How Do You Deal With An Incompetent Coworker?

People who do not make an effort, who avoid responsibilities, who create a bad working environment with their attitude, with their behavior … How to deal with an incompetent coworker? Who else and who least has ever been in this situation and understands, without a doubt, how complicated it can be, at times, to handle these situations.

Something that we know well from the field of human resources and organizational psychology is that in every workplace, there are what are known as “bad apples”. The funny thing is that the personnel selection filters tend to pass easily, because in job interviews they are resolute and competent. Without subtracting that they can have a good resume.

Now,  hard skills have nothing to do with soft skills. One can be defined by accumulating numerous knowledge and technical skills for that job and yet lacking social and emotional skills, empathy, skills to team up, lead, communicate, motivate, etc.

Also, there is something to consider: “bad apples” are a real problem for the organization. They affect the entire team, reduce productivity, raise anxiety and create a bad image for the company. We analyze it. 

Keys to dealing with an incompetent coworker

In every work environment we can see responsible people who want to make a career and climb positions in their work. Likewise, there are also many who simply meet their objectives effectively and try to do their best, but without having in mind to opt for nothing more than to maintain their stability. Both figures can be affected by a third chaotic element: the irresponsible employee.

The incompetent co-worker’s main characteristic is to do as little as possible. They do not have to be bad people, but they differ from others by their low motivation, no responsibility for their work, and a sophisticated ability to place their own failures on the shoulders of others.

All of this often means that other employees end up taking on more work, both to correct their mistakes and to keep the flow of activity unchanged. In the short term, what happens is that the work environment becomes rarefied, discomfort, stress and disagreements grow. In the long run, total energy drain and profitability problems arise.

So let’s see what strategies we should use to deal with an incompetent coworker.

Do not vent your anger and frustration with your colleagues

Let’s face it, when we have a problem at work and specifically with a colleague, we usually vent to others. And it is true, it is cathartic to share with someone from the company what it means to have someone incompetent by your side, what tires you and the problems that it brings. However, what happens with this is that we increase the general discomfort.

Negative emotions are contagious, the environment becomes more complicated and, at times, we can experience uncomfortable situations. A co-worker may end up revealing our confidences to the incompetent co-worker and the situation becomes more problematic.

Talk to the incompetent person first, be clear, understand, clarify what you want

It is true that it can be an effort. However, the most successful thing in all cases when we have to deal with a co-worker is to start with him. Ideally, follow the following process.

• We will explain the situation to you referring to specific tasks and situations. It is not worth saying “you are neglecting your tasks or working with you is a disaster”. It is necessary to specify what behaviors, what situations and what neglected tasks are causing us problems.
• The tone should never accusing. The strategy must be conciliatory and focused on finding out what problem exists. Are you unmotivated? Not comfortable in that job? Do you have any concerns? We must probe him so that he becomes aware that his behavior has consequences.
• Likewise, we will also specify what we expect from him or her in the short term. ” I would like you to fulfill this task as of tomorrow “, “I hope the day after tomorrow this incident is already resolved” , and so on.

Focus on what you can control in that situation

When we have to deal with an incompetent co-worker it involves little more than having an extra burden on us. We further fear that your slovenliness, problematic behavior and irresponsibility may interfere with your own work. However, whenever possible, it is important to focus on what we can control and that depends on ourselves.

The idea is not to give more power to that chaotic element that inhabits the organization and to look at ourselves whenever possible.

Document incidents and have physical evidence of everyday problems

At some point it will be necessary to go to management to demonstrate the existing situation with the incompetent partner. When this happens, it is important to base our data on demonstrable facts and not feelings. It is useless to tell our boss that “he is a demotivated person, he never does anything, he only brings problems or we are all uncomfortable with him”.

Words loaded with emotions are useless, concrete facts do. For this, it is essential to save documents, emails, etc.

Dealing with an incompetent coworker when the company itself fosters incompetence

There is something much worse than dealing with an incompetent coworker: realizing that it is the organization itself that fosters demotivation. Thus, and as curious as it may be to us, this fact is more common than we think. When in a work setting the employee is not valued, a rigid and authoritarian internal policy is established without appreciation for innovation or human capital, the effects are evident.

Moreover, something that usually manifests itself in these situations is the following: if I am very competent, all the responsibilities will probably fall on me. So I better adapt and do not attract attention. This is how, little by little, general ineptitude is installed, as well as creating low-quality, uncompetitive labor markets orchestrated almost exclusively to manufacture unhappy employees.

Let’s keep it in mind. The inept worker is undoubtedly that bad apple that should be fired as soon as possible. However, it is also important to consider what to do with those specialized companies, precisely in the germ of ineptitude.