To think that some people 'fail upwards'?

[icamel]

This might be the stress of the holiday season but this is really affecting me at my current job.

In the past 10 years I've worked at a total of 2 companies in my industry. It's a very small industry so even between companies people know who's who and people talk.

At my first company, we had a guy (same age as I am, same salary, same position) who was asked to leave for essentially lying constantly and making stuff up as he went along. Anything from small incidents like him saying he's done something even though he hasn't to things like making up statistics for the internal company memo.

Soon after he found a job in a different, better paying company. Apparently he was fired again 2 years later.

Heard he then joined my current company (this was before I came here 1.5 years ago) and was given a 'choice' to resign or be fired for being irresponsible, lying, and submitting false claims.

Not sure what he's been up to since then but my company is now working alongside this other company and this guy is now junior partner at probably 2-3 times my salary (and I've since been promoted twice to manager level so it's not as if I've stagnated)!!

AIBU to think that some people 'fail upwards'? Or am I just bitter?

This isn't quite it, but there is a well known phenomenon called The Peter Principle. This where people keep getting promoted until they can't hide their incompetence any longer. We've all worked with them.

I worked with someone like that. Nobody 'below' him took him seriously, he was eventually sacked in shame, and buggered off to South Africa.

I’ve worked in companies where people who were highly visible were more likely to be promoted. Didn’t matter if the high visibility was due to being the one in charge of a major fuckup…

Often these people believe their own press so they have no qualms in applying for higher and higher grades jobs. Then when they get one no one wants to admit they shouldn't have been hired so they're encouraged on their way or promoted into being someone else's problem.

I have seen very shit people get a very long way. And eventually you can be so high up nothing you do actually matters so you can just stay there.

The world is unfair.

Seriously I work with one. Everyone below thinks he’s totally incompetent and get fed up constantly having to cover him. Those above wierdly don’t see it. He takes the credit and the next promotion

They have enough knowledge of how things work, buzz words, chat and charisma to get through interviews successfully but once their bottom hits the seat and the in-tray piles up there’s no substance to be had. I have known one or 2.

I worked with someone very similar. Promoted 6 times because of being catastrophically destructive to teams, then eventually managed out via a restructure. Apparently can't get another job. Oh well.

I imagine guys like the one in the OP are also very good at lying on CVs and in interviews so get new, better jobs very easily.

In some arenas its face fit / who you know too

I fully agree. What I've seen is people who aren't rubbish enough to be fired, given strong references for jobs they're nowhere near qualified for to get rid of them. Or promoted into other teams. It's effectively a case of making them someone else's problem.

I think it's because these people are particularly good at selling themselves but it does raise a question about companies due diligence and if they're getting references from past employers. Although maybe in some sectors that's not the done thing. I agree about visibility, often these people read others well, say what they want to hear and when you're in middle management (and if you're a bad manager) it can become easier to blame poor outcomes on your team rather than your own leadership and if your team pick up your slack, then you can credit that to your leadership so it's easier to hide if your company's communication is poor between levels. Some people just know how to exploit it and play it like a game.