Insufficient Enthusiasts in Working Life (2)

We have evaluated the subject of Insufficient Passions with the scientific theories of the Dunning-Kruger approach. Continuing from our previous article, we will try to explain the clues that can help us recognize the characteristics of such people with some lived anecdotes.

Here are some tips for you:

They experience inferiority complex

Incompetent enthusiasts claim that they know best. You often hear the words "we know best" about the subjects they are dealing with from these people.

In a mediocre school, we had a supervisor who became a lecturer and a bearer administrator. He had almost never been involved in any applied project in his field. He used to pontificate on all irrelevant matters stemming from the powers he held in his hand. Our institution wanted to move on to a very comprehensive informatics project. We were invited on behalf of the units that will receive service to this project, which is not directly related to our areas of duty. Stakeholders directly related to the project had done a comprehensive study. We gathered to share this feverish work with us.

During the process, before the detailed presentation of the subjects was completed, our head of the unit entered into an inappropriate discussion environment. He objected to every issue presented without any feasibility study in hand.

He claimed, without providing any evidence, that he had prepared and completed this subject himself. He did not share the questions of who completed when and where as confidential information. What he claimed was the perception of time and financial loss by starting this project. Although it was not his field of duty, he believed unconditionally that he would do it best. He didn't believe anyone else would do it.

His request was that the project responsibility be given to him. When this did not happen, he did not share the project that he claimed to have completed and was ready, and caused the project to be delayed for 2 years.

They despise the education and knowledge of others other than themselves.

They tend to present their values ​​such as knowing a foreign language, university education or title as a bad thing. They dogmatically defend this approach and try to persuade those around them.

I was at one of the company meetings. There were managers on the subject from different units. A company representative, who provides consultancy services for the solution of an important issue, was going to make a presentation upon our invitation. It was only a few minutes before the presentation was made. Everyone was waiting for the CEO to arrive. In the meantime, a very high-ranking administrator was praising himself between the lines by making unsophisticated jokes. His eyes were caught by the invited company representative who was going to make the presentation on the PC for a while. The following dialogue emerged, which was followed with regret by everyone, with his peculiar habit of contempt for this guest, whom he had never met and whom he thought was a technical support person;

• You should make these arrangements before the meeting.
• We are checking everything is ok
• When did you start this business? I guess you didn't understand what I said.
• The person who does not understand what is going on is a little stunned.
• Excuse me, what subject did you ask about?
• He also asks, are you checking now, not doing your job on time?
• Everything about my job is ok, I'm waiting for the meeting to start
• What does the meeting mean to you?
• I will make the presentation
• Oooo, can you do that presentation?
• I will try to do it, I hope it will be useful
• Do you know that there are a lot of people with PhDs here?
• Can you explain this matter to them?

......................

A sad situation had occurred. Although the presenter did not know who the person asking the questions was, I think he guessed that he was a high-ranking person sitting near the end of the table. It was easily understood from the indirect conversations with the presenter during the presentation that he was a modest and rather competent person. He was also very patient in the face of difficult situations.

• Just then, the CEO came in.
• Walked across the room to the presenter and shook hands.
• He received a warm welcome and said let's get started.

The identity identification on the start page of the server, which has remained modest up to this point, was interesting. In the statement for informational purposes, it was stated that; Associate Professor Dr. in the field where he will present at an important university. ... it was written. The state of that manager, who was grinning arrogantly as if his arrogance before the meeting had never happened, was an exemplary situation for everyone.

They make it sound like it's doing a lot of work with noise and fuss.

They do one-tenth of what needs to be done in their field of duty and make a lot of noise to expect to become an inventor at the end of the day.

......................

One day a call came. A high-level executive who says, "I created these mountains," a monument of arrogance, questions;

• Is your unit responsible for internships?
• Yes, how can I help you?
• How do you evaluate
• It did not give me the opportunity to try to understand the subject.
• Send either you or someone responsible for this matter to my office urgently.
• Bring the necessary seals of approval
• What is the subject, maybe we can help without having to come
• We wouldn't have disturbed you either.
• No no you come anyway and I will show you your mistake
• Thinking what's wrong
• I have a trainee with me and there is a problem with your internship approval. The first page of the internship book is stamped and signed, the other pages have only signatures but no seals.
• This document has been prepared incompletely.
• Even though I said we can help if you send the friend to us.
• He said no, you will come and hung up.

......................

In the face of this situation, which we cannot understand, I sent someone in charge of the unit, just in case. After a while, I asked the friend who was going and what was the subject.

• There is nothing missing
• He said there was a misunderstanding because he did not know that there are different requirements for each school and internship.
• I explained that there is no defect in the procedures we have prepared for the needs of the intern's school, which is claimed to have a problem in his notebook.
• Unnecessarily stamped every page despite my explanation.
• He instructed that it should be like this from now on.
• ....................

The friend who went had done what was requested so that the event would not go to different channels and returned.

Let me point out which wrong that is painful here;

• First of all, we were not affiliated with this manager's unit.
• It would be more appropriate for him to ask for his requests from the unit chief to whom we are affiliated.
• No orders outside the unit are processed without the approval of the relevant committees.
• It is unethical and unethical for the employee to pretend to exist without fault.
• It is not institutional for us to be called to his feet without the knowledge of our unit chief.
• It is unacceptable to impose the rule that does not exist

In the words of your friend, what this arrogant monument was trying to do was to create the impression of showing off to someone outside the company sitting next to him... what is the need for such a meaningless show of power? We couldn't make sense of it, he already occupied a high enough office... He was trying to make a fuss of the saying 'authority is power' instead of 'knowledge is power', and to make it seem like he was doing a lot of work in this noise. It would be appropriate to misrepresent it as "making storms in a spoonful of water".

They feel like they take care of everything themselves.

Despite little knowledge of the Dunning-Kruger principle in the context of the 'ignorant courage', the greater its omnipresence. While experts in a field tend to leave things outside of their field to their experts, people with this syndrome have superior opinions in every field, and any job done without being asked is a little incomplete.

Efficiency is important in managerial functions. Managers are responsible for the actions of sub-units within the scope of their position and authority. However, when this responsibility is not properly delegated, the workload becomes cumbersome. Jobs that need to be completed are never completed. Because the work is waiting for the unit chief. It is waiting for approval because it wants to understand the details of how the work delegated to the experts is done and/or does not want to hold the authority and take responsibility. The expected time is not enough since it wants to give the impression of going into the details of each subject. The problems are waiting like a mountain and there is no solution. Although it is natural to want to go into the details of the subject, re-doing the processes is a waste of time.

It would be appropriate to share a tender we experienced in this regard. Service was to be received within the scope of a software project. Necessary announcements and announcements were made on the subject. The bids received in the advertisements were received within the given time. All offers within the scope of sealed envelope were evaluated by the selected committee. Bidding companies were invited to give a face-to-face statement of opinion for the crime. Five companies participated in the call. Two of them were withdrawn from other offers.

There were no irregularities or deficiencies in the procedures followed so far. The last 3 companies participated in the open slaughter part of the tender. In the slaughter offers, the tender was left to one of the companies. The next process was the mutual signature phase of the tender. The signature date has been determined for a suitable time frame.

All transactions made so far have been reported to our unit chief in writing. At the same time, the flow of the process was conveyed to him orally in different environments. Although he was supposed to be in the meetings as the authorized supervisor, he did not attend any of them. He always said you go ahead and we'll see.

It was the day of the signing ceremony. Mutual commitments were to be signed. Our supervisor, who has never made any comments or feedback, called us to his room. We, who did not think that there could be any setback, were shocked by the attitude of the supervisor. He stated that it would not be appropriate to sign the project without giving any reason.

• Let's delay signing
• We do not have enough information about the company that won the tender.
• I want this tender to be made by re-advertising.
• This time I will attend every meeting.
• Boiling water was poured from our heads
• The team looked at each other in surprise.
• Did something wrong happen?
• We put ourselves in an unwarranted sense of guilt.
• We couldn't make sense of what happened

......................

So much effort and aba was wasted. Our only hope was to understand that there was a justification. Anyway, we went through the same processes again. Although our supervisor did not attend a few meetings, he attended most of them and took part in all processes.

It was a strange and funny situation. In fact, to say funny should be said ironically. Because the same company won the tender again. The most painful thing is that this tender went to a higher value thanks to our supervisor who did not trust and did not do his job on time. Other companies that participated before did not want to come because of the change in technical conditions in the course of time. Thanks to the incompetence of the supervisor and the understanding of the management that he would do everything better, both time and money were lost. Worst of all, were the incriminating implications.

They always look ready for anything.

Although they do not have previous experience in a particular subject, they imply and give the impression that they have a command of the subject.

I was working as a department head at a university abroad. While things were running normally, the vice dean of our department had changed. The newcomer had come from another country with a registered 'colonial mentality'. It took a while to get used to our new supervisor. We didn't want to get hung up on some of the little details that came up, assuming it would be natural to have differences in the new supervisor's approaches. We were doing our duties as much as we could so that everyone could eat different yogurt. As time passed, different details began to grin.

Although the new manager had a strong communication ability, inconsistencies started in making decisions based on information. It was revealed that there would be undesirable results both in time and legally, with the implementation of some of the issues he suggested.

The issue of establishing a new laboratory for a course in the curriculum was on the agenda. Many technical workshops were held on the subject. Possible requirements were determined and authorized units were informed. The new supervisor wanted to go to an application outside the scope of the report prepared with a sense he had received. He wanted to do this with the influence of an employee trying to stay close to him. The proposed new method would not fully meet the set standards and would not serve the purpose. It turns out that the supervisor's technical ignorance on the subject would lead us to a completely wrong situation. Although the necessary technical evaluations were made, our supervisor appointed the person who gave him this idea as the authorized person for the project in order to implement his new approach.

As a department, we provided the necessary support for the implementation of this practice, which was outsourced. Although the project progressed, it was not turning into a handful. Incompatibilities with existing systems were evident. Either the project would be abandoned or the existing systems would have to be changed to adapt, naturally, it was obvious that this would create an excessive cost. In the end, the application, which was started with the force of the supervisor, was abandoned and the project was completed with the approach determined before.

The situation in the past was dire. Our new supervisor had imposed technical qualities that did not exist in him. As a matter of fact, this person had attended several quick courses in communication and management in his country but was not qualified for the position. As it turned out later, our supervisor actually worked for a while in the hotel management in his country. It was because of the hospitality he showed to an influential person he met at the hotel where he worked for a while, that he came as a bearer. Although he believed that he would do things that he was not an expert on, he was able to convince others for a while (this event took place in a Middle Eastern country that was condemned to be governed by a colonial mentality...)

They have a habit of respecting their superiors and oppressing those below them.

It is an environment where the power of authority is valid rather than the power of knowledge and experience. Tenderness and smiles to the high, the habit of despising and crushing those below. When reminded of such situations, they do not accept it.

I was going to tell another anecdote on this subject, but I thought it would be more appropriate to share an incident that happened a few weeks ago, for the sake of being up-to-date and exemplary.

......................

The incident took place during an interview of a famous journalist with a well-known Metropolitan Mayor. As it was understood, in the studio where the interview will be held for the TV show, while trying to help a technical staff for a minor connection problem, everyone was shocked by the sudden reflex of the famous journalist slapping the technical staff, and this happened during the live broadcast shooting. As the incident spread nationally, the aforementioned journalist had to resign from his duties.

What I have described so far is a situation of detecting news from daily life. While leaving the right or wrong evaluation to everyone's discretion, making some determinations constitutes a suitable example for our subject.

First of all, if you look at the event from the point of view of Let's see, a complete freak situation has occurred. While everyone here rightly focuses on the journalist and scapegoats him in the context of the event, some equally unethical issues are overlooked. If we list them with the approach that a picture is more enlightening than a thousand words;

• The slapped technical person is a victim of his good intentions and has experienced something that everyone can empathize with.
• The journalist who blew the slap has paid dearly for his mistake as the sole scapegoat, and perhaps he will pay for a longer period of time...
• The attitude and behavior of the mayor who gave the interview is completely ignored and it is thought-provoking as if such a thing never happened...

In this case, there are mistakes, haste, anger, patience, control, callousness, victimization, arrogance, hypocrisy, lies and scam, whatever we call it. The most painful thing is the insensitivity of the society to the event here.

I watched the video on the subject carefully, apart from what I have told so far;

1. While the president is still talking about the color of the peanut as if nothing had happened, the journalist does not even listen to what the president is saying,
2. “How could it be that… the president is at least not intimidated by this borderline personality disorder of the so-called journalist, and does not even think of leaving the program?”
3. “The president doesn't take a petty stand on the fly, even without causing a fuss?”

Apparently, neither the mayor nor the journalist thought that this event could go out of the studio, and they didn't even care about that exemplary event...

The strangest thing was that this insensitive president, a few days later, was present at an event in the province he represented as if nothing had happened, on all televisions with the most authoritative state administrators.

they are inconsistent

They either deny their own inconsistencies or see no harm in publicly displaying the weaknesses of those who bring it up.

Our unit chief and 3 more people went on a trip to inspect our overseas branches. Our company manager and 2 staff members in the country we arrived greeted us. We have completed our necessary work. It was time to part. We were going to visit our branch in another country nearby. For some reason, our supervisor decided that we should go by road when we were scheduled to go by air. He probably wanted to go on safari by being fascinated by the nature around him. Unfortunately, the company made us a stakeholder by doing this within the scope of time and possibilities.

While he could go with a single car, he preferred to set off with a separate 4x4 vehicle. In this calm country, I think he must have wanted to test the power and speed of the vehicle under him to the fullest; I would say ego satisfaction. We were following the same road as the vehicle behind us. 5-6 hours had passed. We got a call from our supervisor. His tone was not very good. He wanted us to catch up with him urgently. From what we understand, he was stopped at excessive speed.

Since the two vehicles we set out for were rented, somehow the relevant official documents of the vehicles were left in our vehicle. Our supervisor, who was stopped due to excessive speed, was under surveillance until he reached him because he did not have official vehicle documents. He was not at all happy with this situation. That's why he was calling us often and reproaching where we were staying.

We had an accident with our haste and the reproaches we were dealing with. Thankfully, it was nothing serious, but one of our friends was a little bruised. We wanted to go to a health unit to understand the seriousness of the situation. Of course, that took some time too. Meanwhile, our supervisor was getting angry. We were hearing all kinds of unspeakable curses.

Anyway, we arrived at the supervisor, albeit belatedly, and after showing the necessary documents, we set off. We returned to our head office in our country without spending much time in the country we arrived. We had made a pointless and arduous journey for the sake of off-duty adventure.

The sad part is that while this chief instructed us not to raise the issue, he demanded our defense behind us. The sad thing was that he had made the friend change units by paying the bill for the delay caused by the friend who was injured in the accident.

they are hypocrites

Excessive ego to display creates oppressive and unhappy landscapes on his team. We can see this more in rulers who are more royalist than kings.

I think the following example from my life illustrates this well; In the company I work for, we were asked to work on a project given by the General Manager. The project preparations were completed and the project budget approval meeting was being held. While the presentation was supposed to be made to the General Manager, we had to make the presentation to the person deputizing for the General Manager due to a last-minute reason.

• Our unit had completed all preparations in line with GM's instructions.
• The project was a harbinger of change
• It was obvious that it would create a great added value in all aspects.
• We worked very hard on the project.
• We have studied the plus and minus, the yield and the lump sum in detail.
• Necessary surveys, information, requests, resources and competencies were studied in detail.
• In addition, before the final presentation, the topic was discussed with the managers about 50 subjects. Updates were made by submitting e-mails and receiving feedback.
• Despite all these positive developments, we could not reach a manager with a high ego in terms of bureaucracy and protocol.
• We could not get an appointment on the subject.
• He did not respond to the information sent to him by e-mail.
• Our anxiety was extreme
• Unfortunately, this arrogant executive was both on the approval committee and chairing the said meeting as the GM's deputy.
• The event was canceled by this person for petty reasons, just as we were concerned.

We were determined about the subject. This cancellation was very important in terms of both resource savings and benefits. After the cancellation, we took the issue to the highest authority and got approval again.

• This person, who personalized the approval received, tried to sabotage this project, which is open to everyone, by not giving consent for the participation of any member of his team.
• The project started despite all the obstacles
• When this project, which has an international dimension, was launched, he was telling the foreign stakeholders about the importance of the project in a hypocritical manner...!

Oddly enough, although the main budget of the project was cancelled, travel and accommodation expenses for the duration of the project were approved. This showed that we were under the wrath of an arrogant arrogance who was too greedy to even be aware of what was approved and what was disapproved.

It's hard to believe, but believe me, there is more to the story. There is nothing to do. It was gratifying that this person, who had succumbed to his arrogance, bowed before our determination. Such people and their obstacles will always exist. The only thing to say is that you must not stop believing. It is essential to persevere in what we believe in.

......................

Looking through the positive window

I want to open a sub-title right here. I tried to define a certain segment with the explanations of the tips we gave. And yet, it would be a grave mistake to be stuck in the opinion that all the managers around us are like this. At least it's nothing but excuses for our own inadequacies.

Here, although it is not related to the title, and in order not to give a wrong message, I would like to tell you a few points that we should pay attention to in a humorous way.

On their way to lunch at a beachside restaurant, the cashier, salesperson, and manager of a store find an old bottle washed up on the beach. When you open the cap of the bottle with curiosity, a genie that has been imprisoned in the bottle for a long time comes out!

• The genie says, you have given me my freedom, I can fulfill anyone's wish.
• The cashier excitedly jumps forward saying "me first, me first" and says her wish, "I want to be carefree and carefree in a holiday area where the sea and sun are abundant" and the "poof" disappears wherever it wishes.
• With the same courage, the salesperson jumps forward, saying “it's my turn, it's my turn”, “I'm at a luxury resort hotel in a resort area and I want a massage and drinks and food I want” and the pouf disappears wherever it wants.
• The genie finally turns to the manager and says it's your turn.
• The manager says “I want those two employees to be at work after lunch”.

The lesson to be learned from this joke is “always let the manager have the first opinion or the word”.

It should not be forgotten that "knowledge and experience should be power" when we know the truth. If we jump forward in every subject, our holiday may be short like the ones in the joke.

.....................

An eagle was prowling a branch of a tall tree. A rabbit seeing this;

• He said, “Can I sit like you and do nothing”.
• Kartal said “of course, why not”.
• Thus, the rabbit sat where it was, emulating the eagle.
• Just then, a fox that saw this rabbit, which was indifferent at that time, suddenly jumped on it, caught it and ate it.

That's why;

In order to sit idly by without doing anything, your seat may need to be quite high.

Contrary to the incompetent, 'like an earring'

I was working abroad as a project engineer. We had flexible hours. The only rule was to complete the given task on time and to be present at the necessary meetings during the process. Until now, it was a job like 'better than this, apricot in Damascus'. Everything was built on merit and trust. The only thing that caught my attention here is; When the project was given to us, a very definite time period was specifically stated from the very beginning. For example, the time allowed is 12 days or 14 days. In such short-term projects that I was involved in, there were almost no problems, everything was running like clockwork. There was no problem working from home or office, day or night, except for meetings. We were 6 people in our project team. It was also surprising how punctual everything was, even though there were almost no glitches.

I gathered my courage and asked my curiosity about this issue to our manager as a conversation.

• Excuse me, can I ask you something?
• Of course, any time; he smiled
• How do you determine the completion of these different projects in such a punctual manner?
• Haa. .. you are talking about project duration
• Yes that's right
• When I told you that it will be finished in 14 days, I am comfortable because I have done it before that a similar project would be completed in 12 days.
• Since the conditions may be different, I add up to 2 days of tolerance.
• As you can see, we can always finish on time or early.
• Of course, there are always exceptions, at that time we evaluate that possible situation.

What I understand from this is that it was clearly felt that the manager who assigned us the task had developed the ability to predict the same for each process of the project, either with previous experiences or with his accumulated experience.

Thankfully, I had the chance to work with such competent managers from time to time. Although it has been a long time, I am very happy to apply what I learned from that manager even today.

Conclusion

I wanted to start with the negative perception of the title of 'Incompetent Enthusiasts' in our working life, but to end the last example with the anecdote of a competent manager who left deep impressions on me. Because due to reasons beyond our control, we should not be allowed to control our lives and discourage us from incompetent enthusiasts in our working life.

It is the right approach to believe that we can gain useful gains from the negative aspects of 'incompetent enthusiasts'. Even Einstein did not say in vain that the more mistakes we make, the more successful we will be. Of course, here the error is different, the intention is different. I believe we should move on by learning from our unintentional mistakes.

It should not be forgotten that Inadequate Enthusiasts embrace all successful events, while they blame the failures on others, and they feel uncomfortable being reminded of their possible failures.

Out of spite, they completely believe that their approach is the only correct one, and they want you to be a shareholder in their lies. They deny what everyone sees and knows, even if it is based on obvious evidence, and they want to make it be believed with various rumors.

The most important evaluation that comes out of the narratives is “when ignorance and the passion it brings, combined with selfishness, a deadly mixture is formed.” “Insufficient ambitious people often come to the fore in life, they are more successful 'personally' than 'qualified ones'.” Unfortunately, this success is only for themselves, not for others and humanity.

“Incompetent people, who wholeheartedly believe that they are very good at their job, will not feel the slightest discomfort from praising themselves and their work, standing out in everything they do, and assuming unlimited duties. On the contrary, he will see it as a "right".

Incompetent Enthusiasts' lives are traumatic, which is normal for them. They always stay in the same moment like a scratched record. In fact, the only cure for this situation is surrender and trusting.

I think it is appropriate to end with the following saying;

“Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal”

"Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal"