I guess lived experience should count for something. Part of my lived experience has been more than 30 years visiting the work sites of…let me check the folders in my ‘clients’ directory…130…different organizations.
In all that time, working with thousands of people, I have never come across a person from either an ethnic or gender minority who was noticeably incompetent, regardless of whether they’d been there as part of a quota or not. Most often it seemed the opposite – that they put in more to just be considered equal. There’s plenty of research that backs up that notion, here’s just one example.
But here is what I have seen.
I’ve seen more than 130 variations of this bloke. The guy who has mastered the art of sitting on the corner of a desk, usually someone else’s, and telling stories. He’s great at making a lot of noise and not pulling much weight, usually earning him the nickname Two-Stroke. He’ll get called ‘Blisters’ too, for turning up after the work is done or ‘Showbags’, because he’s full of shit and you have to carry him all day.
Two-Stroke (or Blisters or whatever you want to call him), often makes his way into middle management. There he hides his incompetence by staying in his office (he’ll get called ‘G-spot’ here because no one can ever find him). Occasionally though. He’ll feel the need to act managerial. So Two-Stroke will wander the workshop berating people and telling perfectly competent tradespeople and technicians how to do their jobs. Two-stroke will often have a small team of people who follow behind, trying to repair the relationships he’s fractured. “Hey mate, don’t worry about ole Two-Stroke calling you a useless prick. Don’t take it personal. He just gets a bit grumpy in the afternoons.”
Two-Stroke’s lack of people skills and tendency towards being a bully will inevitably lead him to crossing the line with a bit of misogyny or racism or some other abuse. Companies will manage this by promoting him sideways to another site, where he’ll just turn up one day and start terrorizing a fresh new batch of victims. Two stroke seems immune to getting the sack; probably because admitting that you’ve made a major mistake is a bad career move for anyone in corporate, especially whoever promoted him.
On the topic of Two-Stroke, people will scratch their heads and say, “how the fuck did he get here?”
The answer is always “he’s somebody’s mate.”
Kingsley Flett 