Corporate America has taught (and continues to) teach me many lessons. I entered the workforce with 4 major assumptions. The first three were:
- The hardest working people moved up the quickest.
- Every company paid you based on your worth.
- Most people loved their jobs.
I really had no basis to assume these things but I did (silly me). Needless to say I was wrong on all three accounts. While these three realizations were a nuisance they weren’t deal breakers. My world wasn’t really shaken until my fourth assumption was brought to the ground.
4. Your direct manager should/is/will be better at your job than you are.
Once again I was operating out of my Little Red Book of Common Sense. I’m in my 4th professional role (3 at a large fortune 500 company and 1 at a small software company). My current manager is the FIRST one with any clue of what I’m doing. He can actually help me out if I get stuck (oh my!) and he can even answer my questions (my word!). To be honest I still haven’t quite adjusted to this.
There are too ways to look at this. On one hand it is quite humorous to think that I’ve somehow worked for 4 people who couldn’t tell you if the jibberish on my screen was company related or my own attempt at writing Angry Birds. Modest salary estimates would place their average salary at $80k. On another hand it is quite sad. When the person breathing down your neck about your work product can’t actually help you complete your assignment you can’t help but have a nasty taste in your mouth.
Either way you slice it incompetence is incompetence. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d work for someone who wasn’t more competent than I. Apparently, I was wrong in a big way. This seems to run rampant in the business world and it doesn’t make a bit of sense to me. So what do you think?
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