What is the reason a seriously terrible executive is kept on at your organization?

[Anonymous]

One of our least competent executives has been quietly reassigned to a role where she no longer does any public speaking; clients and colleagues alike complained that her English is extremely difficult to understand. She was hired specifically for her expertise but can’t competently convey her wealth of knowledge.

People would leave her presentations absolutely flustered and infuriated and claim they learned nothing - think continuing education-type courses/mandatory trainings.

[Anonymous]

I know a guy in leadership who makes publicly lewd comments about women, has been accused /convicted of date rape and has even bankrupt multiple companies before his current position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rainmaker that was sexiest, racist and verbally abusive to subordinates. Fired when he stopped bringing in the business and folks realized he was taking credit for the work the subordinates were doing. Oh and he was cheating on his wife with hookers which also led to his divorce.

So why is all that ok for our President?

[Anonymous]

I know exactly one supervisor at my agency who, at least, creates an unpleasant work environment for his subordinates.

Race is one factor for retention. On the other hand, he's actually very good at his job. Top performer among the very few.

[Anonymous]

He's a good old boy and plays a mean golf game, but is otherwise incompetent. His buddies are enablers - see it all the time with people like him who offload their work to other team members.

[Anonymous]

I’m incompetent at my job but I used to blow the CEO and he knows it is best to leave me alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because “terrible” is in the eye of the beholder, and most of these people are great at managing up (with the CEO, Board, etc) and across (others in the C-suite) even if they are terrible at everything else.

+1 this

Came here to agree with this. I have a coworker who many, many people cannot stand. I only work peripherally with her but I've often wondered what kind of dirt she has on someone to have kept her job. Then I observed her more and saw how great she was at managing up. She was truly incompetent in everything else, but had this insane ability to make her incompetency make the highest management look good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:His race

Yep white kid with parents who got him the job with a friend.

Tale as old as time.

Under qualified and overconfident.

+1 Related to senior mgmt or a board member…

[Anonymous]

Race
Good friends with the CEO

[Anonymous]

Because he's a nice guy, he's just incompetent. And, just had kid number 2 (#1 is 3 or 4), and no wants wants to fire the nice guy with the little kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because he's a nice guy, he's just incompetent. And, just had kid number 2 (#1 is 3 or 4), and no wants wants to fire the nice guy with the little kids

We had this. Doge ran around the federal regulatory agency and dumped older, competent employees. Left the late 50s nice, incompetent guy alone because he has two kids. Ick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because “terrible” is in the eye of the beholder, and most of these people are great at managing up (with the CEO, Board, etc) and across (others in the C-suite) even if they are terrible at everything else.

Managing up vs managing down is an important concept that many people don’t understand.

This. I worked for someone who could suddenly turn into a total psycho. Learned later that many others had experienced this. Then I was promoted and became her peer so I got to see her close up. She embodied "kick up and kick down." She never lost it in front of our bosses and sounded cool and rational. I often heard her screaming at her direct reports over the phone. I always wondered why our bosses, whose offices were close by, did not notice this behavior because it happened all the time. But after I got to know them better I also saw that our direct supervisor didn't ever want to own making a mistake or showing regret. She wouldn't have been able to be honest about the fact that she hired a dud. And her boss didn't want to deal with our bosses' issues. Or maybe they liked the sadistic behavior and didn't care. That wouldn't surprise me either.

[Anonymous]

He reports to CEO. CEO doesn’t know enough to know this guy is incompetent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked for years and years with a minority who couldn’t do the job or do her work. Others, like me, had to do it. Person would scream at meetings , scream at everyone, say anything that happened was because the staff were all racists. And through my long tenure there , it went on. And on and on and on.

I was told the federal agency wanted to avoid any discrimination lawsuits so they just accommodated the abuse and the staff had to take the abuse. It was awful.

DEI all the way.

S*** like this is why people vote for Trump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked for years and years with a minority who couldn’t do the job or do her work. Others, like me, had to do it. Person would scream at meetings , scream at everyone, say anything that happened was because the staff were all racists. And through my long tenure there , it went on. And on and on and on.

I was told the federal agency wanted to avoid any discrimination lawsuits so they just accommodated the abuse and the staff had to take the abuse. It was awful.

DEI all the way.

S*** like this is why people vote for Trump

Yup While I loved my job, I retired earlier than I wanted to retire. The setting was intolerable for me and unhealthy . It boggles the mind . Raised in a region where if you didn’t do the work, you didn’t have a job.