Guest Post by Dr. Susan Cholette

Do you feel like your job description is Mom and that some of your colleagues act more like flaky teenagers when it comes to certain chores?

Are you writing that report because you can’t trust that other committee members will turn in their part on-time or without serious flaws?

Are you organizing a communal event with a fellow faculty that can’t or won’t help with any of the planning details?   

You may be a casualty of Weaponized Incompetence.*

Weaponized Incompetence is when someone feigns being unable to do a task well so that another will end up doing it instead. Sometimes it’s called strategic incompetence. And while some people may be genuinely incapable completing a certain task in question, no matter how hard they may try, others may purposely not be trying.

Whatever type of incompetence it may be, it is frustrating to be repeated stuck with doing other people’s work, whether you experience it in the workplace or at home in your relationship. While it occurs everywhere it’s rife in academia, where the trope of the absent-minded professor provides a convenient excuse for someone to forget about mundane tasks because they are supposedly focused on solving that Big Research Problem. How many people with advanced degrees in English Literature seem unable to take their turn at drafting the departmental meeting minutes because “they just aren’t good with day-to-day writing”? Sometimes the shirker will hide behind convenient demographic stereotypes, however outdated or unfounded these may be. Do you find yourself pulling together the materials for the multi-section introductory course tutoring site because your fellow instructor complains about how that newfangled LMS system confounds them? Or do you always bring the cupcakes for orientation sessions because others bemoan how they are hopeless in the kitchen?

Dealing with weaponized incompetence in academia is especially challenging because it tends to pop its lazy head up in that third part of the job that Administration purports is just as important as research and teaching but categorically isn’t.

Tenured professors might get fired for not showing up for their classes or for sexually harassing their students, but they won’t likely even be reprimanded if they never do any work on the curriculum revision committee.  Also, faculty don’t have some of the more drastic solutions that are more readily available outside of academia, such as switching jobs or filing for divorce.  So, if you find yourself being repeatedly taken advantage of because you “are so much better” at doing certain mundane chores, what can you do about it other than write a snarky, anonymous blog post? Here are some thoughts.

Divvy up responsibilities for a team deliverable as much as possible into individual assignments, whether that’s parsing a report into independent sections or taking turns each week on who staffs a particular role. Alas, this means you may have to absorb the overhead of tracking that everything gets done because “oh, you are the organized one.” But that’s likely preferable to doing someone else’s work in addition to yours. And this goes hand in hand with…

Document and save all evidence. Communicate by email as much as possible and always cc: yourself. Your colleague may be less likely to ask you to undertake their share of the work if they have to do so in writing. Even if they ask you verbally and even if you cave in (sorry, you likely will), then later email them: “Just to follow up on our conversation today wherein you asked me to take care of the LMS updates because you hadn’t had the software training yet. I’ll do it this once, but you need to get the training done before the next set are due.” If it looks like you might be preparing to file a complaint with your union rep on unfair labor practices, well, maybe you are.

Speaking of caving, in, maybe you can say no. Or, if the power dynamic is unfavorable for doing so, consider going to your Chair. You may not be comfortable with declaring “Sean always asks me to write the reports” but at least ask if you are supposed to be the one always writing the reports. Even if the Chair won’t intervene directly this time, they will know that Sean is a shirker, especially if others make similar complaints over time. And then Sean may end up on the Mission Statement Revision Task Force along with the notable shirkers from other departments, or at least not be assigned to the same committees as you. Some people may protest that junior or contingent faculty can never say no. But do you really think that saying yes improves your chance for promotion or your job security? Sean probably has managed to avoid serving the RTP committee, and even if they are on it, what’s the chance they are writing your report? They will just let someone else do it.

Finally, there are some situations where you might consider that if you can’t beat them, join them. Is the work in question that others seem to be avoiding someone’s tenure report or the presentation from the Strategic Issues Committee to the Academic Senate? One is important, the other… well, what’s the worst that can happen if it goes badly, realistically? If anyone somehow blames you for the collective group failure, then shrug it off to “I didn’t want to disrupt the group dynamic.”  Or maybe ask “are you reprimanding everyone, or just me because I’m usually the one who picks up the slack for others?” The worst that will happen will that you will be branded as being passive-aggressive, but that beats the alternative: getting booked for assault and battery, or worse, put on the same committee again.

Dealing with weaponized incompetence isn’t fun, but at least by attempting to build your defenses, you may feel less like a victim. And, who knows, maybe you’ll win a battle or two against it now and then.

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* From Karen:  I always consider this a gendered issue, and direct readers to this piece, A Good Little Girl, for a pointed analysis of that dynamic.