.