How to Deal With “gun Incompetence” at Work
We’ve all dealt with colleagues who are bad at their jobs but are very good at making their incompetence their problem, from the boss who promises too much (only to expect you to do all the work) to the colleague. a worker who cannot fully do his job (but is too happy to hand over his job to you).
This habit of feigning incompetence at a task in order to pass it on to someone else is called ” gun incompetence ” and can manifest itself in a variety of ways at work. Sometimes a colleague can be really incompetent; other times they are able to do the job – they just don’t care. Either way, their refusal or inability to do the job properly ends up being your problem, as you are blamed for their failures or forced to take on jobs that they then appropriate.
How to Recognize (and Deal with) the Weapons of an Incompetent Boss
One of the main signs of incompetence in a gun-wielding boss is when they seem clueless about what is actually required to complete a project. They may assume that it takes 2 hours to complete a particular task, rather than the more realistic 12 hours. Or they don’t have a clear idea of what their workload actually looks like. For some bosses, this ignorance can be real. For others, this incompetence is of strategic importance, as they have learned that they can make a whole bunch of big promises whose hard work will be passed on to their employees, who will then have to struggle to get the job done, which the boss will receive credit for doing well, though in fact they offered very little support.
“Many leaders do this because organizations encourage and reward it,” saysTessa West , a social psychologist at New York University and author of Jackass at Work: Toxic Colleagues and What to Do About Them .
This then turns into a self-repeating cycle where an incompetent boss will make promises, force his employees to keep them without offering much support, and then reap the rewards of their accomplishments in the hope that they will be promoted. another group before the bosses realize how little they’ve done.
“The taller and more powerful a person is, the easier it is for them to get away with not doing what they have to, often because they don’t want to do it and know they can get away with it,” Daphne Jones said. Breakthrough career coach and author of Win When They Say You Won’t .
There’s power in numbers when dealing with a boss like this: “Their kryptonite makes their targets detect each other,” West said. If people can get together and show a pattern of incompetence, it will be easier to show upper management what is really going on and how it affects performance. “Global problems are scarier for a boss than one-off conflicts between two people,” West said.
How to recognize (and deal with) a colleague’s incompetence as a weapon
Similarly, if a colleague is unable (or unwilling) to perform a number of tasks that are expected of him, given his position, this is a red flag. “People in certain positions must have certain broad or specific abilities and competencies,” Jones said. “If you have them, your colleague should probably have them too.”
If they do not have these skills, they may either be playing an inappropriate role, or their incompetence may be a way to pass these responsibilities on to others. When it comes to dealing with such colleagues, Jones recommends that you have good intentions, but try to find a way to resolve the situation with either your colleague or your boss. “It all starts with good communication,” she said.
If you have a good relationship with a colleague, you might try asking them if they are aware of any blind spots they may have. If not, it may help to discuss your contributions with your supervisor to make sure you are getting proper recognition for your work. “Inform [your boss] in a case, not a complaint, about the status of your progress on the project, and how you helped another person who used the weapon of incompetence,” Jones said.