UK workforce lacks faith in ‘incompetent’ bosses

Nearly
60 per cent of the UK’s 25.3 million working population believe their managers
are incompetent, new research finds.

The
survey by TV recruiter the Job Channel, in conjunction with human capital
experts Profiles of London, also finds that only 27 per cent of those surveyed
rate their boss as highly competent, with 18.5 per cent claiming their
superiors are just average. 

When
analysing the gender divide between male and female bosses, men tended to be
rated higher. 

Of
those employees questioned, only 39.5 per cent thought highly of their female
bosses, compared to the 48 per cent who rated their male bosses as good or
excellent. 

The
biggest blow for female bosses emerges when analysing the gender of the
employees questioned. Sixty per cent of female staff think their male bosses
are employed on merit, claiming they are either competent or highly
competent. 

However,
their female counterparts don’t rank so highly, with 59 per cent of female
staff saying their female managers were incompetent. 

The
findings appear to indicate that male workers don’t discriminate against gender
as strongly but are generally more critical of their managers than women,
rating 57 per cent of male managers and 64 per cent of female bosses as
incompetent.  

Fred
Hudson, human capital expert and CEO of Profiles of London, commented:
"Just because a manager is rated poorly by their subordinates, it does not
necessarily indicate they are bad at their job. But a truly good manager
requires excellent skills – ones that go way beyond that of just performing
effectively and competently in a job. A great manager needs to possess good
communication and leadership skills, be adaptable in their working environment,
build a strong relationship within their team and develop and motivate others.
Managers need to remember that staff don’t leave companies, they leave people –
our research indicates that one in five UK employees are actively planning to
leave their job in the next year, with two-thirds of those planning to do so in
January."

The
survey also revealed that the majority of office workers believed their boss
was ineffective – 70.8 per cent of those questioned stating they were
incompetent.  

League
table of the worst bosses as rated by staff

Sector              Incompetent                Highly competent                    Competent

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Office               70.80%                        20.80%                                    8.30% 
Retail                68.80%                        25.00%                                    6.30% 
Manual             55.09%                        25.00%                                    20.00%           
Skilled              51.40%                        20.00%                                    25.70%           
Student             18.20%                        63.60%                                    18.20%           

By Ben Willmott