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Brutal Bosses and Their Prey: How to Identify and Overcome Abuse in the Workplace

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Boss? 13 Types and How to Survive Them.

Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates ...And Other Difficult People: Using Emotional Intelligence to Survive and Prosper

Dealing With Incompetent Leaders

"As a mid-level employee, you’ve been working for the ACME Company, a manufacturing firm, for the past two years. Your job performance has been solid, and on occasion, even praiseworthy. However due to the current economic conditions – poor profit earnings, massive layoffs and company restructuring, you now find yourself working for a new boss. Ordinarily reporting to a new leader would not pose a real problem but this time it feels different -- management practices have changed. The team environment has been transformed from one of true collaboration, honest dialogue and a commitment to problem solving to one where backstabbing, finger pointing and plain fear are the norms. Congratulations – you are now under the control of an “incompetent” leader!"

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Comments: [add a comment]

User: anonymous
Date: 9/25/2005 1:21:00 AM

User: donewNetSte
Date: 10/18/2007 4:05:00 PM

One of the most difficult and especially incompetent people my fellow employee and I have delt with is our Director of Customer Support "Michele". I do not understand why a company hires a director who does not know how to initially help the customer? I feel if you are in such a position you would hire someone that knows the in and outs of what they are incharge of. Instead netsuite hires a woMAN who doesn't know what she is doing and does nothing but make everyone else angry and upset, control freak who flunked out of college and can't count from 1-5. I can not stand someone so incompetent in such a position.

User: anonymous
Date: 6/8/2008 2:36:00 AM

I work for an incompetent manager. He does not know what he is doing and puts too much emphasis on relationships. He flunked out of college and I will be graduating soon. I think he is intimidated that I will be his boss, so he nit picks things to get me into trouble. He is an absolute idiot and should be fired.

User: anonymous
Date: 7/10/2008 10:05:00 AM

Well, my supervisor is this nice, bubbly and dedicated person. She's passionate about her job and is not controlling. The problem is that she's very disorganized, a poor communicator, is always late, never answers a question, doesn't know how to give instructions, and never meets any deadline. I don't dislike her because she's really, really trying, but the job is not getting done because of her. Bad bad bad.

User: anonymous
Date: 12/10/2008 11:19:00 AM

My boss is always late, doesn't show up until 11am or Noon, and only works until 5pm. In the early morning he will remote into his computer from home and micromanage me from there. He spends his morning forwarding me his duties and then he gets the credit for it. Pisses me off. He used to come in late and work till 10pm at night repeat. That is fine, but my belief is that you are scheduled to work at a specific time and you need to be there whether you worked overtime or not is your problem.

User: mdlefngrslute
Date: 7/14/2009 12:49:00 AM

There is a way you can back your incompetent boss or really any bad boss into a corner, so long as it is a large company, a corporation, etc. What you can do, for example, if you have a boss, for example who will not answer questions, or keep you in the loop, is to use the email like a blodgeoning weapon. What you do is send emails to ask questions. If the questions are ignored, send it again with the subject line or the beginning saying "Second Request" and copy it to the boss above yours. If you are written up and no real reason is given, send an email just asking what concrete steps or guidelines that should be used in the future. After it is given, everytime you do a project, refer to a section in the reasons given and email it as documentation. If there is a vague portion of anything given to you, send an email asking clarification. What this does is forces your boss to give you the weapon you will beat him/her with. There is not a thing he/she can do about it. Just ALWAYS be respectful in any correspondence. Also remember, just as company email can hurt you if you sent personal email from work, it can also hurt your boss as it is a permanent record that is legal and can be subpoenaed in court. MAKE SURE TO KEEP A COPY FOR YOURSELF IN A FILE. I know several people who have used this technique successfully. At the very least, you usually will get the boss to back off and at least basically leave you alone. If you are fired and it is not for just cause, it leaves a paper trail that you can send to HR but when you send it after you have been fired, send it RETURNED RECEIPT REQUESTD in the mail. That way, it makes is a legal document which they MUST respond to and at the very least it causes a big hairy meeting and makes it very uncomfortable to the management who fired you. Mail like that makes people jump. They will have to produce documentation at that meeting.

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