Coping with being overcompetent

Worried_fool

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6688451/coping-with-being-overcompetent

I read most of this post wondering what the problem was… in reality organisations and managers are happy with people who get all their work done and enlarge their workload. The problem is obviously with human relationships. There may also be issues with the quality and suitability of your work: you may be finding ways to do things that produce outputs that the rest of the team cannot use, and your obvious lack of respect for managers and colleagues means that they are unable to explain what they need.

Tabieth

I’d ask someone you’ve worked with and whose opinion you trust for their honest opinion.

I obviously don’t “know”, but I suspect you are grossly overestimating your competence and likely you can come across as arrogant.

kitsone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82185906#Comment_82185906

I don't take offence. It's a reasonable response. Incompetent people might think they are brilliant, and end up saying how incredible and amazing they are while wallowing in a pit of narcissism.

My counter to this is that managers tell me that I am too competent for the job. Not in a har har way in front of people but pulled to one side and told "you are too competent for this job". So its your word against theirs.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82185023#Comment_82185023

I do both. A lot of organisations hate themselves. They're suffering from broken processes, constant firefighting, rampant infighting, burnt out management and horrible "initiatives" and "let's get new ideas guys"

By week 3 they're trying to sort a perm contract. I streamline everything. But I can't do much if your organisational culture rests on backstabbing, who gets holidays and machine gunning each other with e-mails.

TELLIT01

I once worked with a guy who had a very high opinion of himself and the quality of his own work. Following an organisational reorganisation he had moved to our office. His work was so good (according to him and his previous manager) it didn't need checking!

Alarm bells started ringing for virtually everybody in our office when he was regularly processing twice as much work as anybody else in the office. Questions were asked not of him, but of the rest of the staff as to why we couldn't match him. Despite everybody saying it was impossible to produce work at the rate he was doing, if all proper checks were done for accuracy i.e. confirming everything the claimant had stated, his work continued to go without checks. That continued until he went off sick and others had to take on claims which according to him were ready to go but hadn't been put onto the system. A common concern was raised throughout the office when it became clear that every single claim was riddled with errors.

These claims were for sickness benefits so it was highly likely that many had been paid too little and others too much. The underpayments weren't such a problem because once identified the additional payments could be made. However rules had changed which meant that anybody who had been overpaid, even when the overpayment was 'official error' i.e. the claimant was not at fault in any way, the overpayment would still have to be returned.

Moral of the story? Don't believe claims people make about their own abilities, and certainly don't believe the manager who was probably very happy to be rid of them.

kitsone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82185123#Comment_82185123

This is a complicated question. I'm going to attack your premise. Let's turn the spotlight on organisations. Do you think when organisations, private or public, know what they want when they hire contractors?

A lot of organisations are facing trouble. They may be winding down, facing legal action, in a takeover, screwed over by themselves, or just generally a mess.

So they reach for temps because they have revolving door staff strategy, need results to get regulators off their back, figures to get executives their Christmas bonus, easy numbers, quick wins whatever.

Your proposal is when an organisation hires a contractor, it knows what what it wants, get the job done. Then hands dusted, on to the next, straightforward.

Organisations that hire contractors never know what they want.

Their databases are all a mess. Their operations are all over the shop. Everyone's on leave, or maternity, or sick. No one is handling anything or the things causing the anything.

They reach for short term fixes because that's all they've been taught. No concept of sustainability or education beyond day-by-day thinking. Nobody RTFMs.

There's usually more messed up stuff in the background, so I don't stick around, because I know no matter what I do, they'll keep doing that stuff or fight each other over silly projects or personal hatred.

I wish contracting was as simple as putting up a door, painting a wall, or whatever, then job done. But if you had ever experienced contracting you'd appreciate that it's about one thing: no one knowing what they want.

kitsone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82185310#Comment_82185310

I respect your opinion. If someone said to me they had so many jobs and then said "I'm so good look at me" but complained about their work history it is not much of an impression.

The cutoff here is that it's not arrogance, it's about overcompetency.

All those messed up claims no one wants, you get the draw. The real bad potatoes, you get to catch. The really bad ones, they get dumped on you.

And when you solve the case no one cares. You basically become a toilet for all problems. Then you seem so strange to people that you can actually do the job you have to leave.

It feels horrible and disrespectful, once people see you can handle your work, they abuse it completely and afterwards try to get rid of you.

That's what it is like to be overcompetent. And it is not "obvious lack of respect". This is my living.

NCC1701-A

Enough said:

kitsone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82186028#Comment_82186028

Narcissists? My father was a narcissist, and I'd invite you having a narcissist as a father. Lots of time in the hospital.

So when I am saying to you as if it was ego, "I am overcompetent", it would be nice to be taken straight.

My organisations are not serious about their operations. They're hiring contractors because they're in a pickle. Anything goes - pretty much anyone - whoever gets coughed up.

Let's not try to talk about "morals of the story" this might be something you have not encountered before.

Being overcompetent to me is not a boast. It's a problem. I don't know where I fit in, or what I do.

kitsone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82186071#Comment_82186071

Rules are there to be broken

Marcon

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82184835#Comment_82184835

Any reason you are avoiding answering this question...? It could go a very long way to sorting out the real basis of the issue you see as being 'overcompetent' - but could be rather more complicated than that. Unless you are willing to consider that at least some of the problems are yours, you are never going to break the current cycle of endless short term jobs.