My closest friend phoned me last night seeking some advice. I have known this man my entire life, he was my best man in my wedding and is truly a really wonderful chap.
He was layed off last year from a job he had been working in for 6 years. He has his masters in psychology and he worked in marketing.
He has a family, a wife and one adorable little guy. His wife is a Mortage Broker and makes a decent wage…
He was hired nearly 3 weeks after he was layed off. Hired as assistant director of marketing at a small non-profit agency. His boss a woman roughly the same age maybe 35 was hired as director 2 months before (we’ll call him Pete) was hired on.
For the past year Pete has had nothing but problems from his boss. She is extremely rude to him on a daily basis, treats him like he is a high school intern, and clearly is not suited for her position as director. So much so, that Pete says it is completely blatent that she lied about knowing how do perform certain duties. However, because he is very good at what he does he is able to cover up her errors with no one the wiser to her ruse.
He can’t stand it. And he has been telling me about her terrible behavior for almost a year now.
I told him that eventually the director of the whole place will notice it…He claims he’s blind to it because he’s only concerned with making money for the organization.
So the question: What do you do when you know you are clearly more qualified than your boss, supervisor, manager etc…etc…?
They are the boss right? Is there really anything you can do?
I think managing up is Petes best form of defense.
I’m not sure what “managing up” means. Do you mean “pulling rank”?
Anyway, it sounds like the problem is much more Pete’s boss’ rudeness than it is a discrepancy in qualifications. After all, if the boss treated Pete like gold, and praised Pete in public often, there would be no issue with her lack of qualifications, right?
I have had the misfortune of working for bosses that were less smart than I. It is a serious issue because usually the supervisor becomes very antagonistic out of insecurity, once they realize that you can eat their lunch. More than once, I have endured (carefully calculated) borderline on-the-job harassment by individuals who saw me as a threat to their position.
My advice? Get a new job, fast. Yes, I know that is a tall order, but I would start circulating my resume immediately. As the old saying goes; “There’s no accounting for stupidity.” Likewise, your pal cannot possibly know what this person is going to do next. Incompetent people go to strange and (sometimes) extreme measures to protect their own interests. Riding roughshod over underlings is usually pretty high on the list of what to expect.
Unless your chum has some way of exposing the incompetence of his boss to the director of affairs, he’s better off relocating.
Bordelond - Managing up is doing everything you are told, and then predicting what your supervisor/manager wants and doing it before you are told. This keeps the boss off your back and at the same time allows you a peace of mind.
And the lag in qualifications is slightly insulting to him I would imagine. He has mentioned this before. I think he is just happy to have a job.
Zenster - Sage advice as usual. I think he is circulating his resume, but the job market is scarce. I may be able to pull a string here where I work, but the semester already started and most positions are filled. This will not be easy for him.
I have a question or two. How is the boss only worried about making money for a NFP? And if he was good in psycology, wouldn’t he be trained in what to do with these types of situations? Best bet is to quit. If I was making a lot of money and not doing much, and I had more educated people working under me to make me look good, then who’s the stupid one? My friend says she works for a guy who only cleans his nails, and I said to her that if that’s all he has to do and you do all the work, then who’s really the smart one?
Time to get a new job. Upper management doesn’t care and that’s the bottom line. Supervisor-underling conflicts are always the fault of the underling in a business. I don’t agree with that, but that’s the way I’ve been treated.
What I do is give my boss credit for everything that I do, very publicly, and very privately, let him know that I’m doing it out of respect for him. Yeah, it’s just unfair. Most of my bosses have been keeping me very happy because they have “enlightened self-interest,” which is fine by me. One was a dick, and I jumped pretty quickly, but I had lots of options, because the other managers knew my reputation by then.
BTW: My favorite exchange from the dark comedy A Shock to the System:
Person who I’ve forgotten: “Is XXX your superior?”
Michael Caine: “No, he’s my boss.”
When I’ve been in positions like this, I usually publicly ridicule and sabatoge the jerk*, which invariably leads to my termination shortly thereafter. Oh well.
I thankfully don’t have that problem anymore.
*True story: Boss at old job used to sleep in his cubicle. He was (and still is, I’m sure) a completely worthless human being. After having to wake him up a few times, I let all his peers in on the joke, and he quickly became a laughing stock. Another time, while trying to cover up his inadequacy, I stumbled on a huge stack of paper that had some pretty important stuff in it that he had been hiding or ignoring. Some of it got “lost” and some of it got “placed” where it would be found by someone who should know what was happening and could deal with it. His name was Don, and he is a complete Asshole. Actually, I’m just kidding. His name was Ron.
I’ve had several bosses who I am clearly smarter then.
If they respect it, this isn’t a bad thing. They think I’m wonderful. They stroke my ego. It helps if they are secure in their own jobs (and I go to great lengths not to look like I’m after their job).
Your friend, however, is in the “I’m so hosed” situation. His boss is not secure in her job. She is probably certain that had he applied for her job, she wouldn’t have it, and its a simple matter of timing that has her in her position.
Ideally he’d be able take a LOA. Family leave would be great for about two months. He stops covering for her, boss figures out she is an idiot, he comes back, saves day, is now in a negotiating position with boss.
The reality is, he probably won’t be able to do anything. He needs to look for a different job. Continue to cover for her when appropriate (so she doesn’t make herself look good by “firing the incompetent”) - i.e. manage up. Suck it up with a big picture of his family on the desk. Recognize that he may get treated like an intern, but he’s probably getting paid a hell of a lot better. And hope one day her foot goes into her mouth when he isn’t there to pull it out.
There is hope. My husband had a similar situation. His boss finally screwed up badly enough when he wasn’t around and she couldn’t blame him. She is now “freelancing” while he is employed.
I’m being a little facetious here but what do you think "being good at psychology" means? Do you think we can brainwash people with our looks?
No this woman, from what I gather, is extremely full of herself and needs a serious attitude readjustment. Kinda like the old saying There is no ‘I’ in 'TEAM’ kind of thing.
He is in a difficult situation because the job market is really not good and working under someone who should be working under you is very difficult.
He knowledge of psychology only allows him to understand that this woman has problems, he probably even understands why she is the way she is. But being his boss he can not do much about it.
I agree, I think the best way to go is to look for another job…
Try not to embarass the boss in public. If you give advice or correction, do it in private with the attitude, “You’re going to need this info, I’m trying to help.” Write down what you did. If advice was not taken, write that down, too.
No matter where you go, you will work for or with fools. Make the best of it. When the fool is promoted, she may drag you up with her, if you made her look good.
Don’t assume the boss’s incompetence will catch up with her. It might not. What hits the fan is seldom fairly distributed.
If you drag your feet to make your crummy boss look bad, it will not make you look good.
Carrying around a big sack of bitterness will make you tired and unhappy. Let it go; it’s useless.
Gather useful info where you find it. Even an apparent schlub such as I may know something useful.
In all seriousness, The only advice I can offer is to stick it out until something better comes along. I came to work one day (not at my present job) and found out my stupid boss had been fired, and I had a brand new job. You never know what will happen. Good luck to your friend.
Nope, I would assume a psycologist will understand how to deal with conflict, as well as personality types, what motivates different people, sources of power, and equity, forces of change and how to bring about a change. But I don’t know a lot of psycology, so I could be wrong.
I’ve only had three bosses who actually were smarter than I am. On the other hand, nearly all the bosses I’ve had were much more tolerant of the administrative bullshit that business looks at in place of actual management, so I was always happy to let them have the jobs.
Pete’s problem has little to do with being smarter than the boss and a lot to do with working for a jerk. Aside from the finding a new job and simply gritting his teeth, the only other reasonable option I might suggest would be to cover for the incompetence when it will hurt the organization but refrain from covering for the incompetence simply to avoid embarrassment for the boss. In other words, don’t let proposals or waivers miss deadlines or details because that will cause the organization to lose money, but don’t put together manpower reports that are the boss’s job and let her take the heat for not getting the busywork done.
[hijack]
How is it the Psych Department has all the good teachers? Every single psych teacher I’ve ever had has been good, if not great. Something in the coffee?
