Incompetant Supervisor 18

[frusso110]

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.

 

[Jboggs]

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.

 

[HornTootinEE]

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.

 

[IRstuff]

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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[a2mfk]

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 ). 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?

 

[limey1]

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.

 

[JedClampett]

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.