Buffers or the value of bad workers

EVERY place needs at least a few bad workers, there shouldn't be too many of them in any one workplace of course just one or two mind you and here's the reason why. They're buffers, let me say that again, you're working with a couple of buffers. A buffer is a bad worker but who is beneficial to you, he/she takes the boss's mind off what you're doing and onto what they're doing and it's always fun to talk about the buffer anyway, it's water cooler talk and would you rather they talk about you? The buffer just called out sick and threw a wrench into the whole work schedule so the boss starts talking about Ray as usual and you put in your two cents "yeah that Ray, what's up with that? calling out sick at the last minute. In my day..." so everybody likes to complain about Ray. What you want to do is never ever see the buffer(s) get fired, you certainly don't want to be instrumental in their firing yourself, you'll come to regret it later. Yeah the buffers get canned and you're all happy the next day but then the boss starts noticing more of what you're doing, those minor mistakes they always pick up on and you don't know what you had 'til you lost it, them were the days. Once worked with a kid, annoying as hell, always coming to work late with the most flimsy excuses but over time you find you can't hate him and that's the key to recognizing good buffer material, you don't know it yet but something tells you he's valuable as long as there's not too many of them and that's also pivotal to Z's Buffer Theory as long as they're not overly common their value actually increases. You actually become very tolerant of them whereas in the past you hated their guts, I mean it's not like the whole workplace sucks and once you recognize the practical reality of the situation you can more than deal with it, hell you might even buy him a beer. So never underestimate the value of a bad worker.