Your Boss is Incompetent, But Could You Do Any Better?
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It has been said that in the workplace, people rise to their highest level of incompetence. In other words, individuals who are good at their job will likely be promoted, while average performance will be neither rewarded nor punished. So ultimately individuals will advance until they hold a position they’re incapable of properly performing and employees will be forced to deal the consequences of the boss’ inability. In an organization top-heavy with incompetence it should come as no surprise that employees are frustrated. But given the opportunity, could they do any better if they were running the show?
We’ve all questioned the competence of our boss at one point or another, but a 2007 survey by Florida State professor Wayne Hochwarter asked whether it is true that employees don’t leave jobs or organizations – they leave bad bosses. Given that 27% of employees reported that their supervisors made negative comments about them to other employees and 24% indicated that their boss had invaded their privacy, it’s no surprise that employees in bad workplace situations experience more depression, exhaustion, tension and nervousness. In fact, a later study by the same author found that 40% of employees agreed with the statement “the only fun thing about work is leaving”. Ouch.
But playing the Monday morning quarterback in the workplace is much easier than actually being the quarterback… or is it? While bosses often manage personal and professional issues we’re not aware of as employees it doesn’t change the fact that many of us believe we could do a better job if given the opportunity to run the lab, department, division or company. Seeing as only 13% of scientists responded that their boss deserved an “A” grade, it looks like there may be some critics ready to grab the reigns…
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