We’ve all worked with them – people who everyone knows are bad for the organisation in one of several ways.
They may be incompetent or ineffectual and being carried by those around them. This form of deadwood falls into several categories:
- The Old Lag: Someone in the twilight of their career, cruising to retirement doing a bare minimum.
- The Drowner: Completely out of their depth and they know it, constantly bleeding time from colleagues.
- The Egotist: Completely out of their depth but convinced of their genius – their work always needs fixing.
They may be manipulative, self serving individuals who hide their mistakes, blame others and may even take credit for other peoples achievements.
It’s an ironic side effect that one of the traits that has made our species the most successful on the planet is also the one which allows the weak to survive, thrive even. The gestation period of our young reaching an age where they can physically defend themselves is, for the sake of argument, ten to twelve years. This makes defending the weak a natural instinct. That instinct also prevents us from “grassing” on the incompetent.
