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I've been in many situations in many different companies, all kinds of different jobs, where I worked with someone who 1) was incompetent 2) was very good at politicing to make themselves not only look like a hero and competent, but like you are their pupil, when in reality it's the other way around.
Example:
My first week on the job at a new job, though I have previous experience. My co-worker, whom we shall call Jeff, is the "team lead" and recently went to very expensive training on a new product. With all that training, Jack can't build a demo for the upcoming sales conference at which he is supposed to present.
Fast forward one day. I showed him not only how to get it to work, but did it for him. Fast forward another day, where just as he is about to present at the conference, right in front of our boss, he says he's about to present the stuff he has been teaching me for the past week. I found this odd, as since the day I started, I hadn't received a single bit of training on anything, and I was actually the one that taught him how to/did the work for him.
OK, so the above scenario repeats itself many times at many jobs, at all of which I eventually get frustrated that the person who's been riding my coat tails and in many cases deliberately lying to people or saying things to make themselves look good when I am the one that actually did the work and end up leaving. In some cases they are not so slimey, but because I'm a quiet and efficient worker, no one ever knows I'm the one doing the work.
At my current job, I've learned to let management know via email what it is I am doing so that I have more visibility to management. This has worked out a lot better for me. But one other thing I've considered doing is NOT helping my colleagues anymore. They generally take the credit or like to give people the impression they are the ones doing all the work when in reality they are not. It seems honesty, competence and hard work are the exception thesedays, and most people are more interested in using you to get ahead/further their agenda. So it seems to me a simple way to solve this problem is to not help anyone other than management. Just play dumb when your colleagues want your help and if you do help, make sure it is in a meeting or in writing via email with your boss copied on it so management has visibility. Sound reasonable?
Your situation is pretty common, sadly. I too am quiet but competent and am amazed at some of the incompetent people in the office always seem to get ahead but I do not. One thing I realized is that I would do a lot of 'extra' work behind the scenes on things that no one else was aware of. I had to stop that. Made it my mantra that every bit of work I do my boss knows about. I also do a lot of things for him that he doesn't know/do himself which means when I am not there he is screwed. I have some sense of job security with that.
What a jerk your "Jeff" is! I don't think you should train anyone without your manager knowing about it. If that doesn't work then no I would not train anyone....you were doing something nice for him so he wouldn't fall on his face and look incompetent in front of your boss but he wasn't about to credit YOU for training him, was he? Seems like nice guys/gals finish last!
Yeah, he was quite the BS artist. Luckily we eventually got a new manager who noticed that I never needed any help and my stuff always got done quickly and without problems, while his often had issues that he was secretly coming to me with. We eventually reorged where I was the lead since I was the one who constantly rescued him. My new manager actually had meetings to call "Jeff" on his BS and hold him accountable. Sadly, he could not terminate him due to HR, and I kept having to work with him, and his politicing continued, even though everyone knew what was really going on. Eventually I realized I was better off moving on since I felt the overall leadership of the company was weak and unwilling to actually manage their employees. Plus I've gained a lot of new experience on projects and additional certifications and credentials.
If you aren't singing your praises, you can be assured no one else is.
I liken this to a job interview. You have the sell the crap out of yourself, because, no one is coming behind you saying "Hey, you should really hire TAC-SEA, he/she is awesome!" You don't have to publicize everything you do, but, you should definitely make it known what you are doing.
I've had similar situations to what you described in your initial post, and, I make sure to loop my manager in on things like that, whether during a 1 on 1 or a self evaluation. I had something similar this past year in fact, and I just told my boss "Hey, just so you know, on this project, Jason has not been pulling his weight. I completed XYZ and he did not turn anything in/participated/showed up to meetings." You have to CYA... at the end of the day, it is your paycheck and your livelihood.
I didn't read the whole shpiel but in man organizations, politics is important so to should work on getting good at it. If yo haven't realized that by now (with all that experience you say you have), then you are at fault. Don't mean to burn you but it's true.
And being good at politics is not at all about BS (tells me how little you know about politics). I'll help you...it's about being liked, knowing who to align and work with, knowing who to help and prop up, knowing when to take credit and when to give it, and many other things
In most companies, nobody really cares if you're good at your job. It is FAR more important to blend in with the team, play the game, and be a good suck-up vs. actually being skilled at whatever task the company hired you to do. Provided you're doing "good enough" and can't be singled-out as the root cause of some major failure, that's all they care about. Other than that, office politics is far more important than actual technical skills.
This is part of the reason why sociopaths excel in the modern office environment and rise through the ranks so quickly. While idiots like me focus on trying to design or build the best product, they are busy stealing credit for my work, slandering me to management, or just plain sucking up. In the end, people like them - ladder-climbing sociopaths - get promotions, while people like me get shown the door. Sure, in the long-run, the company suffers as they continue to lay off the quiet, honest people who are actually doing the real work, but so long as the idiots higher up get their share of the loot before the place crashes and burns, they really don't care.
Documenting your contributions and keeping your boss informed is a good idea, one that I've used in the past. I also agree regarding not helping your coworkers more than needed, sadly. Until you can trust them, don't offer any of them any extra help. Going out of your way for somebody is seen as a WEAKNESS in modern corporate America. It encourages useless people to exploit you until you end up doing their work for them while they steal the credit.
Also, do NOT try to be the hero. Protect yourself first - CYA. As I've painfully learned in the past, most places would rather have a project fail so long as "team-work" was involved vs. having the project succeed if doing so involves somebody finding the flaws and attempting to fix them. This is doubly true if addressing the flaws might risk the reputation of some incompetent big-shot who rode into power by stealing credit for the work of others. So, in short - failure as a team is better than success as an individual in most companies.
Good luck.
Last edited by Rambler123; 03-14-2014 at 01:29 PM..
In most companies, nobody really cares if you're good at your job. It is FAR more important to blend in with the team, play the game, and be a good suck-up vs. actually being skilled at whatever task the company hired you to do. Provided you're doing "good enough" and can't be singled-out as the root cause of some major failure, that's all they care about. Other than that, office politics is far more important than actual technical skills.
This is part of the reason why sociopaths excel in the modern office environment and rise through the ranks so quickly. While idiots like me focus on trying to design or build the best product, they are busy stealing credit for my work, slandering me to management, or just plain sucking up. In the end, people like them - ladder-climbing sociopaths - get promotions, while people like me get shown the door. Sure, in the long-run, the company suffers as they continue to lay off the quiet, honest people who are actually doing the real work, but so long as the idiots higher up get their share of the loot before the place crashes and burns, they really don't care.
Documenting your contributions and keeping your boss informed is a good idea, one that I've used in the past. I also agree regarding not helping your coworkers more than needed, sadly. Until you can trust them, don't offer any of them any extra help. Going out of your way for somebody is seen as a WEAKNESS in modern corporate America. It encourages useless people to exploit you until you end up doing their work for them while they steal the credit.
Also, do NOT try to be the hero. Protect yourself first - CYA. As I've painfully learned in the past, most places would rather have a project fail so long as "team-work" was involved vs. having the project succeed if doing so involves somebody finding the flaws and attempting to fix them. This is doubly true if addressing the flaws might risk the reputation of some incompetent big-shot who rode into power by stealing credit for the work of others. So, in short - failure as a team is better than success as an individual in most companies.
Good luck.
I couldn't have said it better myself. I will say that with strong managers I've had, actual technical skill was more important to them; the office leeches lost favor as a result of trying to politic. Most managers are promoted to their level of incompetence though so you end up with inept and lazy managers who have the critical thinking and observation skills of a child. My last manager was finally demoted not long after I left because all the talent was leaving while he hired people who couldn't do the job and yet managed to get a check for years before being laid off. EVENTUALLY senior leadership figured it out.
Don't get me wrong, technical competence has been great for me, and probably for you as well. What ends up happening is I get frustrated and change employers...which causes me to end up being exposed to all kinds of opportunities to learn new skills, and although my helpful and honest nature bites me in the ass at said new job eventually, I do end up gaining more and more skills that make me more valuable while my lazy and inept colleagues stay the same. I've increased my income by 20-35% each time I've changed jobs because changing jobs out of frustration and being exposed to new stacks has made me more and more valuable. It's just that it also makes me the guy/one of the guys who the leeches quickly realize is the one to latch onto and ride to success and it BURNS my ass seeing the kind of tactics they pull knowing fullwell they are lying through their teeth.
It's the down right slimey ness of these people that gets me It makes life at work miserable. Reflecting back though, they all get laid off eventually, while my career advances due to strategic job changes. My current project, I've played dumb and suggested someone else as the lead. It's working so far, as I've steered the moron project managers I deal with onto someone else. I have zero risk of failure on this project since someone else is the lead for a change. I'm just going to CYA and focus on myself rather than trying to help everyone out.
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