What is strategic incompetence?
This term was defined in 2007 by journalist Jared Sanberg in the Wall Street Journal and covers both professional and personal life. Of course, we’ll concentrate more on the first part, but the definition of strategic incompetence, also known as instrumentalized incompetence, is appropriate for both aspects of our lives. You could say it’s infantilization at work, but it’s intentional as:
👇 It’s a manipulative technique where we pretend to be incompetent, or at least, we come across as being so, when performing a task so that someone else does it for us. |
You might think it’s harmless, but the truth is it happens very often. But be careful, don’t include the new recruit or trainee, it’s normal to train them and explain things 🙃. It’s more a case of that annoying colleague who wants to give us something they don’t want to do. So you need to be careful not to fall into the trap of strategic incompetence, especially if you’re a woman 🤔.
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Men are great specialists
Indeed, men like passing on to women the things they don’t want to do 😅. You only need to look at the distribution of the mental load in couples: women have to take on more chores in the home. Obviously, this is also reflected in the workplace, as journalist and expert on women’s working lives Lucile Quillet explains:
“Women are more devoted to doing unrewarding tasks, those tasks that are going to be beneficial to the whole or that have to do with “care”, i.e. the well-being of others. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to adopt an individualistic stance, and tell themselves that it’s simply not for them to do it.”
That’s how you end up being the one organizing a farewell party for Catherine, who you hardly know 😅! We’ll be particularly busy with organizational and planning tasks, as well as all the little tasks that are considered unimportant. In fact, strategic incompetence is a phenomenon that’s exacerbated by gender dynamics and is also reflected in our workplace...
It reminds me of a friend of mine who works with men. She’s always making them coffee and cleaning the toilets, even though she has the same job as them and that sort of thing should be shared.
How do we escape strategic incompetence?
So, how do we escape the laziness of our colleagues? It’s out of the question to do tasks for others or even to suffer sexism in the workplace. So to do this, you need to:
👉 Be wary of compliments
If a colleague pays us an over-the-top compliment about our work, we should be wary 🤨. Of course, a compliment doesn’t necessarily hide anything negative, but we need to resist the temptation to do the work for them, especially with phrases like “you’re so perfect in that role”, “you do it so well”, “honestly, I do it so badly compared to you”.
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👉 Spot the evasion
There are some people who are very good at avoiding unwanted tasks. Often absent (strangely) or very, very busy when there’s something tedious to do 🙄... However, thanks to this, you can spot them very quickly and tell yourself that you need to be careful with their requests. So watch out!
👉 Learn to say no
It's not easy to refuse something at work, but at least we’re setting our limits by saying “no”. What’s more, it allows us to give our colleague more autonomy, by letting them take responsibility for their own work.
👉 Not do what can’t be valued
You have to ask yourself, “can this task that my colleague is avoiding be valued during my annual interview?”. Yes, if you’re going to be a victim of other people’s strategic incompetence, you might as well get something out of it. On the other hand, if it doesn’t suit you, ciao 🫡!
In short, as time management expert and author Laura Vanderkam says: “You can do anything, but not everything.” Our time’s precious, let’s not give it away to people who want our availability to do the work for them!
And if ever enough is enough, you can always talk to your line manager to see what can be done. Let’s not let them push you around 💪!
Editor’s note: Learn to set your limitsDid you recognize yourself? Recognize a co-worker? Bingo! You’re now more familiar with the concept of strategic incompetence and how to avoid it or deal with it at work. Don’t hesitate to share this article with your colleagues or make an appointment with a coach if you want to take stock of your skills and learn how to set your limits at work.
🤗 Understanding yourself, accepting yourself, being happy... It’s here and now!
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