History Main / OutrankingYourJob

-->'''Mac:''' [''grinning for once''] Sorry, I get to be the boss today. [''walks away'']

** Seemingly parodied with William de Worde, who transplants this trope into the world of ''journalism'', attempting to be both DaEditor and an IntrepidReporter. Since he more or less invented the industry on Discworld, it's not he, or anyone else, knows any better.

[* Captain Tommy Gregson of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' is often seen assisting Detective Marcus Bell -- and, by extension, Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson -- in the investigating of crime scenes, if not doing the investigations himself. He has also had to chase suspects and often interrogates them too.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': In the Golden Age 1st Lt, and later Capt, ComicBook/SteveTrevor generally works alone or with Wondy and is only ever seen commanding a unit when he's rescuing a group of [=POWs=] from captivity.

* In ''Videogame/Fallout4'', if you join the Minutemen, you are quickly promoted to the rank of General, but treated as a low-ranked mook, constantly told to go rescue kidnapped settlers by yourself.

-->'''Mac:''' [''grinning for once''] Sorry, I get to be the boss today.[''walks away'']

* Captain Tommy Gregson of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' is often seen assisting Detective Marcus Bell -- and, by extension, Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson -- in the investigating of crime scenes, if not doing the investigations himself. He has also had to chase suspects and often interrogates them too.

* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'': Frank L. Baum seemed to like playing this trope for laughs. It may be that in [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} Oz]], this is the normal state of formal militaries.

** Played straight with Samantha Traynor, your communications specialist. Due to the presence of the ArtificialIntelligence EDI on-board the ''Normandy'', her job amounts to an extremely over-qualified secretary. Justified, as [[FantasticRacism anti-AI sentiment]] meant EDI was pretending to be nothing more than a VI during the ''Normandy'''s retrofitting to avoid getting shut down, and if that were true, Traynor would definitely be needed.

* Lampshaded in ''Literature/RainbowSix''. When Rainbow is initially formed, Ding and Clark assume they will be granted the respective ranks of captain and colonel, and are surprised to be addressed as Major Chavez and ''General'' Clark. Note that the entire Rainbow unit, including support staff, consists of less than 50 people. And all the enlisted personnel under them were various flavors of Sergeant (Which is justified by the fact that they were all recruited from various special forces units, which requires several years experience and the promotions that go with them before being considered for entry).

* When he's not just giving exposition to ComicBook/{{Batman}}, Commissioner Gordon is often depicted as personally leading investigations and hunting down criminals as if he were a beat cop. His wife lampshades this on at least one occasion, noting the police commissioner isn't even supposed to wear cuffs. Ironically, the [[Series/{{Batman}} Adam West show's]] mild-mannered, [[PoliceAreUseless utterly ineffectual]] politico is probably the most ''realistic'' version of Gordon on-air. However, Gordon does have a logical in-universe reason: Gotham PD is so incredibly corrupt that anything important enough for Batman is probably also something any corrupt cop would be working to cover up.

** During the planning for Emperor Gregor's wedding, Lt. Ivan Xav Vorpatril is assigned to help the upper-class women planning the thing, which is strictly-speaking below his pay grade. This includes his own mother, the Emperor's social protocol manager. He describes the situation in the following picturesque metaphor;

* When he's not just giving exposition to ComicBook/{{Batman}}, Commissioner Gordon is often depicted as personally leading investigations and hunting down criminals as if he were a beat cop. His wife lampshades this on at least one occasion, noting the police commissioner isn't even supposed to wear cuffs. Ironically, the [[Series/{{Batman}} Adam West show's]] mild-mannered, [[PoliceAreUseless utterly ineffectual]] politico is probably the most ''realistic'' version of Gordon on-air.

** Almost played straight in the third game as reportedly some members of the Bioware team wanted the council to award Shepard the rank of "Supreme Commander" and yet would still have Shepard commanding only the Normandy and leading his three man team. However the title was deemed a bit too [[Narm hokey]] and the promotion was never carried out.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' has you playing Shepard, a Lieutenant Commander in the Alliance Navy. Early in the game Shepard assumes command of an advanced reconnaissance frigate, but he/she also leads every away mission, typically leaving Navigator Pressly in command. In any modern real-life navy, the captain's place is on the ship, and he/she would have specialized teams to handle away missions, such as Marines or [=SEALs=]. You also only bring two crew members with you on your missions. It's unlikely a 3-man team would even have an officer in charge; they would typically be led by a junior NCO. Further complicating things is the fact that Shepard is both an Alliance officer and a Spectre, the latter putting him/her outside of the Alliance command structure.

* ''[[Series/McMillanAndWife Stewart McMillan]]'' is the Police Commissioner of San Francisco, who solves murders with the help of only one sergeant and his civilian wife.

* More or less the rule in human spaceflight. The small size of crews (the largest crew on a spacecraft has been eight on two shuttle flights, and at one point 13 for a few days on the International Space Station) and the need for experienced personnel means that commanders (who are almost always military officers, and senior ones at that) are in charge of only a handful of people, sometimes just one. On Apollo-Soyuz in 1975 this led to a situation where a General (Tom Stafford, who was a Brigadier General in the USAF at the time, he retired as a Lieutenant General) was only commanding 2 other men. Apollo 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 were commanded by Navy Captains and Colonels, one rank below that of that of the flag officers (Rear Admiral Lower Half through Admiral for Navy and Brigadier General through General for Air Force).

*** Averted with Pash Cracken, who voluntarily accepts a demotion to join Rogue Squadron in ''Wedge's Gamble'', then resumes his former rank and is PutOnABus in ''The Bacta War''.

** Also largely averted in the Wraith Squadron books. Wedge is still a Commander, making him if anything under-ranked for someone who is in overall command whenever the Wraiths and Rogues are working together. The rest of the Wraiths are either Flight Officers or Lieutenants, with one eventually promoted to Captain.

* The ''Literature/XWingSeries'' eventually sees Wedge Antilles promoted to General, while many of his subordinates are also promoted... resulting in a unit in which half the pilots outrank the ''commanders'' of other squadrons. Somewhat justified in that Rogue Squadron is an elite unit. Averted with Pash Cracken, who voluntarily accepts a demotion to join Rogue Squadron.
** This is actually deconstructed, as once this happens...Rogue Squadron tends to pretty much break up, with them going to command other squadrons, and only reforming in special instances, or leaving Rogue Squadron proper to the next generation.

** Generally averted when these characters appear in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, though many have apparently not been promoted in the interim. Wedge, as a General, is seen commanding task forces and the defense of entire systems, with Tycho frequently as his second in command. Wes and Hobbie are squadron commanders, as is Gavin Darklighter, now a Colonel and in command of Rogue Squadron itself.

* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' has Colonel O'Neil leading a specialized team of a Lieutenant Colonel, a number of Lieutenants, and a civilian scientist. And an alien who was roughly equivalent to a 4-star general before defecting. Justified both because this is an elite unit and because many of the team members have highly advanced qualifications.

* Similarly, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (yes, President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt's son) insisted on going with the troops landing on Utah Beach, feeling that in the chaos that was going to ensue, ''someone'' had to be on the scene who could take control and make the necessary strategic decisions. [[BadassGrandpa At 56 years of age]], and [[{{Determinator}} while suffering from arthritis and heart trouble]], he led his troops on the beach using his cane to signal with. He ended up dying of a heart attack the following month.

** During the planning for Emperor Gregor's wedding, Lt. Ivan Xav Vorpatril is assigned to help the upper-class women planning the thing. This includes his own mother, the Emperor's social protocol manager. He describes the situation in the following picturesque metaphor;

* The various ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' games have Captain BJ Blazkowicz as the player character. He commands no one. Justified, in that BJ works for the OSS.