incompetent boss

[myvelvetscrunchie]

I have a pretty incompetent boss and it's starting to make me look bad myself - eg, late with sending out papers to the board because she hasn't done her report and it then makes me look like I haven't bothered to send them on time; rubbish at reading and responding to emails despite having an excellent PA who manages her inbox and flags items up to her; frequently cancels my catch ups with her at short notice; generally is not interested at all in any operational or governance issues despite being the CEO;

I was promoted to director of operations from operational assistant, a role I am underqualified for (I pointed this out when they offered it to me) but I am of the opinion she does not want to get in a more senior, qualified person as they would feel more able to call her out on all of the above.

How do I deal with this? I would leave were it not for the fact that 1) I am paid MUCH more than I would get somewhere else 2) the job is very flexible and works brilliantly around my 2 DC. And obviously it looks good on my CV.

Any advice?

Sounds EXACTLY like a person I used to work with. Lots of big talk and flouncing around but absolutely useless at getting anything done and lazy lazy lazy.

To protect myself I kept detailed records of my actions/completions just in case any shit hit the fan. Then I could say - I completed that (date/time) so I think perhaps X can shed some light on that? I was teflon woman.

I also adopted a more fuck-it approach. I am a very conscientious person, but reasoned this was a job, not my life, and frankly if they wanted to overpay me to be someone's admin bitch, then fine. Well paid flexible jobs aren't that easy to find.

What would happen if you were to send the papers out without her report and say that she will be issuing it directly/you will send it out when you receive it. Could you put your own mini report in ‘while waiting for the main report’ so that they have something? Maybe they can promote you and demote her... there’s a point at which when being able to grab the bill by the horns and just do stuff in an accurate and timely manner counts for a lot more than qualifications not backed up by actions.

If she is not giving you stuff on time, especially regular stuff, make sure you have a paper trail to show you asked a week before, 3 days before, a day before and an on the day reminder with a consequence in. Eg a quick reminder I need your report by 3pm today; I’ve checked with your pa an you don’t have any meeting or other urgent tasks listed this morning. If I don’t receive the report or hear from you by 3pm then I will package up the other reports and send them out with a disclaimer to say that you will be issuing the report directly.

Also is there a more senior person that you could talk to and ‘ask advice’ from (ie make them aware without just dobbing her in) and say given this scenario keeps happening what would you prefer - mini report from me, everything late and together, just hers late? Shows you are professional and providing solutions to the problems you /they are encountering.

Keep a separate simple log of things she needs to do, when she was notified, reminders sent out, deadline and date delivered - plus consequences (to you and to company) of being late. You can the use that to talk to he about the problems you are encountering... if she had a migraine and was late once nobody would mind. A migraine on the third Monday of the month every month is a very different proposition.