We are telling you how to get past PHBs, not telling you that their view of the world makes sense. That doesn't make us PHBs.

In fact there is a certain irony here. You are turning down paying work because you don't want to accept a basic requirement of reality. Doing stupid things for no good reason other than an unwillingness to accept reality is classic PHB behaviour. So of all of the people speaking, you are the one who is acting most like a PHB.

As Barry told me privately when I really needed to hear it, sometimes you have to know when to suck it up. Things will get better. Thanks to Barry's gentle prodding, I did live with a stupid external decision, it was the right thing to do, and things did get better.

You are in that situation. It doesn't matter how stupid the idiots are who hire you, they have money, you need money, and you can strike a deal.

Cheers,
Ben