There’s a longstanding gripe in the corporate world that many people who make it to management are actually failing upwards. Sometimes they’re really great at certain things but lack a shocking number of basic skills that are required of those below them, other times it just seems impossible to figure out how certain people got promoted rather than straight-up fired.
A recent video sharing a TikToker’s personal experience with a boss who fell somewhere in that range prompted others to share their own depressing anecdotes about people somehow making far more money than their more competent underlings.
Carolyn (@itscarolynbunn) replied to a TikToker who asked viewers to talk about something they were unprepared for in the corporate world.
@itscarolynbunn #stitch with @Jenna | Corporate Humor i felt like a math genius that day #socialmediamanager #corporatetiktok #greatresignation #sidehustle #entrepreneur #corporateslave ♬ original sound – Carolyn
“How often people in management have no idea how to do just basic tasks,” she admitted in the stitched TikTok.
“I had this manager once who asked me to come into his office, hands me a calculator, and he says, ‘I want to give this person a promotion. Please calculate a 30% raise for him,’” she continues. “So not only could this guy not do a simple calculation, but I’m pretty sure HR would have frowned upon the fact that I knew somebody else’s salary.”
While sharing salary information with your coworkers is generally perfectly legal in the United States, despite companies sometimes implementing policies against it, the same cannot be said of management disclosing your salary to another employee. However, viewers were more focused on this particular manager’s inability to do basic math.
“Whoa there is google for a reason,” one user joked.
“Some don’t feel like it’s their job,” another suggested. “I understand not doing things day to day but they should understand everything.”
“If they can’t do what the team does doesn’t that make them incompetent?” asked a viewer.
Carolyn’s openness offered up the opportunity for others to share their own experiences with incompetent bosses.
“My director makes over $200k and can’t find the caps lock key on his keyboard,” on viewer admitted.
“I had a VP who was making over 6 figures regularly send me excel docs that ‘didn’t work,’ only bc he never hit the ‘enable content’ button,” another added.
“When I was an executive assistant, the CEO would sometimes email me a Word Doc and ask me to ‘change it to a PDF with my newer computer,’” one user shared.
Carolyn acknowledged that she understands when managers don’t have the time to do basic tasks and opt to pass them off to other people, but based on the responses, it sounds like a lot of viewers are finding themselves in situations quite a bit more depressing than that.
Update 1:58pm CT Sept. 2: In an Instagram DM to the Daily Dot, Carolyn elaborated on her thoughts in the video.
“With a background in process improvement, I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient. While I believe it makes sense to get help with simple tasks that take up time, some of the comments absolutely floored me,” Carolyn said. “You really have to question what management is saying about the worth of employee time and talents, as well as their own competency when they keep sending a word document to be emailed back as a PDF, or email someone to print something because they can’t plug in their printer.”
“If it takes longer to send the email asking to someone else to do it, consider taking the time to learn it yourself,” she added. “Also, Google is your best friend if you need to calculate a salary.”