Trump the arrogant boss weve all seen before

[struggle4progress]

Phil McDuff

... a few years ago when I found myself .. with a tiny .. crew working on an independent Kurdish film. Our director .. would often call for things like a “medium wide close up” – which is not a thing – and then get angry when asked for clarification. On one particularly memorable day, we found ourselves standing on top of a mountain in freezing conditions explaining that the sun was not the moon ...

We all know Trump. We’ve worked for him, served him in a restaurant, dealt with him in a call centre. He’s the boss who emails you at 4.30pm on a Friday, doesn’t pay overtime for the work you do all weekend, and then takes credit for it on Monday. He’s the customer who refuses to tip because you didn’t smile when he called you “darling”. He famously stiffs contractors if he can get away with it. He is “gauche even by the standard of rich people in Manhattan” ...

Bad bosses are ubiquitous, and they are rarely mad. They are the result of systems that actively select for their bad characteristics. Overconfidence, a widespread cognitive bias, is selected for in managers because it is easily mistaken for competence. Overconfident people generally have excuses for their failures (think of Trump crediting everything that goes well to his natural talents, and blaming everything that goes wrong on his underlings, the media, the moon etc). Bosses also select people like themselves for promotion, so our cultish deference towards entrepreneurs, managerialism and “disruption” creates work cultures where aggression and overconfidence become the mark of a “good leader” regardless of results. Men with loud voices and firm handshakes can rise even if their actual performance is mediocre at best ...

... Trump the madman is a soluble problem: we just impeach and replace him. Trump the perfectly sane result of a deeply broken system is far more terrifying ...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/16/donald-trump-us-president

[spooky3]

1. A lot of what he said would apply only to white male bosses. It's a good column but

he seems to assume that we all understand that "boss" = white males.

Women, POC, etc., cannot get away with overconfidence and bluster as a cover for incompetence to nearly the same extent as white males.

This is NOT to say that all white male bosses behave this way--they don't. But he makes a great point about the system.

[loyalsister]

2. We all know he was born into privilege and affluence

I wonder if he also had staff of servant from the beginning? If so, it would explain a lot as he would have lived his life being served and pampered by people who dare not question him if they want to keep their jobs.

[vi5]

3. I spent 25 years in the corporate world.....

...and I'm now in the process of finishing up my teaching certification and switching to education.

Needless to say everyone I know in the field is stressed out over Betsy Devos and many are asking me why I'd choose now to get into education with her in charge. I keep telling people that after 25 years in corporate America I'm sued to people in charge and calling the shots who have no practical knowledge of their specific industries, yet think they know everything, and got their positions because of connections and money. So that won't be any different for me.