“Manager Tried Throwing Me Under The Bus, So I Showed Everyone Her Incompetence”

A lousy boss can drain your energy and excitement even if you’re doing what you like. Something that Reddit user LandInTheSky knows all too well.

Some time ago, they joined a start-up as a data analyst and everything seemed fine at first, but as time went by, their manager proved to be an incompetent jerk who was interested only in her own success.

However, as LandInTheSky explained in their post on r/MaliciousCompliance, the worker got the last laugh after all.

No matter how much you love your job, a bad boss can make it a living hell

Image credits: DC_Studio (not the actual photo)

And this data analyst got to experience it

Image credits: DragonImages (not the actual photo)

Image credits: landinthesky

Bad managers cause a lot of trouble for the companies that employ them

This story is an excellent illustration of the age-old adage, saying that people don’t quit jobs — they quit bosses. In fact, one in two employees has left a position just to get away from one at some point in their career.

But the effects of bad management negatively impact a company even if the staff isn’t resigning.

For example, it increases the number of people who are quiet quitting — those who do the bare minimum required and are psychologically detached from their job (which is a problem because many positions today require some level of extra effort to collaborate with coworkers and meet customer needs).

Quiet quitters make up at least 50% of the U.S. workforce — probably more, Gallup found.

U.S. employee engagement took another step backward during the second quarter of 2022, with the share of engaged workers remaining at 32% but the proportion of actively disengaged increasing to 18%. The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is now 1.8 to 1, the lowest in almost a decade.

The overall decline was related to the clarity of expectations, opportunities to learn and grow, feeling cared about, and a connection to the organization’s mission or purpose — signaling a growing disconnect between employees and their employers.

Image credits: Burst (not the actual photo)

And, unfortunately, they’re pretty common

“Most people have had experience with someone who is incompetent, or at least unhelpful,” said Annie McKee, founder of the Teleos Leadership Institute and co-author of Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness.

Ineptitude in managers is, unfortunately, quite common. According to McKee, that’s because too many companies promote people for the wrong reasons.

Some get ahead because they show results or have the right technical capabilities, but they often don’t have the requisite people skills.

While leaving the company, just like LandInTheSky did, is an option for all frustrated employees, it’s not the only one. Here are a few principles to remember when determining your course of action:

Have empathy for your boss and the pressures they may be under.
Create psychological boundaries around work so that your boss’s incompetence doesn’t negatively impact your health or well-being.
Focus on the broader good of the organization and what you can do to contribute.

Don’t

Try to point out to your boss all the ways that they are incompetent.
Go to your boss’s boss unless you are aware of the potential ramifications.
Stick it out if none of your coping strategies are working — know when you need to leave.

Before we declare our boss completely useless, we should double-check our bias and better understand what we’re seeing.