Have you ever dealt with an imposter coworker? \ stacker news ~devs

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Have you ever dealt with an imposter coworker?

927 sats \ 25 comments \ @zuspotirko 19 Feb devs

Like someone who literally cannot code at all. Only a bad coworker doesn't count.

I'm talking about someone who knows that they're malicious. Doesn't get his tasks done but is good at dodging being detected. By getting their work done by others. By blaming others. By weaseling through somehow. Taking on the "testing" or "documentation" or "talking to stakeholders" tasks. Somehow bullshiting his way through it and switch jobs often enough. Strategically calling in sick. Almost magic ability to dodge bullets.

No, never39.4%

yes45.5%

Only kind of or unsure about someone15.2%

33 votes \ poll ended

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72 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 19 Feb

We are too small of a company to have that happen....

However professionally I did work on a project with an actual conman. We were doing IT support for the investors. We were not brought in until after they already made a ~$50M investment.... but got front row seats to seeing that whole thing unravel.

It is surprising when you meet a real conman (ie. a pathological liar), normal humans actually disbelieve a person would lie as much / often as they do....so the conman get lots and lots of rope to continue their scam, simply because its initially "too big of a lie" for the victims to believe.

That experience was insightful especially for seeing Craig Wright operate. The conman I had met did all the same things as Craig....extraordinary claims, constant changing stories, playing the victim, highly convoluted explanations for otherwise simple queries, and moreover an unshakable aggressiveness and confidence when confronted on their lies.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

normal humans actually disbelieve a person would lie as much / often as they do....so the conman get lots and lots of rope to continue their scam, simply because its initially "too big of a lie" for the victims to believe.

I literally noticed that in myself. Weeks go by thinking about "what's happening" and "somehow the pieces don't fit together".

I personally also don't like pointing the finger at people. So making the conclusion to single out one person doesn't come to me naturally

11 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 19 Feb

30 years ago my coworker took my work on my day off (after I was with the company for 2 weeks) and went to the boss to show off "her great results". My other colleagues saw this happen and when I came back the week after, pushed me to go complain to the boss. He literally told me: "Y'all think I'm stupid right? Of course I know she didn't do any of these things; zero skills. It made no impression, so just chill."

I guess from that point on I have considered colleagues like this noise and a waste of my time. So I've just ignored them ever since.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

You had a great job then. Some teams are just too big and workflows too convoluted for that to work.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 19 Feb

Back then things were much much simpler than they are now.

56 sats \ 0 replies \ @7e6e393a56 19 Feb

Worse than a coworker... I had a partner like that. I don't even like to remember that period of my life. Bad nights of sleep and how much I had to work just to pay off debts

38 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark 19 Feb

If you can't drive a truck, it's pretty obvious

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

I asked in the devs channel because I'm thinking of engineers or office jobs more broadly. You're right tho, in blue collar fields it's far easier to spot people not having the basic skills of a trade.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Aardvark 19 Feb

Not in every blue collar job. Ive worked with some real incompetent people in the past that I have no idea how they got hired.

14 sats \ 1 reply \ @nichro 19 Feb

Can't say I have personally but I feel like you have a story to tell about it and now I'm curious about that premise :P

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

I for sure met a conman years ago.

And currently I have a coworker that I suspect of being a conman too. It's hard to say tho. It's a large corporation which makes it really hard to find out if all his tasks get solved by coworkers "doing a small favor" and then somehow get stitched together? It's hard to say what's currently happening.

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 19 Feb

Not a coworker. It's kinda hard to disguise incompetency in academia. Dealt with a lot of students with these tendencies, but then they get hit on the exams.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 19 Feb

Interesting you say that. I've met several colleagues who were clearly incompetent and conning their way out, but somehow were very good at faking it until they made it. I think it mostly happened when their advisor somehow didn't want to admit to others or themselves they were wrong in trusting that person to begin with. Kinda like a sunk cost fallacy in terms of having hired them.

5 sats \ 4 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 19 Feb

It’s a cancer. Get rid of it fast before it kills your culture

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

You can't always right away. Corporate policy is a nightmare. There is escalating to superiors. There are second chances. There are PIPs. There is blaming others. And you certainly can't throw out people without hard evidence black on white on paper.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 19 Feb

I live in an employment at will state, with no union!

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko OP 19 Feb

"Corporate policy" isn't always dictated by law or by unions. Big corporates do this to themselves.

And there are many cases where it absolutely makes sense to escalate conflicts to superiors. At least have a neutral third person judge the situation. And there are many cases where giving people a second chance or a PIP is just fair.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 19 Feb

I’ve seen many people canned over an e-mail sent

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @itsrealfake 20 Feb

if you're at a company where these people are employed het out ASAP

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko OP 20 Feb

No that's not the conclusion. If it happens in 1 out of hundred hires and only once every few years ... I think it's almost unavoidable in every workplace.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 20 Feb

This is just another demonstration of Pareto’s 80/20 Law. 20% of the people do 80% of the work. The other 80% of the people just cannot do it or are unable to do it or there just to collect the check. I think Musk is very familiar with this law and has.applied it at Xwitter and is DOGEing about and using this law to cut the federal government offices. The only problem is is that Musk and Trump may not be doing something permanent because they do not understand the bureaucracy because they are entrepreneurs (which are two totally different creatures). They have to trim the bureaucracy in a way the bureaucrats understand to make it permanent.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @zuspotirko OP 20 Feb

I specifically don't mean bad coworkers. If we're talking about bad coworkers, then yes, 20% of people do 80% of the work

I'm specifically talking about intruders, conmen. Here it's more 1/400 people being a malicious conman or something like that. A much more stark effect than just the 80/20 effect

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 20 Feb

OK, that is a much different proposition. I haven’t any direct experience with them. I once took a job filling the shoes of one of them, though. It was rough going because everyone had expectations set by that guy, whereas, I came in fresh with normal type working style and had to fit in where that guy had f*cked everything up. It was a mess to straighten out.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Beeteesea 19 Feb

I'm that guy! At least it feels like that, as I sometimes struggle with imposter syndrome. Especially during those times when I'm not can see concrete results of my work.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @User21000000 19 Feb

We have heaps of them in our company and the frustrating thing is that they are the ones that get promoted as well