The Rewards of Incompetence and Indifference

Raise your hands, how many of you have felt like you were working with the most incompetent person in the world, whether it be a manager or a coworker? Ok, ok, those of you with both hands up, knock it off, we get the point!

Recently I was promoted to manage an area of the clinical trials office (CTO) in which I have worked for about a year. Previous to the CTO, I was a project manager for 4 years for multiple research protocols in epidemiology. Besides human subjects, what was the one similarity between both of these positions? The indifference or outright incompetence of some of the people who had come before me and even some who worked with me was glaring.

The sad part of the situation is that I have always found out that these same people have been rewarded for their attitudes or stupidity, sometimes repeatedly, while I bump my head on the glass ceiling of scientific research. I have never, and probably will never, understand how people who cannot perform the basic duties of their jobs get to the position wherein they earn a higher wage than people who work harder than them. That is unless it's because of cowardice or guilt on the part of management when it comes to firing people. Instead, sometimes the management will do exactly the opposite of what is required, lauding the bad employee and giving her raises to keep her happy and stop her from "stirring the pot". All the while, she dumps her job on someone else, because there is always that someone in each office who has such a strong concern for the work to be done, that she can't stand to see things go poorly, so she tries to pick up all of the slack.

In the meantime, though, the work actually does suffer. Sadly it's only AFTER the person in question leaves the job that you usually find out exactly how poorly the job was performed (or not performed as it were). I have seen studies with data tables which didn't even come close to agreeing with the patient charts when reviewed, reports wherein numbers were outright made up, paperwork for multiple studies mixed together because the person couldn't or didn't care to file correctly, and backlogs of work over 1.5 years old which no one knew about until a desk was searched after the worker's (and I use that word lightly) departure.

I have actually had one such person I was directly responsible for supervising. But what happened when I practically begged to let the person go? I was told to back off as the person had worked in the department for a long time and everyone liked her. SO WHAT!? It doesn't matter how much experience a person has, or how much others will get upset on a personal basis when a worker is released. When someone refuses to perform, or cannot perform at the level at which he was hired, management should be behooved to remove him. It's not only a diservice to others in the office, but to the worker himself, if he's allowed to remain on board and be nothing more than ballast which is hauling the ship down in the water.

If you really think about it, too, when others see the success of the inept and lazy, do you really think you'll be able to inspire them and get a good product out of them? Of course the answer is no! So next time you are in a position wherein you have someone you really like, but they just cannot or will not pull their weight, please think about letting them move on to another job. You can even help them find a better fitting job if you feel guilty about your decision. If you don't move them on, you can look forward to decreased productivity not just from them, but all of the people who rely on their work, all of the people who are depressed because they don't get recognition for actually doing their work, all of those who are overworked because they are trying to pick up that person's slack, and those who are just burning out because of the situation. And who needs a bad worker as an example to a new employee or a young person?

Think of it that way and try to not feel guilty if you held the axe, or angry if a friend of yours was just released for not doing her job. That is, don't feel guilty if you can break or have broken through that glass ceiling of management and make such decisions.

Welcome to the Country

As most people who know me have heard, I am from rural Ohio. And I don't mean the rural that we've come to identify with in the last decade or so, but a "real" rural area. A place where dairy, beef, and pig farms dotted a landscape of corn and soybeans which, in turn, was broken up by moderate stands of old forest growth. This was an area wherein trick-or-treating took 2 hours, and you visited only 5-10 neighboring homes which were spread acroos 2.5 miles. Of course, all of the families knew each other, and had for generations. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot to do and if you did find something "fun", someone was bound to find out and tell your mother.

The point of all of this rambling is to begin to discuss just how much the landscape of rural America has changed in the Midwest. As in many areas of the country, the farmers of Ohio have found it necessary to get out of the business which is now profitable only for company farms. One by one, then, family farmers have parcelled out their land in 1/8th acre plots. No longer do you see corn and soy beans beginning their climb toward the sun in the spring, but sprouting foundations for vast mansions of houses.

So what drives people to move to the country? Most of them will cite a better environment to raise their children, the clean air, larger open spaces, "natural" surroundings, or the fact that people are supposedly just nicer in the countryside. What a list! And the arguments supporting these reasons usually seem pretty reasonable - at least at first glance. But if you are from the area in question, the reasons are not quite so reasonable after all.

And at this point, I could easily go off on a small rant regarding each of this points, and you'd expect me to do just that. But I'll not do that for this post. Instead, please offer me some of your thoughts. Then I'll address more of these reasons in later diatribes. Because, trust me, you don't want me to get too worked up on all of them at once. You'll just end up being worried by the shear length of my rant.

Checking in with Reality

I actually signed up for this site quite some time ago with the high-minded idea that I would thoroughly research topics then spend some time writing well-reasoned, educated prose. I even wrote an initial blog stating just that. Yes, with a 3 month-old in the house, I thought I would accomplish such a lofty goal. RIGHT!

Now that the child is 6 months old, I have slowly come to the realization (about 2 months ago, actually) that I wasn't going to accompish anything of the kind. Instead, I am going to resort to blogging just like everyone else does. Sometimes ranting, sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes well-written, and sometimes even researched pieces. So consider this yet another diatribe to add to the growing and amazing list already available.

I can't say that the topics won't be tired or that the writing will be inspiring, but the ideas on the page will be my own. If something happens to be wonderful, let me know. If something happens to be horribly confusing and choppy - well, please be gentle, and let's just chalk it up to yet another sleepless night for a first-time mother, shall we?