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PROGRAM D-7680
We’re completing the situations focusing on this question—“Can this job be saved?” Here’s the last situation to consider:
Your manager doesn’t know the job, the company, the product or the customers as well as you do. He is a young man recently promoted to the position, but with little experience or skills to do the job right. He makes a great many mistakes in dealing with customers, violates some company policies (through ignorance), and irritates other departments because of his lack of knowledge and expertise. Frequently he asks you to bail him out, but he never seems to learn and makes the same mistakes over and over.
You realize that the department morale is rapidly deteriorating, and you’ve lost some good customers because of his ineptness. You feel strongly that something needs to be done for the good of the company. What would you do?
This is not an easy question, because you’re not in authority in this situation, right? And for you to do anything to correct it, it seems you would have to go over your boss’s head to higher management. Is that the right thing to do? It’s a risky thing to do, to say the least. But on the other hand, for the good of the company and its customers, don’t you have a responsibility to do whatever you can to correct this situation?
Jesus told his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” In this situation I believe that means to find a way to try to make things better without overstepping your boundaries or making the boss look bad. I would begin by having a private conversation with the boss, carefully noting that some issues have arisen, and offering your help. Perhaps you can even suggest taking some of the workload off his desk, as long as you don’t seem threatening. He might really appreciate some behind-the-scenes help because he probably knows that he’s not doing a good job.
A time could come when all else has failed and you believe others need to know what’s happening. But that should be a last resort and should be done with great caution, not with a vindictive and critical attitude.