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IS YOUR MANAGER A VINDICTIVE PRICK OR SIMPLY INCOMPETENT?
How do we combat this comrades? Well, I have a dream that echoes the timeless wisdom of unity and the undeniable power of the human spirit. In our industry, where divisiveness seems to drown out our shared humanity. I dare to dream of a brighter, more harmonious future for the Australian Waterfront. I dream of a Waterfront where keeping your job doesn’t prevent anyone from standing up for themselves, where respect for ourselves ampli- fies our capacity to respect one another. We need to stand up for ourselves and each other when incompetent managers seek to benefit from division. History reflects the success of a unified approach. True progress is not built on tearing each other down; it thrives when we lift one an- other up. This dream implores us to reject leaders who stoke the fires of hatred, grievances, and ven- geance, promising change through division.
This means we can’t realistically rely on those in power to measure their own capabilities, nor can we rely on their capacity to recruit effectively. If not identified, (the “no authority - all responsibili- ty” model has no interest in identifying this short- coming), incompetent managers will surround themselves with other incompetents, generally their mates, who unsurprisingly, will demonstrate similar shortcomings, if not worse when support- ed by the dumb f**k that hired them! Before too long, workforce culture and morale plummets, in- juries and sick leave skyrockets, the business be- gins to suffer and from the Union’s perspective - our members are worse off. The only saving grace within the stevedoring in- dustry is this applies across the board equally affecting all companies, putting all on an equal footing as far as business performance and cus- tomer satisfaction goes which results in contracts ping-ponging between the current providers. Something all of you in the industry have seen throughout your careers.
Take credit for positive ouTcOMES Prejudice for those who point out the manager ’ s shortcomings
All responsibility - no authority, paired with incom- petence breeds an unfortunate mix of frustration, arrogance and mis-calibrated confidence. Conven- tional wisdom would suggest confidence is a positive and desirable trait for a manager to have. However, confidence, when mis-calibrated, has a significant and negative impact on the manager, the business they’re employed to manage and their team’s capac- ity to perform tasks effectively. Unfortunately, those employees subordinate to an incompetent manager are faced with the fact that their manager believes themself to be far better at what they do than they actually are and hold a highly critical and undermin- ing opinion of their employees’ abilities, especially when reporting back to senior managers. This is where most employees make the mistake of believing their manager to be a vindictive prick rath- er than incompetent! A manager without authority who realises there is an element of fear driven by the misguided perception of employees becomes extremely dangerous and damaging for any busi- ness. In the absence of having any authority, an in- competent manager will attack any Employee who draws attention to the manager’s failings even when the Employee is 100% correct and is simply follow- ing Company policy and procedure or safety legisla- tion. Those who choose not to question incompetent managers because of stupidity, greed or favouritism are often rewarded and promoted, further contribut- ing to the perception of a vindictive prick rather than incompetent.
The fundamental nature of incompetent leadership is pretty easy to summarise and those considered to fit this bill, will generally have short lived tenures at their respective places of work, not so much in the steve- doring industry! You could be forgiven if you thought incompetence was a pre-requisite for a Stevedoring manager, however, recent scientific studies conduct- ed at the Ponds Institute, confirmed the profile of an incompetent manager was often confused by a ma- jority of stevedores as that of a vindictive prick rather than incompetent. The obvious traits central to an incompetent manag- er, generally speaking, will be - Poor communication; Unavailability; Favouritism for those who do the man- ager’s bidding; Prejudice for those who point out the manager’s shortcomings; Manipulation of the truth; Take credit for positive outcomes; Blame stevedores and subordinate managers for the negative, etc, etc. Any manager displaying these traits that has been al- lowed to get away with this kind of behaviour, has ei- ther been poorly managed by similarly incompetent managers, or sits at the lower end of a management structure based on the model, “all responsibility - no authority”. A more commonly used term for manag- ers under this structure would be, “cardboard cut- outs”. In essence, there to take the blame with zero capacity, or expectation from senior management, to influence outcomes.
Paul Brett – Organiser paul.brett@mua.org.au 0427 198 376
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