I hate favoritism

In my earlier post, I talked about hard work and getting along with others as part of a recipe for success in an office environment and a lot of people - me included, and within the post, too - brought up the question of where the line between being nice and helpful ends and being a brown noser (sipsip) begins. We've all encountered the sipsip - the person who seems to be on the boss' good side all the time without having to do a shred of work. All the sipsip's time is taken up complimenting the boss and spreading gossip about everyone else, to put it simplistically. If your boss is smart, he or she knows what's going on and won't let the person's brown nosing color how that person does his job. Unfortunately, quite a number of bosses would rather be flattered than be discerning. Being sipsip is different from being the boss' favorite, though they tend to overlap sometimes. The boss' favorite is the golden child, the employee who can do no wrong. Sometimes, this is merited, like if you a have a super smart, super efficient officemate who constantly rallies his team to produce better and better results. Such a person deserves more than to be a favorite, such a person probably deserves a promotion. There are times though that a completely incompetent or power hungry person will somehow be the boss' favorite. This person could screw up monumentally or mistreat her co-workers or subordinates and will not get so much as a reprimand for it. I have horror stories from my past jobs about people like this and I'm sure you're wondering if I have some magic formula to make pests - I mean - people like this go away. The sad truth is, I don't. Whenever I've encountered a job that involves a person like this, I always leave because if I don't, I know I'll go nuts. Eventually, I got so tired of dealing with boss' favorites, and of office politics in general, that I quit my last job and decided to go freelance. So far, I've been lucky, but only because even though I keep my own hours, I still treat it like a job. But more on that later. I know that most people don't have the luxury of quitting their jobs just because they don't like the way things are run. I'm not saying that quitting is something that you should do, only that it's what I tended to do. To the millions of people who have to go to work every day and deal with brown nosers and blatant favorites, I admire you. You are way stronger than I will ever be. And it is to you that I direct this question: How do you deal with sipsips and/or favorites? I sincerely would like to know.