People who hold themselves in really high esteem (but aren't all that)

[climbingcorfecastle]

This is meant to be light hearted

I know of two people who hold themselves in really high esteem, can really talk the talk but when it comes to delivery cannot anywhere near carry out the task, it's almost so bad that it's comical.

Person 1: Calls herself an educator, talks about her many years experience in teaching, waxes lyrical about the importance of pedagogy, techniques in child rearing, years of parent/child therapy and interventions. There is nothing she doesn't have experience with wrt to children and education. Very eloquent, upright, sounds as if she really knows what she is talking about, is very critical of others and quick to dismiss/slam their ideas/input.

The reality: She cannot deal with children at all. She tried (and failed miserably) to start group classes for children and it became extremely apparent she couldn't cope with the (well behaved) small group of children, she was literally shaking with anger and at the end of the first lesson (which was supposed to come with the latest teaching resources) informed us parents that our children all needed specialist help as they all have varying types of SEN There were no resources as she was very busy the day before so couldn't organize anything. The next lesson a parent sat in with her and queried her teaching experience. She went ballistic and went into this 'it's a pathetic, uneducated myth you have to be a qualified teacher to be a good teacher' rant. All of the children were pulled out before the end of the course as she was so bad tempered and incompetent. The lesson was supposed to be 90 minutes each time but when I asked what they had been doing (as there was no written evidence) she did that cocked head, I-feel-sorry-for-you-because-you-are-so-stupid look and said that a child of their age only had a 7 minute attention span therefore teaching would only be that long. This was years ago but she still talks in exactly the same way but thankfully most people have seen through her. She actually does not have one teaching post on her CV (which is mostly empty as she has been a SAHM for nearly 20 years!)

Person 2: A lady in a post grad course I was on. Looked and came across very corporate, went on about how she was a CEO of a business solutions company. "I am the solution" was her tag line. She was very nice, came across very well so when we were put into a group project to do a presentation everyone jumped when she nominated herself, whilst rhyming off her experience and skills.

The reality: She was so ditzy and clumsy with academic work, she would text us at the time we were supposed to meet for group work saying she had just woke up and would be late. She had also self appointed for taking minutes (as she had the most experience) but lost them every single week. We all had a section to do which was going to be rolled into one presentation (that she was presenting) and on the deadline she announced she was on holiday and would see to it when she came back, which was days before the presentation. We were all but she assured us via email that all was fine, to trust her experience and she was so confident that we had all had faith in her. The day before the presentation we met up for a rehearsal and she announced that she had left her USB on holiday and all of our work had been lost. Don't worry she reassured, she would get it all done that night as she was used to working within tight deadlines and was great at pulling things off under pressure. On presentation day she turned up looking a million dollars, dressed in a suit, had her hair done whilst all the others were in jeans. I genuinely thought we were going to score really highly. She made a complete mess of the presentation, the power point was a complete state, she had forgotten to put references in, she kept stumbling over her words and it didn't look good in any way, shape or form. I kept looking over at our lecturer who had a face of both horror and pity. At the end of the presentation she stood down from the lectern, turned to the group and with a completely straight face said she had pulled it off really well. We all stood like

Please regale me with your stories.

Every time I watch the apprentice! From the initial “I am the epitome of perfection- it sums up every about me yada yada yada”

I cringe at their self absorbed, deluded presentations of selling themselves. Of course they have to do that for the show, but there is, I would say, an enormous element that rings true for some contestants.

I am AMAZING at selling ANYTHING and then they can’t manage to sell £10 worth of stock.

Yes, sadly they’re are many people with over inflated egos that are nothing more than good at talking the talk!

Boris 😁

A prime example of someone who has talked their way into a job way above their experience or qualifications 🤦‍♀️

It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

I’ve just been thinking about it in reference to another thread.

I work with someone like this. She’s covering my work as I’m furloughed. She volunteered to do my work and is doing an almighty awful balls up of it. I have stated to my manager that I want all the parents to know that I have been furloughed since March, and that any messages they receive are not from me. The errors are actually so unprofessional. This woman sent a list of boys names with their medical needs to another school. Just so bloody careless 🤦🏼‍♀️
I know this as my colleague and friend is filling me in. Don’t know what I’ll go back to 💣 💥
He likes to blow her own trumpet, but she’s there late as she interferes in everyone’s work and volunteers to do this that and the other, and hasn’t done her own work. Incompetent fool!

MrsFrumble thank you, that's fascinating! I almost feel sorry for my two examples now!

Pressed too soon...my examples must have very severe biases to think they are even remotely good in the face of their terrible performance.

Quite a lot of male friends I've had since school. All very academic, most very articulate and, generally, great people who I get on well with. But they do talk bollocks sometimes (often). And it's almost never challenged as they just SOUND like they know what they're talking about, whereas it's quite obvious to me that they're making it up on the spot.
One thing I do like about the age of smartphones is that it's so much easier to pull them up on it. So, at school when we were having an argument and one of them comes out with "There are lots of studies showing x, y and z, which proves my point." But the subject's so esoteric that no one would be able to dispute that, we'd just have to take their word for it. By the time you'd get around to checking it, everyone else has forgotten about it. Now, with mobile phones, you can get them to try and fail to show you all these studies. Love it.

@IagoWithABlackberry when I think about it my person 1 only really deals with people who she seems to think won't challenge her findings/"research". Once she was lecturing me about a research project that she carried out that revealed that a child's #1 want in life is to play outside with their friends. When I asked for her to forward me the journal as it was something I was interested in she sent me a link to Robert Winston's book Child of Our Time. Her 'research' consisted of reading a very small experiment that he had conducted Most people would be embarrassed to make a claim like that surely?