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by Simon_O_Rourke 1592 days ago
> Don't load your work onto others in the company.

I've seen this at companies small and large, especially where you might have a "politically" appointed manager, rather than someone a bit more useful.

It's also a favourite ploy of sociopathic but useless individual contributors, find someone to do your work for you, then repackage it as your own!

2 comments

> Don't load your work onto others in the company.

So as manager don't delegate work?

Some of those points are written like a horoscope: You can understand them whichever way fits your own experiences best.

Your work and 'the work' are different things. You delegate 'the work', but make sure you do 'your work' as the manager. Don't delegate/offload 'managing'.
> It's also a favourite ploy of sociopathic but useless individual contributors, find someone to do your work for you, then repackage it as your own!

It seems like that could only work once or so per individual, unless there's some other kind of power dynamic in play. I know I wouldn't be put in that situation where someone takes credit for work I did more than once.

Nobody would let it happen if they knew what was going on. And generally the types of people who get up to it don't go broadcasting it around.

Two particular examples stick in my mind. One was a serial desk dropper who would get snippets of information from everyone individually, then package it up as their own to report to a boss.

The second was an IT consultant, working for a major consulting firm, who would lean on junior team members for docs and slides, then just outright steal them to use in reports. The thinking being that junior team members don't get to read reports for management.

It's like the old parable of the stone soup. You get 8 different people to "help" you with parts of the task, then present the completed task as your project. I have seen this done before although thankfully not very often.
You are not part of those meetings where this happens.