Discussion on:

The negative consequences of a "Yes Man"

I thought to avoid such 'Yes' bosses by leaving the private sector, but you cant get away from them. And the more intimate the office setting the worse the it is.

since I'm full of coffee on a Saturday morning...

Is "agreance" anything like "complyment?"

Or did you mean "agreement?"

Yes-man, fresh from a meeting with the CxO: "The boss wants xyz and we need to do it."

Subordinate: "We can't do xyz."

Y-M: "Sure you can. You guys are the best in the company."

S: "Thanks for the compliment, but nobody here is going to do xyz. We don't want to go to jail."

Y-M: "What does xyz have to do with jail?"

S: "What you are telling us to do is illegal and none of us here will do it without written instructions to do it. Even then, none of us will do it, but the [3-letter Federal enforcement agency] would be very interested in seeing any written instructions."


Turns out it was a test. The CxO knew it was illegal and also knew Y-M should have known it was illegal. Y-M was gone the following week...

I really hate that stuff. You should buy the Y-M a copy of "See You at the Top" by Zig Ziglar. It's all about succeeding in a business environment and it focuses on teamwork and management. You want to diversify your team and such. I guess you lucked out that it was a test, but never fall into the "Yes" attitude!

It was the Y-M. He failed miserably.

To be a truly hardcore 'yesman', one must fail just as agreeably as one complies with all other silly directives, or he is a failure as a yes-man!!