How to Deal With ‘Weaponized Incompetence’ at Work

We have all dealt with colleagues who do their job poorly but are very good at showing their incompetence your problem – from the boss who promises too much, (just to expect you to do all the work). the colleague who can’t quite do his job, (but only too gladly pass their work on to you).

This habit of feigning incompetence at a task in order to put it on someone else’s responsibility is called “armed incompetence“ and can appear in various ways at work. Sometimes the employee can be really incompetent; other times they are able to get the job done –they just don’t care to. Either way, their refusal or inability getting the job done right ultimately becomes your problem as you are blamed for their failure or forced to take a job then they will take out credit.

How to spot (and deal with) a boss’s armed incompetence.

OA clear sign of armed incompetence in a boss is when they seem clueless as to what it actually takes time to complete a project. You could assume a takes on a specific task 2 hours donerather than the more realistic 12 hours. Or they don’t have a good sense of the actual workload of their employees looks like. For some bosses, that ignorance may be real. For others, this incompetence is strategic, as they’ve learned they can make a whole bunch of big promises, the hard work of which gets passed on to their employees, who then have to work hard to get the job done. those who boss gets credit for pulling when in fact they offered very little support.

“A lot of leaders do it that way because organizations encourage it and reward,” he said Tessa westNYU social psychologist and author of the book Idiots at Work: Toxic Colleagues and What to Do About It.

This then turns into a self-repeating cycle in which the incompetent boss makes promises, coerces his employees to deliver without offering much support, and then reaps the rewards for their accomplishments by trusting him to be promoted another group in front of higherups realize how little they’ve done.

“The higher and more powerful someone is, the easier it is for them to get away with not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, often because they don’t want to and know they can get away with it,” he said daphne jones, a pioneering career coach and author of the book Win when they say you won’t.

THere’s the strength in numbers when dealing with a boss like this: “Their kryptonite makes their targets discover each other,” West said. If people can come together and show a pattern of incompetence, that’s it easier to show upper management what’s really going on and how it affects productivity. “General problems are more frightening for a boss than one-off conflicts between two people,” West said.

How to recognize (and deal with) a colleague’s armed incompetence.

Likewise, mefa Employee can’t (or won’t) perform a number of tasks that would be expected of them because of their position, that’s a red flag. “In certain positions People are expected to have certain broad or specific skills and competencies,” Jones said. “If you have them, your colleague probably should to.”

If they don’t have these skills, they could either be sick-appropriate role or her incompetence could be her way of passing that responsibility on to others. When it comes to dealing with co-workers like this, Jones recommends assuming good intentions but trying to find a way to address the situation with either your co-worker or your boss. “It starts with good communication,” she says.

If your relationship with the colleague is good, you can try asking them if they are aware of any blind spots they may have. If not, it can be helpful to discuss your contributions with your boss to ensure you get the right recognition for your work. “To let [your boss] Find out factually, not as a complaint, about the status of your project achievements and also how you helped the other person who used weaponized incompetence,” Jones said.