Dealing with inept people!

[mickd1961]

One of my pet hates are people promoted above their ability or in a position by default that they’re not capable of managing.

Some might be surprised at the level of ineptitude in my industry for example.

The number of people who are supposed to be Sales Directors and Sales Managers who are actually more like “Sales Prevention People” is staggering.

Today I took my four year old BMW in for a service and reminded them that the fuel sensor needed replacing that enables the fuel cap to be opened from inside or by pressing on the cap,it can only be released using the emergency cord hidden away in the boot!

It had failed before my last service but last time I was told I needed to have an almost empty tank of fuel and to turn up for my next service light on fuel,

Today I was told that because I was out of warranty I’d have to pay £108 for starters for it to go on the diagnostic machine yet it had been diagnosed last year.

I was told it was my fault because I could’ve .......”come back at any time” in the last few months to get it done!

This was said to me by the plummy voiced university grad who served me without a shred of irony.

I pointed out they’d been shut during March,April and May when the warranty had run out but apparently this didn’t count.

F u c k i n g inept stupidity and lack of customer appreciation.

She was incredulous when I said I’d continue opening my boot to release the catch.

They don’t get that I’ll win in the end because I’ll trade it in and they won’t know until they own it again but in the meantime they’ve p e e d off a very loyal customer just as I’d started thinking about changing my car.

You can’t teach stupid or indeed inept it seems.

[boingy]

The system is at fault Mick. My wife had tons of experience in her job and often would have young University grads come in as managers who had to constantly ask the staff how to do things. Had no idea. They get a piece of paper which lands them a job but have no common sense or self learning ability. I went into Halfords to buy some brush on underseal. The lad at the till said "We don't stock it" "Are you sure"? I asked. "Yes"
I turned round and there facing me were tins of brush on underseal. He must have been staring at them for weeks from his desk. No interest in his job, no idea. Inept.

[baggieal]

The system is at fault Mick. My wife had tons of experience in her job and often would have young University grads come in as managers who had to constantly ask the staff how to do things. Had no idea. They get a piece of paper which lands them a job but have no common sense or self learning ability. I went into Halfords to buy some brush on underseal. The lad at the till said "We don't stock it" "Are you sure"? I asked. "Yes"
I turned round and there facing me were tins of brush on underseal. He must have been staring at them for weeks from his desk. No interest in his job, no idea. Inept.

Bit of a general statement Boingy! Many big brands have a graduate programme with the aim of propelling graduates right to the top ie senior management/director level and invest a huge amount of money in this recruitment. I can name a couple of very successful companies where individuals who were graduates at John Lewis/TUI who then went on to run the companies as CEO'S and were extremely successful.

Bit of a difference of " graduates " who are carefully recruited at large successful companies and the same title " graduates " used at some poxy little marketing or IT company or in this case a BMW Garage!

Graduate recruitment at most large supermarkets/stores receives around 3000 applicants for less than 20 positions with a minimum of a 2.1 entry and around 4/5 interviews. The starting salary for example at Aldi for a grad is 44K and this will rise to about 78K in 3 years as each grad is expected to become an Area Manager. Don't meet the targets - no ifs and buts they are fired! But most do with large brands as recruitment is done right hence the investment.

I do here what you are saying though about common sense with some - but you could say this about anyone including our Boris but hey - look where he is and he will be worth millions.

[boingy]

Bit of a general statement Boingy! Many big brands have a graduate programme with the aim of propelling graduates right to the top ie senior management/director level and invest a huge amount of money in this recruitment. I can name a couple of very successful companies where individuals who were graduates at John Lewis/TUI who then went on to run the companies as CEO'S and were extremely successful.

Bit of a difference of " graduates " who are carefully recruited at large successful companies and the same title " graduates " used at some poxy little marketing or IT company or in this case a BMW Garage!

Graduate recruitment at most large supermarkets/stores receives around 3000 applicants for less than 20 positions with a minimum of a 2.1 entry and around 4/5 interviews. The starting salary for example at Aldi for a grad is 44K and this will rise to about 78K in 3 years as each grad is expected to become an Area Manager. Don't meet the targets - no ifs and buts they are fired! But most do with large brands as recruitment is done right hence the investment.

I do here what you are saying though about common sense with some - but you could say this about anyone including our Boris but hey - look where he is and he will be worth millions.

Of course there are exceptions Al but you can never substitute experience which is why people should work their way up rather than just be put in a position of oversight when they cant know the job as well as staff who have been there years. Just basic common sense. Its embarrassing all round.

[baggieal]

Of course there are exceptions Al but you can never substitute experience which is why people should work their way up rather than just be put in a position of oversight when they cant know the job as well as staff who have been there years. Just basic common sense. Its embarrassing all round.

Decent graduate schemes Boingy with large powerful blue chip companies recruit grads to spend three years working in all departments such as marketing, new product development, purchasing, commercial, operations, customer focus, customer service to get an in depth knowledge of the whole business and then they are fast tracked to the top. I knew a grad years ago and now he's the CEO of a multi national company who turn over many millions - you knew from day one he was going to make it to the top - he was that good and his brain was always top notch. I agree about experience but we are talking about different things - a qualified buyer ( CIPS ) for example usually aspires to become a purchasing director but tends to keep to the role which matches their qualifications. Aldi and some other supermarkets/stores start their grads on over 40K for a reason after 4/5 hard interviews ( one with a board director ) so usually they go on to succeed. Most decent grad schemes won't look at anything less than a 2.1 and with 3000 applicants for less than 20 jobs - it's unlikely they would select an idiot which is why they have a specialized grad recruitment teams and get a director involved.

There are many small companies now though who take on what they call "graduates" and this is just a title and not the same, and in many cases an apprentice could do better. This is probably what you refer to.

[BaggieSingh]

Bit of a general statement Boingy! Many big brands have a graduate programme with the aim of propelling graduates right to the top ie senior management/director level and invest a huge amount of money in this recruitment. I can name a couple of very successful companies where individuals who were graduates at John Lewis/TUI who then went on to run the companies as CEO'S and were extremely successful.

Bit of a difference of " graduates " who are carefully recruited at large successful companies and the same title " graduates " used at some poxy little marketing or IT company or in this case a BMW Garage!

Graduate recruitment at most large supermarkets/stores receives around 3000 applicants for less than 20 positions with a minimum of a 2.1 entry and around 4/5 interviews. The starting salary for example at Aldi for a grad is 44K and this will rise to about 78K in 3 years as each grad is expected to become an Area Manager. Don't meet the targets - no ifs and buts they are fired! But most do with large brands as recruitment is done right hence the investment.

I do here what you are saying though about common sense with some - but you could say this about anyone including our Boris but hey - look where he is and he will be worth millions.

I wouldn't say that everyone with a 2:1 is intelligent I have met plenty of knucklehead thickos with 2:1s
The education system is no where near as good as it used to be.

Interesting you used Aldi as an example do you have an experience with them bud?

As in my experience their whole idea is pretty flawed for some people, their grads and directors are chosen on the experience to manage people and be pliable.Its like the army with a message reinforced all along the chain.
All levels of management are a mouthpiece for a single message from one place that must be adhered to, so they pick people who are very much into team games/sports
That works providing you have people who blindly follow all along the path, problem is when these people are put into specialised areas eg. IT and you have someone with an ancient history degree trying to make decisions on fairly technical IT issues

But they do pay incredibly well, and have managed to get a workforce that wouldnt get paid that elsewhere, making they very pliable and susceptible to suggestion, another reason why they want Grads in

They even make them dress the same, wear welted sole shoes, navy suits, black shoes etc
In fact in their offices you cannot unbutton shirts, loosen ties and until recently even grow a beard

[baggieal]

I wouldn't say that everyone with a 2:1 is intelligent I have met plenty of knucklehead thickos with 2:1s
The education system is no where near as good as it used to be.

Interesting you used Aldi as an example do you have an experience with them bud?

As in my experience their whole idea is pretty flawed for some people, their grads and directors are chosen on the experience to manage people and be pliable.Its like the army with a message reinforced all along the chain.
All levels of management are a mouthpiece for a single message from one place that must be adhered to, so they pick people who are very much into team games/sports
That works providing you have people who blindly follow all along the path, problem is when these people are put into specialised areas eg. IT and you have someone with an ancient history degree trying to make decisions on fairly technical IT issues

But they do pay incredibly well, and have managed to get a workforce that wouldnt get paid that elsewhere, making they very pliable and susceptible to suggestion, another reason why they want Grads in

They even make them dress the same, wear welted sole shoes, navy suits, black shoes etc
In fact in their offices you cannot unbutton shirts, loosen ties and until recently even grow a beard

Supermarkets/large travel companies/Mars/Nestle etc generally recruits their grads well ie Aldi/Asda and M&S to name but a few and the ones I know, have gone on to be part of the senior management teams/running the companies. It tends to be very large dynamic companies who have graduate recruitment teams who are the ones who select well and the competition is fierce so they rarely get it wrong. I knew the grad of TUI UK well and now he's the CEO - mega brain and always destined for the top as his commercial knowledge of the company was second to none.

As in all walks of life - there are many with no common sense and come across as quite thick. Our Boris is one of them and despite being far from thick - would you employ him?

[SwedishBaggie]

One of my pet hates are people promoted above their ability or in a position by default that they’re not capable of managing.

Some might be surprised at the level of ineptitude in my industry for example.

The number of people who are supposed to be Sales Directors and Sales Managers who are actually more like “Sales Prevention People” is staggering.

Today I took my four year old BMW in for a service and reminded them that the fuel sensor needed replacing that enables the fuel cap to be opened from inside or by pressing on the cap,it can only be released using the emergency cord hidden away in the boot!

It had failed before my last service but last time I was told I needed to have an almost empty tank of fuel and to turn up for my next service light on fuel,

Today I was told that because I was out of warranty I’d have to pay £108 for starters for it to go on the diagnostic machine yet it had been diagnosed last year.

I was told it was my fault because I could’ve .......”come back at any time” in the last few months to get it done!

This was said to me by the plummy voiced university grad who served me without a shred of irony.

I pointed out they’d been shut during March,April and May when the warranty had run out but apparently this didn’t count.

F u c k i n g inept stupidity and lack of customer appreciation.

She was incredulous when I said I’d continue opening my boot to release the catch.

They don’t get that I’ll win in the end because I’ll trade it in and they won’t know until they own it again but in the meantime they’ve p e e d off a very loyal customer just as I’d started thinking about changing my car.

You can’t teach stupid or indeed inept it seems.

Do you really need a university grad to work at BMW and deal with warranty issues!? Most (All of the) people I have met in that line of business don’t have university grads.

[9goals2hattricks3pen]

A mate of mine a retired CEO of a logistics company which relied on repeat business told his sales team the very best order they could get was one off the back of a bolli cking. Everyone makes mistakes but if you can handle it so the customer who began with a negative perception leaves with a positive you have done a great job.

[SwedishBaggie]

Decent graduate schemes Boingy with large powerful blue chip companies recruit grads to spend three years working in all departments such as marketing, new product development, purchasing, commercial, operations, customer focus, customer service to get an in depth knowledge of the whole business and then they are fast tracked to the top. I knew a grad years ago and now he's the CEO of a multi national company who turn over many millions - you knew from day one he was going to make it to the top - he was that good and his brain was always top notch. I agree about experience but we are talking about different things - a qualified buyer ( CIPS ) for example usually aspires to become a purchasing director but tends to keep to the role which matches their qualifications. Aldi and some other supermarkets/stores start their grads on over 40K for a reason after 4/5 hard interviews ( one with a board director ) so usually they go on to succeed. Most decent grad schemes won't look at anything less than a 2.1 and with 3000 applicants for less than 20 jobs - it's unlikely they would select an idiot which is why they have a specialized grad recruitment teams and get a director involved.

There are many small companies now though who take on what they call "graduates" and this is just a title and not the same, and in many cases an apprentice could do better. This is probably what you refer to.

Sounds very plausible and makes sense, Al.