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I worked for a company once that would promote from within (a good thing), but would promote the most incompetent (bad thing). A person from my department was promoted to a very technical role that required university-level education in which she did not have. If this was the only issue, I would have not thought much of it because there are many skilled professionals that do not have college degrees.
This person would find a way to pawn her work off on others or simply not do it and then whine, arrive to work 30 minutes to one hour late, leave work very early, and would brag about getting men to buy her trips and gifts. It was actually disconcerting to have her sit in our office and brag about her having hangovers and going to bars; the most unprofessional person I have ever worked with. And before you ask, she was in her mid to late thirties and had two children.
We had to fix her errors in her work, or sometimes we were the unlucky ones that had to do it for her. We could not rely on her to be where she said she will be. She would disappear for hours at a time. And still promoted....yes, we were blown away.
Why do companies promote incompetent staff?
You just described my manager in every little detail!
In my workplace they say: If you get the job done, you are a good employee. If you get others to do your work, you are a manager. Many people just don't see the difference between that and "If you get others to do their work, you are a manager", the latter sounds better to me.
Here's another one that I heard a lot in similar situations: "The management saw in her something you can't see" - in a totally decent, innocent sense. That something is probably: not a threat, always says yes and doesn't criticize his department.
Third example, I heard that once from an executive: "She was good when I promoted her".
By the way from my humble experience I agree with most of the answers.
Mostly it's about fitting into the particular culture of the workplace and has little to do with specific job skills. I worked for a regional insurance company in the Midwest that for the most part had a customer base of people who had a rural or small town background. You could almost always tell out of a pool of prospective candidates who would get a promotion and who would not.
I worked for a company once that would promote from within (a good thing), but would promote the most incompetent (bad thing). A person from my department was promoted to a very technical role that required university-level education in which she did not have. If this was the only issue, I would have not thought much of it because there are many skilled professionals that do not have college degrees.
This person would find a way to pawn her work off on others or simply not do it and then whine, arrive to work 30 minutes to one hour late, leave work very early, and would brag about getting men to buy her trips and gifts. It was actually disconcerting to have her sit in our office and brag about her having hangovers and going to bars; the most unprofessional person I have ever worked with. And before you ask, she was in her mid to late thirties and had two children.
We had to fix her errors in her work, or sometimes we were the unlucky ones that had to do it for her. We could not rely on her to be where she said she will be. She would disappear for hours at a time. And still promoted....yes, we were blown away.
Why do companies promote incompetent staff?
Affirmative action quotas.
Corporations are ruled by politics. And no, contrary to common belief, corporations should not be the inevitable fruit of laissez faire representational republics.
In my workplace they say: If you get the job done, you are a good employee. If you get others to do your work, you are a manager. Many people just don't see the difference between that and "If you get others to do their work, you are a manager", the latter sounds better to me.
What person after person is complaining about, is that the new manager, does not do the work any longer, and pushes it off on others. That is what they are paid to do. A manager is a supervisor, not the ones doing the work. They may be a working manager, doing some of the work but they are majorly responsible to see that others do the work, not do it themselves.
That is what management is all about. The managers duties, include assigning work to others, not to do it themselves. Then seeing that the work gets done, record keeping, and more that the ones doing the work are not even aware of.
There are no threats to upper management when they promote a bunch of lazy useless,"Yes Men", imbeciles.
It will probably be this way until the end of the time. :roll eyes:
In my experience of 10 years in the workplace, I have found if you are educated, get the job done, are professional, get along with everyone and everyone likes you on the frontline , can provide solutions to problems etc. then upper management will automatically see you as a threat and keep you down. Especially if you question their idiotic decisions. Or if they do promote you, will not include you on the meetings, whats going on etc.
Its a kiddish high school game. Pathetic for grown adults isn't it?
What person after person is complaining about, is that the new manager, does not do the work any longer, and pushes it off on others. That is what they are paid to do. A manager is a supervisor, not the ones doing the work. They may be a working manager, doing some of the work but they are majorly responsible to see that others do the work, not do it themselves.
That is what management is all about. The managers duties, include assigning work to others, not to do it themselves. Then seeing that the work gets done, record keeping, and more that the ones doing the work are not even aware of.
Competence is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps the skills and behaviors that you might see as lacking competence are actually indicative of a disconnect between your perceptions and those of the firm?
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