Chronic/Acute Cowardism

I think it's about time that I talked about this, as we've hired a middle manager that simply epitomizes this condition.

Required was a simple answer to the question of whether the team was ready with the presentation to boss. So this manager; being the "team lead" rightfully should have the answer. We had a conference call and all and I followed up with an email confirming the conversation.

Instead of replying with a definite YES or NO, He sends his staff to "handle" the situation.

Meaning. He meant "NO", but fears replying in writing for some reason or another. All i could do was laugh away at the other end of the phone.

Well soon enough the team took hold of his reputation and guess what?

More members of the organization requests for transfers to his department!

Especially because of his chronic fear; which not only includes the fear of looking bad for reporting that he can't control the team members; but also of any form of reprimands and disciplining.

Seriously, this is NOT a made up story. It's kinda like a working level corporate joke. Best part is, nobody dares to inform the CEO of what's happening cause the new boss created this "reputation" of alienating anyone who complains about anyone else.

It's deemed as "unprofessional" in his book, or not Teamwork like.

SO, end result.
  1. Every departmental meetings starts with everyone patting each others back about what good stuff they have done helping each other.
  2. The manager's direct boss claims that this manager is the "best manager" that he's hired.
  3. The team members claim that he's the best darn manager there is, cause the team OWNS him
Everyone's HAPPY, the CEO gets to hear what he wants to hear. The Middle Manager gets to continue pretending to be a manager, and the team gets to fuck around while getting paid.

It's like a very low budget parody of Dilbert, starring Robert Englund.