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I hate all incomptetent people equally
Dec. 14th, 2004 12:56 pmincompetent, adj.
Inadequate for or unsuited to a particular purpose or application.
Maybe I should take an LJ entry just to explain my feelings about incompetent people in my industry (the computer industry) in more detail. I have issues with anyone who is incompetent. Why? Well, I never liked bullsh*t artists, if you will. I believe in the concept of a meritocracy, which is where people get ahead based on ability, rather than on other factors, such as being able to fool other people into thinking that they know what they're doing. Or taking a job which they are not qualified to do and screwing it up badly. I think this sort of thing bit of a problem in the computer industry because computers are complicated machines which can be difficult to understand. If you're a manager who is in charge of someone who is BSing their way through a particular job in the computer field, how do you as the manager know that they aren't doing their job properly? It's very difficult to make that sort of judgement unless you have a strong technology background, or listen to the complaints of that person's co-workers.
Note that I have not mentioned MCSEs specifically. :-) I think the reason why I've been griping about MCSEs is because that, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
golum pointed out, there are a lot of people with MCSEs who are simply "Gold Diggers".
Maybe I should give a few examples while I feel this way about the issue of incompetence...
Example #1: The Chronicles of George - This site is all about a help desk tech the author used to work with by the name of "George". "George" got the job not because of his ability, but because of who he knew. Once he got the job, it became clear that not only did he not know much about computers, but he had no desire to learn. Between his horrible grammar ("the user is havening a problem") and inability to help people, morale in the help desk department plummeted, as George turned it into a joke to the rest company.
Example #2: This lady replaced the author of the story when he switched departments. She was unable to do the job accurately, in a timely manner, and had a poor attitude on top of that. So what happens? People get hired to help her do her job. Except she doesn't have to do it anymore. She's now a supervisor for the new hires. Blech.
Example #3: This happened to me personally. I worked at one place where the temperature in the server room regularly got into the 80s. With the air conditioner on. During winter. When summer came around, it got much hotter. Pleas to management for more cooling were ignored, until the power supply fan in a $20,000 server kicked the bucket one day, resulting in two days of downtime. Only then did management take us seriously. (I guess this is a different kind of incompetence, since it's the people who are overseeing the technology people in this case)
Example #4: This poor developer wants to test his new code against the production database before deploying it, just to make sure it works. Good call on his part. But his VP won't let him do it, because there is "sensitive information on there" that he doesn't want to risk getting into the hands of his competitors. Never mind that the testing database has the same data on it. The author is warned that if he runs his code against the live database, that he will get fired! (More idiotic management)
So, yeah. I have issues with incompetent people. Their actions cost their companies money and destroy worker morale. No, I don't have a solution to the problem. And yes, I am bitter about this, and there are probably some gaping holes in my logic. (I've had some first hand experiences with people who Just Don't Get Computers)
Feel free to discuss.
Inadequate for or unsuited to a particular purpose or application.
Maybe I should take an LJ entry just to explain my feelings about incompetent people in my industry (the computer industry) in more detail. I have issues with anyone who is incompetent. Why? Well, I never liked bullsh*t artists, if you will. I believe in the concept of a meritocracy, which is where people get ahead based on ability, rather than on other factors, such as being able to fool other people into thinking that they know what they're doing. Or taking a job which they are not qualified to do and screwing it up badly. I think this sort of thing bit of a problem in the computer industry because computers are complicated machines which can be difficult to understand. If you're a manager who is in charge of someone who is BSing their way through a particular job in the computer field, how do you as the manager know that they aren't doing their job properly? It's very difficult to make that sort of judgement unless you have a strong technology background, or listen to the complaints of that person's co-workers.
Note that I have not mentioned MCSEs specifically. :-) I think the reason why I've been griping about MCSEs is because that, as
golum pointed out, there are a lot of people with MCSEs who are simply "Gold Diggers".Maybe I should give a few examples while I feel this way about the issue of incompetence...
Example #1: The Chronicles of George - This site is all about a help desk tech the author used to work with by the name of "George". "George" got the job not because of his ability, but because of who he knew. Once he got the job, it became clear that not only did he not know much about computers, but he had no desire to learn. Between his horrible grammar ("the user is havening a problem") and inability to help people, morale in the help desk department plummeted, as George turned it into a joke to the rest company.
Example #2: This lady replaced the author of the story when he switched departments. She was unable to do the job accurately, in a timely manner, and had a poor attitude on top of that. So what happens? People get hired to help her do her job. Except she doesn't have to do it anymore. She's now a supervisor for the new hires. Blech.
Example #3: This happened to me personally. I worked at one place where the temperature in the server room regularly got into the 80s. With the air conditioner on. During winter. When summer came around, it got much hotter. Pleas to management for more cooling were ignored, until the power supply fan in a $20,000 server kicked the bucket one day, resulting in two days of downtime. Only then did management take us seriously. (I guess this is a different kind of incompetence, since it's the people who are overseeing the technology people in this case)
Example #4: This poor developer wants to test his new code against the production database before deploying it, just to make sure it works. Good call on his part. But his VP won't let him do it, because there is "sensitive information on there" that he doesn't want to risk getting into the hands of his competitors. Never mind that the testing database has the same data on it. The author is warned that if he runs his code against the live database, that he will get fired! (More idiotic management)
So, yeah. I have issues with incompetent people. Their actions cost their companies money and destroy worker morale. No, I don't have a solution to the problem. And yes, I am bitter about this, and there are probably some gaping holes in my logic. (I've had some first hand experiences with people who Just Don't Get Computers)
Feel free to discuss.
