Is it evil to secretly want your replacement to suck?

[Kitty]

I constantly felt under-appreciated in my current position. I do a lot of the work while my boss takes a lot of the credit. I'm secretly kind of hoping that when I leave this will become more evident. I don't know, I feel kind of bad for feeling this way, but I secretly want whoever replaces me to suck in comparison.

[GetMeOuttaDC]

Not evil, in fact I think it would be weird if you didn't.

I have been guilty of wanting my replacement to suck in the past (bc my boss was a crazy sociopath whom NOONE could have worked for and still kept their sanity!). She's since weeded herself out of the company not even a year later - bosses like that take longer for it to catch up with them, but they do get theirs.

[Skyblade]

No, I have thought the same thing.

In fact, I had to train my replacement at this one job that I got laid off from. I knew that I was better, this girl could not even type! Anyways, probably about a year later, friends at the company told me that the woman who had laid me off was also let go, and they had gone through probably 5-6 people in my position and they were all compared to me, so I guess what goes around comes around. :)

Focus on your new job, it sounds really cool!

[Kitty]

Thanks! I'm trying to.

My boss is being such a BITCH. She's basically trying to make me do a TON OF WORK before I am out of here. Like, every single project I would have done in the next month or so, she is trying ot make me do in 1.5 weeks. I don't want to burn any bridges, but I really give up and don't feel like trying.

[Skyblade]

Yeah that totally sucks Kitty. When I got laid off, they expected me to train the new girl in a week. The job I did was highly specialized and basically I had to invent processes and ways of doing things so it kind of takes awhile to learn, and being that I'm the only one that worked there that knew how to do it, they expected this new girl to be fully trained and ready to go in 1 week. Needless to say, I don't think I was able to train her fully.

[maxwell78]

Originally posted by Skyblade
When I got laid off, they expected me to train the new girl in a week.
That's cruel that they made you do that! But if you got laid off, why was there someone new to train? Didn't they just get rid of your position?

[Kitty]

Skyblade -

What kind of field/industry/company do you do marketing for?

[Skyblade]

Maxwell, technically they did get rid of my position but they hired someone to do my job and other misc jobs so instead of a part-time position it was now a full time position (which I had wanted in the first place, but whatever).

Kitty, currently I do marketing for a network services company. Basically we provide internet, hosting, voice, etc. for small to medium sized businesses. The previous job was a PR firm job.

[wordsmith]

Hah! I WHOLEHEARTEDLY hope that when I leave here, they a. have a difficult time replacing me so my boss has to do my job and really realize how much I do, and b. replace me with someone who sucks. NOBODY else would put the kind of time in on things that I do.

My boss is really bad at hiring people, too. The past three people in my position before me were horrendous, and I'm pretty sure whoever comes after me will probably be, too. He lucked out when he hired me. The man just hired a writer whose typical grammar consists of "I seen," and the like. I would think it would be a given to at least require writing samples...but, no. So I have low hopes that he'd hire a competent replacement.

[Kitty]

Originally posted by wordsmith
[B]

My boss is really bad at hiring people, too. B]

My boss is about to hire someone who wrote "Qwark" on their resume. For anyone who knows the program it is called QuarkXPress. I can't believe she spelled it like that. Also, her resume has a million typos and inconsistencies. My position is primarily writing marketing materials - so this should be interesting.

[Tbone]

Originally posted by Kitty


My boss is about to hire someone who wrote "Qwark" on their resume. For anyone who knows the program it is called QuarkXPress. I can't believe she spelled it like that. Also, her resume has a million typos and inconsistencies. My position is primarily writing marketing materials - so this should be interesting.


My bosses just hired someone to be my new boss with the same issues. Her resume had all kinds of problems and they even said that they saw the resume problems and STILL hired her. P.S. this person is going to be in charge of rewriting curriculum!!!

[Kitty]

Originally posted by Tbone



My bosses just hired someone to be my new boss with the same issues. On her resume, it said, "My expertise lies......that help an organization grow to deliver word class services to the clients it serve". And they even said that they saw the resume problems and STILL hired her. P.S. this person is going to be in charge of rewriting curriculum!!!

OMG. I don't understand it. My boss knows about these issues with the resume and just doens't care. She keeps saying, "it's just a resume, it's not everything."

Umm..HELLO? If you're going for a writing position and you can't even make sure that your resume looks good you have a problem.

[Sesamebabe]

I think everyone feels that way when they are leaving a position -I always try to do my best at a company and when I leave, I just hope that that they realize what they are losing. Everyone wants to feel important and appreciated, especially if you dump your heart and soul into the job.

In regards to that Qwark comment, that really is funny... she obviously DOESN't know Quark..... lol

[Skyblade]

Does she at least know Microsoft Werd?

[pisces2473]

What about Exsell?

[natbumpo]

I hate to throw water on everyones party but here goes.

I do understand that emtionally, people want to feel irreplaceable. So it is human to want whoever takes over for you to not be as good.

BUT, there was a book written recently called Good To Great by Jim Collins, which I think is one of the best business books I have ever read (and I have read a lot). One of the the theories Collins talks about, is that one of the defining elements of a good CEO is that he/she leaves the company as strong as, or stronger than, it was before they were invloved. This is because the great CEO's (such as Sam Walton) are visionaries and put the company ahead of themselves and why he slams Lee Iaccoca because Chrysler when down the shitter after he left (due in large part to poor decisions he made, ie- purchasing Maserati) and was later bought by Daimler.

Now I am going to assume no one here has been a CEO, but I do believe the same rules apply to all levels of business.