Why Some Subordinates are a Pain in the Ass?

It is true that in some organizations the general culture is pathetically bad.

The main reason is that the company is essentially run by a coterie of bad-asses.

The top man is the root of the evil since his strategy is to thoughtfully ignore the immaturity and incompetence of the clowns that report into him.

The top man, is some sense, is the chief clown. He projects himself as progressive, passionate and professional but is just the opposite.

The person you are forced to report into is basically a clown whose only qualification is his blind loyalty to the chief clown. And of course, there are other clowns as well.

The clowns form a close-knit coterie of inner circle which holds back-door discussions and takes decisions which are neither fair nor transparent.

In such an organization the clowns are busy in creating troubles for those who are professionals and no do not belong to the old brigade of chief clown, clowns and the sub-clowns.

The whole situation is further complicated and convoluted by subordinates who are a pain in the ass.

The clowns promote and protect such subordinates.

So why does a subordinate become a pain in the ass?
  • The concerned subordinate has a hot-line reporting to one the clowns (the favorite clown) whom his supervisor is unfortunately forced to report into
  • The concerned subordinate is a workplace shirker
  • The concerned subordinate is a master of abusing "working from home"
  • The concerned subordinate is a like a bad apple in the team who spreads negativity
  • The concerned subordinate is not competent and tries hard to dump and push his work to others in the team
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown share the same bad attributes
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown are experts in writing long emails full of drama and utter nonsense
  • The concerned subordinate and the clown meet outside the office also
  • The concerned subordinate is an expert in playing the game of double-speak. He would tell something to the supervisor and something to the clown
  • The concerned subordinate is deeply engaged in playing office politics along with the clown
  • The concerned subordinate is highly manipulative (and in fact fit to be one of the clowns)
  • The concerned subordinate thinks he is bigger than the system
  • The concerned subordinate spends more effort in trying to show to others especially his favorite clown as to what he has done rather than actually working
  • The concerned subordinate gets unnecessarily worked up and agitated without understanding the context
  • The concerned subordinate is basically full of anxiety and always looking at things from a narrow-minded and constrained perspective 
  • The concerned subordinate will needlessly copy irrelevant people and especially the favorite clown in several emails