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In my opinion almost no matter where you work: the slacker's personality and how likeable they are to those in management. The more the slacker is generally liked, the less likely they are to get fired, no matter what. A "great" personality trumps solid work ethic, almost every time. Politics at work really matters the most.
Ding Ding Ding.
Hard work and productivity doesn't matter. It is all about how good of a bullpooper you are.
Leeway for bad and incompetent employees creates bad morale and contributes negatively to an organization's bottom line.
After successfully working over 28 years in multiple industries around the globe; I continue to observe management and senior leadership retaining and promoting incompetent individuals over hard working co-workers and subordinates again and again.
I was on one team with four subordinate analyst. My best performing analyst kept bumping heads with a inept out of his depth analyst the company placed on our team. Complaints of web surfing, listening to inappropriate music, illegally searching on co-worker personal information, and inappropriate behavior were all forwarded to the Program Manager and HR for action. Sadly, this lack luster employee was great friends with multiple program managers, and ended up getting promoted up and off my team into a department my team directly supports.
Two months later, my best performer who bumped heads with the inept performer gets terminated and told they weren't working out. What really upsets me is I didn't even get the chance to be an advocate for my subordinate before they were terminated. My best performer provided over two years of solid performance and contributions, receiving recognition multiple times by our customer and outside our organization. I attempted to bring back this analyst without success.
Thankfully, I had a friend doing similar work who was able to bring my former analyst onto his team, and everything is working out great. Regarding bad and incompetent employees; they'll continue to exist as long as management and senior leadership allow and tolerate such individuals.
I was on one team with four subordinate analyst. My best performing analyst kept bumping heads with a inept out of his depth analyst the company placed on our team. Complaints of web surfing, listening to inappropriate music, illegally searching on co-worker personal information, and inappropriate behavior were all forwarded to the Program Manager and HR for action. Sadly, this lack luster employee was great friends with multiple program managers, and ended up getting promoted up and off my team into a department my team directly supports.
Two months later, my best performer who bumped heads with the inept performer gets terminated and told they weren't working out. What really upsets me is I didn't even get the chance to be an advocate for my subordinate before they were terminated. My best performer provided over two years of solid performance and contributions, receiving recognition multiple times by our customer and outside our organization. I attempted to bring back this analyst without success.
It was harder for management to deal with the guy complaining all the time than the inept guy. After a while they just don't want to hear it. Not to mention office politics got in the way.
The other thing is, if people are getting the work done, why would management go through the trouble of firing somebody, then working on hiring and training a new person? They don't care who is getting the job done as long as it is getting done. The management team gets praised for that, not for hiring and firing.
A lot of good ideas here! I have a coworker who's the absolute worst. I already suspected a few reasons why they keep her on but had someone involved in her hiring process confirm some of them for a fact and it's all a combination of other things mentioned here.
1) They feel sorry for her because she doesn't have the skills or intellectual capacity to work anywhere else and she's older so her prospects are limited further.
2) She kisses everyone's butt and makes them feel good so they all adore her and care more about that than the fact that she's incapable of doing her work.
3) She's been working there so long that they're used to her nonsense so they've all learned how to work around it for it to be a non-issue for them. Plus they feel it'd be easier than letting her go after so long.
And as for at least trying to improve her performance or reprimand any ill behavior, they don't because they're basically afraid of her since none of them likes confrontation and she gets really belligerent and difficult if you so much as question her God-status.
So basically, there's just this terrible, useless employee who does more harm than good with all the mistakes people have to correct and extra work that entails for everyone but that no one will get rid of because she's stupid, old, nice, hostile, loyal, and ignoreable. Contradictions in there, sure, but they all apply.
1.) Somewhere someone is picking up the slack, willingly. There are some people who go above and beyond the call of duty as a strategy to maintain job security, even if the compensation isn't commensurate with the work performed. They may feel insecure about their own skill level and overcompensate by working more.
2.) You also have those in middle management who insulate themselves with people they feel don't have the aptitude or ambition to pose any sort of threat to their position, so if enough noise is made they cover for it by whatever means they feel necessary. They may even spread the workload among multiple people to hide the incompetence.
You won't find these kinds of people in "critical" positions where performance has an obvious and direct impact on the business.
Companies are run like social clubs. Rather than hire and promote based on meritocracy they hire based on shallow BS and promote based on crony-ism. That is why many American companies will never come close to achieving their full potential.
I've been asking this question since I was in high school and worked at Caldor. This is what I've learned... they are usually obnoxious and supervisors/managers don't want the grief that would come with correcting or disciplining them. It's always the same people who show up late, don't do a good job, take longer breaks, are on the phone or whatever else that will be quick to scream harassment if you say anything to them. On the other hand, people play favorites.
same reason banks must loan to bad risks, same reason landlords must rent to bad renters
the power of business people to hire and fire and refuse service, has been taken away from us.
Companies are run like social clubs. Rather than hire and promote based on meritocracy they hire based on shallow BS and promote based on crony-ism. That is why many American companies will never come close to achieving their full potential.
The real question is, what happened in the workplace which lead to this dynamic? If I talk to someone my grandparents' age, they'll say the workplace was for competent people who wanted to work. I did some reading on interviewing techniques and noticed there has been a trend in the last 20 years to use behavioral question techniques to truly assess if a person is competent. What happened in between my grandparent's generation and when the workplace started to change how they assessed competence? We're all looking at the results now and wondering if it really "worked" out.
Behavioral questions do not assess competence. They assess whether you are desired for their social club whether you are someone they want to hang out with.
It is one thing not to want to hire someone who is going to be obnoxious, abrasive, or rude. It unfortunately has become common to degenerate hiring into a Jr. High popularity contest. It reflects the fact that many people nowadays are shallow, self-centered, and have badly misaligned priorities.
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