Why people fail at work

[Nicodemus]

Spoken like a true leader. In my field people wash out quickly and it's usually due to lack of technical skills. Luckily when I started at the bottom the company wanted to train me. Today you sink, swim or come from India making less than the American

In my field, most folks would lose their nerve. Especially if they thought about the consequences of a mistake.


But, better to lose your nerve, than your life.

 

[yelper43]

My supervisors perspective is that pressure makes diamonds. And I passed that along today to another department supervisor and he commented that pressure makes volconos explode also. I got a kick out of that.

 

[Ruger#3]

Over the years I have learned to do a better job of vetting candidates and if I hire them I work at cultivating them because my success depends on them being successful first and failure is not a viable alternative for either of us.

Agreed!

Hire capable folks and mentor them, life is easier.
As a manager, my job is to progressively teach those below me to do my job. Provide them opportunities and training to reach their potential.

Those that shun responsibility don’t last as the rest of the team is carrying their weight and that’s unacceptable. Their failure is mine as they should have never been hired.

 

[KyDawg]

I worked the last 40 years, for a couple of different large Companies. I have seen intelligent, hard working people fail, because management set them up to. The last company, I worked for, was the worse. The company was ran by engineers for the most part. I have seen them take guys that were valuable to the company, doing a certain job. If the guy had an engineering degree, the Company gave him a pack on the back, a raise, and promotion, to supervisors. Some did well, but many failed because they knew nothing about working with or managing people. Most of them though they could do it strictly with metrics. Some left the company and some went back to their old jobs. I predicted it, most of them as soon as, or before they were promoted, and register my doubts each time. But, I was just an old South Georgian, that was not near as smart as they were. But, I did have the pleasure going behind the failure and picking up the pieces.

 

[T-N-T]

Another factor is that in many workplaces, being a backstabber/brownoser is requisite to getting ahead. And often, managers continuously value those who are always atwitter, acting stressed, and appear to be busy all the time but actually not getting much of anything done over those who actually get the stuff done but aren't running around like a chicken with its head cut off. These do not contribute to good morale or company loyalty.

I have seen this.
I also will call out low production by the runner. I have one if those now. I call him out for what's not done and he starts telling me what all he had to go through to get here.

The problem is, I'm way smarter than him and explain how he should be farther along.

I need him for now. But I won't need him forever. And that will be the day......

 

[GeorgiaBob]

Sometimes, bright capable people suck at certain job functions.

We often ignore that (employer and employee both). But I suspect that poor performance/failure is often because an otherwise good employee is as incapable at one necessary piece of the job as my wife with a remote control. Two master's degrees, over thirty very successful years in real, competitive, corporate environments and she cannot figure how to change a channel! Single blind spots in an otherwise superior skill set can send someone to the unemployment line.

I had to fire a guy - decades ago - who always seemed to "want" to do good, but just couldn't manage to finish an assignment. Pieces of his work product were brilliant, far above expectations, but I always had to get someone else in to finish the job. In hindsight, I think the problem was a clash of differing concepts of "work ethic." He thought he was doing great as long as he could "polish up a piece" of the job. I failed to get through to him that the only acceptable measures of performance were the quantity and quality of the finished work products! Differing expectations are killers.

 

[Dialer]

In my profession, I'm a very highly motivated and skilled worker. Been with the company 22 years next month. However being a Union shop, the "buddy" system is still at work. The leads are not made leads based on their experience, OR anything else that you would think they would need to lead others, but are selected based strictly on seniority. 11 years of MY seniority was taken by the works of this "Union", placing me some distance down the seniority list. These "leads" have very poor organizational skills, poor people skills, poor administrative skills, poor work experience. Their "buddies" get all prime assignments. In order to be their buddy, you have to have a filthy mouth, a very fake / loud laugh, be very inconsiderate of others, extremely obnoxious, childlike, gluttenous, and down right obsurd. Well, I refuse to put on THAT hat! Therefore, I stay hidden and await retirement that will happen in a short time. What kills me are the guys that don't know ANYTHING about their job, and suck up to the idiots that DO have common sense. They act like they don't know ya when their buddies are here, but when they're NOT, they come sucking up to me wanting to feed me and work with me like I'm their best friend! Needless to say, I stay out of their filthy obnoxious inconsiderate "supper club", and quietly eat my own lunch in the corner reading my bible or my earbuds cranked to some easy listening, and simply tune them out. I really don't like being here on an everyday basis, but I do love my job. I would be an excellent employee if they only would grow up. The leads I work under have known me these entire 22 years, and treat me like I've been here 2 weeks! I'll be going to a different work classification the first of January, where I'm hoping my work ethic and eagerness will be recognized, and I can't wait. Guess that's why they call it work....

 

[Dialer]

Agreed!

Hire capable folks and mentor them, life is easier.
As a manager, my job is to progressively teach those below me to do my job. Provide them opportunities and training to reach their potential.

Those that shun responsibility don’t last as the rest of the team is carrying their weight and that’s unacceptable. Their failure is mine as they should have never been hired.

"Hire Hard and Manage Easy"...