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Incompetant Supervisor
18

Incompetant Supervisor

Incompetant Supervisor

(OP)
My supervisor is completely and utterly incompetent. Literally, he is not capable of managing the engineering department (about ~10 people under him). He is not organized, not in touch with any of the projects going on, and screws up nearly everything he does touch. Finally, he is not capable of listening and comprehending. He was appointed the position he is currently in, because there was no one else available to take the job, he did not ask for it.

What am I supposed to do? He literally does NOT do his job. He does other things related to engineering, but is not a leader, nor a manager. He does not realize that he is responsible for the successes of the department, and instead of taking blame for his engineers failures, merely deflects the blame to the employee who made the mistake. I'm considering expressing my worries to his boss (one of the higher ups of the small company.)

Please help. I know I'm not the first person to have a boss that was so incapable of managing. I wont be doing anything before the two week shut down at the end of December, but I would love to have a plan going into next year.




RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Quote:

He was appointed the position he is currently in, because there was no one else available to take the job, he did not ask for it.

More likely he was appointed because the bosses thought that he was the best qualified for the job.

Think about ALL the implications of that.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

I used to work at a place where he would fit into management perfectly. I could send you the link to that place...

Seriously, though, unless the situation is unbearable for you in the interim, my advice would be to let some more time pass while keeping your own performance on track.

The truth always comes out.

Failing that, offer to be his right-hand person, under the guise of "...to take some of the leg-work off you...". There is an opportunity for self-promotion here, and you will be in a great position to take the job he currently occupies if the incompetence continues. On the other hand, if the incompetence is cured and you had a hand in meeting that objective, everyone wins.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

I've had lots of "incompetent" bosses. Good subordinates can still be effective and can make the boss look good. Is your goal get the job done or to make sure your boss looks bad? His superiors are not likely to be much better and certainly do not want or need you to tell them what is going on. If you can't do something constructive to make the department function better, find another job or hope things change in time. What I hear you saying is that you need managing, and aren't getting it. If you had the boss's job what would you do, and how would you like to have a subordinate like you? Lack of trust can tear a team apart.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

(OP)
The problem is I have tried to help him.

I've brought up problems to him to his face, suggested solutions to problems in department meetings.

I even made him a Gantt Chart to try and help him realize what was going on. I feel disheartened that all my extra effort is always for nothing.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

(OP)
@Mint:

I have thought of that. And it scares the crap out of me.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Snorgy...he probably has an MBA

Greg...exactly!

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

perhaps your plan going into next year should be finding a new job. when is the last time one of your employees made you a gantt chart and suggested you improve your organizational skills? and suggested improvements you could make in the department meeting; and you actually appreciated the (meddling) help? you probably should step back and think about what you are doing before you really piss him off...

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Think long and hard before complaining to your boss's boss. There are many possible outcomes to 'jumping the chain of command' and few of them work out well for you.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

4
Give his name to every head-hunter you know.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

(OP)
Thanks guys. In conclusion, I will not be "jumping the chain of command"

I will however continue to express my concerns to my supervisor, while documenting every conversation I have with him. If he ever claims I didn't inform him of something, I'll have proof I did and was ignored.

smile Happy Holidays. 3.69 days to Christmas shutdown.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

2
We see a lot of posts on here about their bosses not doing their job properly. But in reality the rants are only only the poster's opinion on how the job should be done. And we never get the stories about what the boss does right. In my humble opinion, the boss is in that position for a reason and he is acting as a conduit for upper management.

The OP states that the boss deflects blame to the person who has done it wrong. Again my opinion is:
1. why should the person who did it wrong not have to take responsibility?;
2. how do you know that the boss has not been hauled over the coals by his bosses?;
3. (slightly off topic for the list) what training has the boss had to be a leader? what support is the boss getting? (it sure aint coming from people complaining on forums)

I feel that there is a complete lack of empathy (or is it sympathy?) for supervisors. And people would do far better to remember that you can only control things in your sphere of influence (ie you can only change the way that you react) and you can only truthfully comment on what you know is true (not what you think is true).

I see that Frusso's previous post is titled "Dealing with studid" I suggest he rereads that and then heeds the advice given by Facs, Ctopher, Msquared and IR Stuff (and others).

Thanks for reading

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Quote (Comcokid)

Give his name to every head-hunter you know.
You are a devious, devious man, CK winky smile

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Hopefully you are not one of the 10 engineers in my department, of which I have been manager for about a year! But really, I feel pretty certain that my group respects me for trying, against all odds, to institute some order among the chaos. There are some major societal forces that are making it really difficult to lead these days. Administrative support for engineering managers has become nonexistant; fewer people in upper management have a background in engineering; the leadership ladder focuses 99% up and 1% down; everyone wants to be the big picture guy and not focus on "minutia"; advances in internet connectivity has turned established work processes upside down. I could go on.

Before I got my promotion, I had many of the same frustrations you have - actually I still do! Tickle has a good point about controling what you can control. Make sure you are a proper leader of what you control, even if it is just individual calculations. No action is too small to "plan the work and work the plan".

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Rule #1: The boss is always right.
Rule #2: If the boss is ever wrong, see Rule #1.

There are certain things you can do to help your boss do his job better and most should be done in private, not group meetings. Is he trying and just in over his head or truly a screw up? Either way his boss will realize the mistake and either replace him (screw-up) or try to help him (in over his head). As an underling, you are limited to what you can do, but helping him to do a better job can be done as long as the other peers don't perceive you as the department brown nose.

I had a boss one time that kept changing the direction of our project. He worked in another building and we staff used to joke about the changes in direction. We eventually got a new boss and since the old manager was a manager, the company did not demote him, but made him a manager of special projects with no one reporting to him.

Another boss had 2 titles. In his position of one, he wrote a report saying that what I did was not following the rules of his oversight responsibilities. I went into his office for a one to one and told him that the report made his other depoartment look bad by saying we didn't know what we were doing. He really had not thought it through that he was complaining about the people that worked for him. Luckily I was already in the middle of looking for another job which I took about a month later.

"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

If it is true that your manager only deflects the blame onto the originator of the work, then by my every understanding of the definition, he is a bad manager.

That is something that leaders don't do. Leaders take the blame and then settle whatever else needs to be settled off line with whoever is involved.

GOOD leaders find ways that contribute towards an environment in which people spend 70% or more of their time doing their best not to commit any "blame-able" mistakes, and the other 30% or less of their time fixing mistakes instead of looking for who to blame.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Any company has processes, most problems with bosses that were former co-worder/engineer is most want to hang on to doing engineering tasks and not be manager. Also, if he is over his head then the manager above obviously knows he has to mentor him if he was last man standing for manager and pushed into this role. The manager above realizes this and would be patient with him until he improves with time or they find someone else. Then this same person would just go back to being an engineer like you or he moves on.

I think the other engineers that see this would be supportive and not try to constantly critisize. I think the problem is you either accept what is happening or move on, makes life easy for everyone.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

Sit tight. If he is really that bad you are not the only one that sees it. His bosses see it too, and their tolerance has limit. Give him enough rope and he will hang himself.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

I had a similar supervisor. Didn't know what he was doing, applied for and got the job because the company would rather have an internal candidate over an external (though likely more qualified) person. Blamed subordinates for his mistakes, never took responsibility, never made deciscions, etc. etc. Management knew he was sucking and they kept him there anyway. What does that say about their qualifications?? His supervisors had a similar M.O. All are Still there to this day. I moved on. I picked the wrong opportunity and ended up there only 6 months and off to something else, but that was my mistake. So my only advice is, start looking while you wait it out. If a truly good opportunity comes along, take it. No sense wasting life with an idiot boss. People quit their boss, not their jobs. But don't leave for a position that you aren't certain is an improvement, however you define improvement. Don't take it up the chain either, thats a good recipe for killing any opportunity you have at that company. My issue was at a large beuracratic company; so some could be blamed on that. But in your situation, as others have said, being a small company management probably has a really good idea how he operates and by them doing nothing they are part of the problem-going up the chain will only hurt you.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

It's amazing how long before an organization realizes that it's been killed by poor management. Schlumberger didn't figure out that the Fairchild Semiconductor it bought was dying until it had lost about $7B, and the multiple management teams it brought in were unable to implement any decent turnarounds.

One thing that most people fail to realize is how few good managers there really are, at any level of an organization. The fact that most new businesses fail gives one some indication of how difficult it is to run an organization well, since it requires a confluence of talent, desire, opportunity. etc. Even once a business has been well established, mistakes can bring down previously unassailable companies; Montgomery Ward, JC Penney, Sears, Research in Motion, etc., come to mind.

TTFN
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RE: Incompetant Supervisor

I don't think anyone brought this up, which is surprising, but what type of incompetence do you specifically mean? Since this is an engineering message board and not one for attorneys/insurance/banking/etc (you know, things we can live without wink). Are you are working on projects that involve public safety, and could your boss' decisions possibly impact this?

You may have a fiduciary responsibility to report certain decisions your boss is making to higher ups or even the board of engineers if we are talking about signed and sealed reports or drawings, or any decision that involves public safety and welfare. Also, if his decisions mainly are poor economic ones, then his boss would want to know that and may not like it if the employees are aware of this and not saying anything.

Engineering incompetence can go way beyond a Dilbert comic strip. Things fall down and explode and people die in engineering mistakes....

Maybe it was because I could not sleep last night and was watching Platoon, and Charlie Sheen's character, despite being a young greenhorn, is a moral voice of reason in his troubled troop.

Sorry, too heavy for Friday? cheers

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

1. As a manager you are responsible for the success and / or failure of your group.
2. I have seen several situations of "promotion into incompetency". Excellent technical, crap managerial....It happens.

Historically, it seems companies reward with promotion and money instead of money in the same role. I would be quite happy being "value added and rewarded" in a role which I actually like, and feel competent.

RE: Incompetant Supervisor

One thing I've learned in my nearly 40 years of engineering, is that things change. It's a cliche, but always true. An incompetant supervisor is a temporary condition. He'll get transferred, quit or die. Or maybe you'll get moved to another department or another location. The next guy will be different, maybe even worse. Even owners sell, retire, get divorced and lose the business or get interested in something else. Be patient.

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