Pity the Poor Incompetent Worker

I see a lot of people talking about how many of the jobs that have gone away won't be coming back. The main reason usually stated is that the lost jobs will be re-created in some third-world country like Iowa. With the bubble burst, a lot of the work that was being done just wasn't needed. I'm thinking of all the commercial real-estate development. Even with great population growth, it'll be many years before the demand for office space reaches the current supply.

There's another reason that I haven't heard anyone mention. So many of the laid off workers were lousy at their jobs and, now that they're gone, everything is being done more efficiently. The remaining workers, without the drag of the poor workers, are easily doing the same amount of work. At least that's the case in corporate IT.

In the last decade or so, IT departments increased their workforce. Yes, there was a setback in 2001 or so but it didn't last long. During these booms many employers did a really crappy job of weeding out poor candidates. I have been on both sides of the interview table and most interviewers just don't know how to evaluate the abilities of a candidate. It isn't until the person is on the job that it's discovered the person doesn't know what they are doing or isn't interested in getting work done. At most corporations especially the big ones, it is very difficult to fire someone for poor performance. For many managers it's easier to just shuffle the person around with the hope that they'll not do too much harm. Many managers themselves are incompetent and were promoted to management to keep them out of the way. The poor worker needs to be closely watched and guided through most tasks. Even then, the output from the poor workers is of low quality and frequently needs additional work by good workers. The babysitting reduces the productivity of the most productive people.

Thanks to the poor economy corporations had an easy way of getting rid of the accumulated dead wood. Now the productive employees can go back to soaring with the eagles or something like that.

I do wonder what will come of all those lousy workers. I feel a bit sorry for them but they should have realized the situation and known that they'd be the first chosen for layoffs. They should have put in the extra effort to get their act together or started making steps towards a new career hopefully one in which they were competent.