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Incompetence

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by thebarrywilliamsshow

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Hi, this could be more of a pool than a thread.

What would you do if you knew your co-worker was incompetent? Would you keep it to yourself or let your bosses know?

20 replies

by hockeyist

...to stop IT turning into a pool. Leakage problems like these can be easily fixed.
As a co-worker I would definately keep it to myself.

by dafe2

A comedian once said:

"A friend of mine died recently after being bitten by a rattle snake...........christ, I read as fast as I could"

by hockeyist

...right the first time but couldn't resist. I did give my suggestion the last sentence, at least that's what we do in Australia. Puting one of your co-workers or friends in the proverbial is frowned upon in this country. If the manager is doing his job properly then he will notice and take appropriate action. If lives are at stake then by all means report the person as this overrides the sense of mateship.

by cmolos

Depending on who it is it can be handled in 3 ways: 1) if you are comfortable with the person, have a heart-to-heart and ask if they need help or 2) Talk to someone who is comfortable with the person and ask if they need help. 3: Let the supervisor know.

This day and age, we're getting more work dropped on us but not getting any more $$$. Everyone needs to pull their weight or the whole team (even if its 2 people) gets affected.

by hockeyist

An example would be nice on how he/she incompetent? Could it be that he/she's being under paid and couldn't give a stuff or is it because he/she is an inexperienced untrained newbie? Or, the worst of all, a drugged out psycopath loser causing more problems than they fix.

by thebarrywilliamsshow

he/she being paid quite well and is more experienced than me. he/she seems to not have a stable personal life and places priority on the personal life above work when at work.

i can understand the problems he/she is facing - but the fact still stands, for every job that he/she drops the ball on or does not do, someone else has to pick up the slack.

by tony hopkinson

but my initial thought would be a private word with said person, to let them know your not happy.
At least any further action does n't come as a total surprise then. Personally I'd go a long way before I got myself a reputation for doing a colleague in the back. Last time it was Holland

by amcol

Situations like this usually resolve themselves without any help.

Incompetence is very difficult to hide, no matter what the size of the organization. Either the job is being done or it isn't. This person will need no help from you having a spotlight shone on his/her lack of performance.

You're going to find yourself in one of two places:

1. The incompetent performance will be noticed by management and dealt with. Problem solved.

2. The incompetent performance will not be noticed, or worse yet tolerated, by management. This indicates management itself is incompetent, and at that point you need to decide if you can work for such an organization or need to move on. Problem solved.

Either way...you fill in the blank.

by scmgithd

It would be wise of them to try and find her some help if it's possible, EAP or something like it.

I worked with a manager (thankfully not *my* manager) that just wasn't doing her job. I attended meetings with her that were a complete waste of time, watched her openly bash her department in a meeting with them, tell me that I shouldn't run to our manager with problems when it was a problem she should have recognized and solved, etc. The list goes on. I kept quiet for a long time and finally went to my boss to tell her what was going on. I had valid examples of inappropriate actions and went in with the premise of "Do you know this is happening? I know you're not involved in the day to day stuff and I want to be sure you're aware of it." This manager would also require her staff to CC her on any e-mails so I started doing the same with my boss. Any time I didn't get her help on a problem or an answer to a question I would cc my boss and say "I e-mailed you on this date and still haven't heard from you..." Always worked to get an answer ;)

Since then the manager is gone and the position has been eliminiated. My boss went back to managing the areas and life is so much better!

It's really hard to balance incompetence with someone dealing with personal issues. You shouldn't bring it to work but sometimes it's impossible not to. I don't know what the problem is but maybe if you openly said, "I know you're dealing with a lot at home. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out." It might give her the out she needs to say that she can't manage it and ask for help rather than just letting the ball drop. It's hard for anyone to say they can't do something. I've been in the same situation. I actually went to my boss years ago and said "I know that you didn't force me to have two kids close in age and a husband that works nights but if I don't get some kind of a break I'm going to end up on the rail of a tall bridge." She didn't judge me, just helped me figure out a way to work through it.

Okay, now I'm rambling. Good luck!

by johnnywatt

No not really, ok, but I interviewed one. I asked him what a device driver was. He replied with, "A....device... that drives....." Do you even know how hard it is to keep a straight during interviews?
I guess if I wanted to smoke rocks with my coworkers, he would be the one.

by scmgithd

told me he was going to make a PDA type device that was a "friend." It would read your vital signs and react accordingly...give you the verbal boost to go hit on a girl at the bar or in my case...since I was 7 months pregnant, told me that it would scan my cervix and tell me when I was going into labor.

Sorry, talking about my cervix in an interview? Automatic SEE YA! LOL

by hockeyist

Here's another comedians story.

Two good friends were out hiking one day. One of the hikers stepped off the track to take a leak. Suddenly a rattlesnake bit him right where it counts most.
He screamed and his friend came running.
After a minute of panic, the friend said...
"Look you just wait here and rest while I run into town to get some help." His friend ran all the way to town and found the doctor.

Doctor: "Hmm.. well, I'm afraid you are going to have to cut the wound lengthwise across the fang marks and then suck all the venom out. Your friend should be just fine then." The town doctor wasn't able to go to the victim because advanced age so the hiker asked him to repeat his instructions several times just to be sure he had them right. He then ran as fast as he could back to his injured friend in the woods.

Injured Hiker: "Did you find the doctor?"

Friend: "Yes, I ran all the way to town and I found the doctor."

Injured Hiker: "Well, what did he say?"

Friend: "He said you're going to die

by thebarrywilliamsshow

i will follow advice. no point making my life more complicated than it has to be. hopefully someone else in management will do something about it.

by maecuff

If the person doesn't have a cantelope for a brain, you could mentor the person. Where are they falling short? Is this something you could help them out with? It may be time consuming to start, but would save time and stress in the long run.

by amcol

Mentoring is a wonderful technique that many companies, especially larger ones, have formalized and institutionalized.

In this particular case, however, it doesn't apply. The poster said the employee with questionable competence was more experienced and higher in the food chain. Mentoring relationships are supposed to work the other way around.

by johnnywatt

I did hire someone that I thought would be adequete, but apparently isn't. I left the company since then, but I hear she isn't doing to well. O'well.

by angry_white_male

Hiring should be a team effort. Bring one or two people from the department to sit in on interviews - as everyone has different perceptions of people. A second opinion is invaluable when assessing whether or not an applicant will make for a good employee - and just as importantly - if the applicant will mesh well with the rest of the team.

I suggested this to my boss and his response was that we were all too busy to be tied up in interviews, and that he knew what our jobs entailed.

So what did we end up with? An opening for a SQL DBA/programmer netted us someone with very good technical skills - but often oversteps his boundaries, has poor attendance and is unbearable to be around (he is a stereotypical textbook nerd... bad clothes, bad hair, obnoxious drawn out laugh, mail-order bride, etc...).

The other opening we had was for our helpdesk - nice guy but doesn't have a strong IT background, doesn't pay attention to quality, and as a secretary put it, he's like a Golden Retriever (loyal and dumb).

So I'm always telling my boss that our DBA is stepping into my side of the shop (network/security/mail admin) and makes unreasonable demands for his projects without forethought or planning. Just the other day as we were recovering from a long power outage, he's demanding that I release a couple of mails stuck in the ZIP file queue in our mail filter that came from his wife (which turned out to be spreadsheet files from work she needed help with). Un-friggin-real.

I won't let our helpdesk guy near the servers (other than to change backup tapes).

My boss seems to agree with me somewhat on our helpdesk guy, but thinks our DBA is the best thing to come along since sliced bread. Unfortuantely in my book, techinical skills alone won't get you far if you are a total misfit.

Neither person was my boss' first, second or third choice - and neither of them I would hire if it were up to me.

Bad enough it took my boss a couple of years to realize our former mainframe operator was a crack addict and had to fire her since she was beyond help.

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