Economy & LaborNOV 13, 2023

Guy Quits His Job Just To Prove His Manager Is Useless, It Works Wonders

While everyone has a “horrible boss” story, a few unfortunate individuals end up basically doing their manager's job while getting a distinctly not-managerial salary. This was the case of one netizen who decided to turn to the internet to share their tale.

A worker quit their job just so upper management can understand how utterly incompetent their boss actually was. Within weeks, they slowly realized that his person was utterly incompetent and had only the weakest grasp of what he had to do. We also got in touch with entrepreneur and career expert Divya Kataria to learn more about red flags in managers.
More info: Instagram

Everyone has had a bad boss at least once in their lives

Image credits: Kampus Production (not the actual photo)

But one worker had to literally quit just to show management how incompetent their boss was

Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)

Image credits: RDNE Stock project (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Jlaw118

Career expert Divya Kataria shared some red flags to look out for in a boss

Bored Panda got in touch with career expert Divya Kataria to learn more about what can make a manager be truly bad at their job, red flags to look out for, and why sometimes utterly incompetent individuals end up with certain jobs. Divya started by listing some common red flags in management.

“Lack of effective communication, poor delegation skills, an unwillingness to listen to feedback, and inconsistent decision-making,” she shared with Bored Panda. It’s quite easy to see how OP’s boss basically fits all four of these and more. Unfortunately, while red flags exist to warn us, it’s often difficult to see just how incompetent a manager can be before working with them.

We also wanted to know how rational and goal-oriented organizations can still end up putting the wrong person in a leadership position. “Incompetent people may be promoted due to factors like favoritism, lack of a proper performance evaluation system, or a focus on short-term results over long-term leadership potential,” she shared.

Image credits: Edmond Dantès (not the actual photo)

Sometimes just the title of “manager” goes to some people’s heads

Divya also shared her parting thoughts on the risks of not developing a competent and effective management team for any organization. “It's crucial for organizations to prioritize leadership development, foster a culture of continuous feedback, and ensure that promotions are based on merit and competency.” You can find more of her work on her Instagram.

Reading through OP’s story, one also has to wonder what exactly did this boss tell themselves to make them believe they had the slightest idea what they were doing. Research suggests that just the act of promotion often leads to a vastly overestimated sense of self, so there is the possibility that this manager legitimately believed they were in control.

Image credits: Jonathan Borba (not the actual photo)

Other managers attempt to hide their incompetence

There are also managers who are aware of their shortcomings. They often try to mask this insecurity by being controlling, toxic, and downright unpleasant to be around. While it's hard to say which is worse and which one actually fits OP’s ex-boss, the truth is that many organizations suffer from management that is disconnected from reality and actively makes its worker's day worse.

Fortunately, OP did the one thing that could perfectly expose just how incompetent this manager really was. Without OP around, there were no more scapegoats, excuses, or tricks this boss could pull to get out of it. The gall of this boss to say things like “I don’t even know what you do here,” is quite shocking, as, even if OP didn’t do very much at all, the manager should actually understand how the different pieces of an organization fit together.