Pick your work mates as well as your dive buddy

[Otter]

If I were ever overcome by the urge to teach CPR and FA in the workplace, I would use this article in my marketing material.

 

[ShakaZulu]

You may want to remove that first letter of the first word in your post.........that way we can all understand what you are talking about.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

<snip>...And, it doesn't really matter where I work - you change departments, you change companies - but the're everywhere, especially the ones that were 'promoted' so they supposedly couldn't do further damage in a position of direct responsibility!

It's called the Peter Principle. A person raises to their level of incompetence.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I don't believe in that - I have incompetence I haven't even started to plumb the depths of yet, and I'm not a CEO - yet - but there's a difference between incompetence and sheer idiocy.

An analogy would be someone who repeatedly picks up a live burning coal with their bare hand, drops it, whines about it, makes everyone else drop what they're doing and attend to them, and we explain to them exactly why they didn't enjoy the experience (cause and effect in simple terms), as soon as we're back doing what we're supposed to be doing, the same person again again picks up the same live coal because 'That's the way we always done it around here'. This is idiocy, and it's even more maddening idiocy when practiced by those with education credentials such as advanced university degrees and/or MBA's.

Someone merely incompetent would then become competent after the first cycle of events, and even a slow learner would be competent after the second such round.

Those who posted about the military not being exempt will be familiar with the 3 ways of doing things. The RIGHT way, the WRONG way, and the (insert your military branch or employer's organization name here) way, and at (insert again), we do things the (insert again) way.

 

[fmw625]

That settles it. I'm NOT going to work tomorrow, I'm going diving. Much Safer.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

You may want to remove that first letter of the first word in your post.........that way we can all understand what you are talking about.

"ick your work mates as well as your dive buddy"?

Maybe - would you really want to 'ick' them?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I don't believe in that - I have incompetence I haven't even started to plumb the depths of yet, and I'm not a CEO - yet - but there's a difference between incompetence and sheer idiocy.

Read on...
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/PETERPR.html

The Peter Principle was first introduced by L. Peter in a humoristic book (of the same title) describing the pitfalls of bureaucratic organization. The original principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their "level of incompetence". The principle is based on the observation that in such an organization new employees typically start in the lower ranks, but when they prove to be competent in the task to which they are assigned, they get promoted to a higher rank. This process of climbing up the hierarchical ladder can go on indefinitely, until the employee reaches a position where he or she is no longer competent. At that moment the process typically stops, since the established rules of bureacracies make that it is very difficult to "demote" someone to a lower rank, even if that person would be much better fitted and more happy in that lower position. The net result is that most of the higher levels of a bureaucracy will be filled by incompetent people, who got there because they were quite good at doing a different (and usually, but not always, easier) task than the one they are expected to do.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Ahhh - but the incompetent are still theorectically capable of learning, and perhaps choosing not to is what draws the border between incompetence (anyone can make a mistake the first few times they try to something) versus idiocy (the methods which achieve failure must not only be repeated, but formalized and even enshrined as dogma and the only way in which things can be done).

 

[DrSteve]

To quote a colleague - teach these people to watchout for cars whent hey cross the road and they'll be run over by a bus.

I work with idiots and people with no ambition.

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

And some people wonder why I don't get the gold star simley for 'Plays Well With Others'. I'm going to print this and take with me to work.

I have a very strong work ethic, and I do get top marks for technical expertise, willingness to learn, being able to see what is coherent between otherwise seemingly disparate facts, and communication. But I really, really, just can't STAND having extra work piled on me because someone else did something STUPID - like having to clean up their mess, especially if they did EXACTLY the opposite of what I or my group recommended.

The brink of apoplexy for me is when someone does something STUPID right before a holiday, and leave on vacation, and about 3 PM on the last working day before the holiday the timer on the STUPID act ticks down. Then the rest of us are scrambling and missing whatever plans we might have made while the IDIOT is off enjoying him/her self. And, the after-hours building mainteneance staff and you know each other by name, and have almost daily chats, but the IDIOTS' vehicles are long since gone from the parking lot when you leave.

And, you CAN'T avoid them - you can't pick all your work mates like you would pick friends, spouses, etc. especially in today's 'matrix' environment of reporting relationships. Way back in school, you might have been able to avoid most of these folks by picking your group for group assignments early, and if not, maybe minimizing the damage they contributed, but there's no avoiding way to avoid all of them in the work place.

And, it doesn't really matter where I work - you change departments, you change companies - but the're everywhere, especially the ones that were 'promoted' so they supposedly couldn't do further damage in a position of direct responsibility!

OK, minor fit over (tic , tic). Time to go medicate. Yes, my wife is truly a saint / angel, halo & harps await her.

Thanks, Otter, for posting the scientific credence here. I might just write into my will that this be part of my euology.

Methinks WWD might be getting close to the breaking point...