Why clueless people often get promoted

Have you noticed that clueless people do very well on their own and that they are the ones that appear to be selected or to be the chosen ones to be promoted over others not so clueless and more in tune with their workplace environment and culture? Certainly I won’t have to draw you a picture of someone that is clueless as we all know someone that fits this profile and is likely to be more successful and stress free than you.

Many times have I asked this question either to me of my family as I ponder how such a person can be considered a value to any organization or team? Many really don’t have a clue and know not much if anything about themselves, their job or the way they do things in their lives. These bumbling airheads make more money than me and get the promotion every time an opportunity knocks on their door leaving my door closed and empty with promises to succeed or advance legitimately through my own efforts and responsible thinking,

Often, they are successful - even rich and wallow endlessly in a stupor that easy to recognize to everyone except the bosses. Every culture has such person as a role mode of what not to do but somehow, this fool – this simpleton not only makes ends meet but get everything on a silver spoon while the rest of us smucks work hard and suffer the ever present humiliation of being passed over for promotions or other advances in the workplace.

So what makes these smucks so successful being clueless? What is the psychoanalyst say about these kinds of fools that dwell in our workplace and are coveted by others as well as envied and desired to be associated with to reap similar benefits.

Clueless people are considered to be lazy or disorganized to say the least. The behavior by itself is puzzling and hard to figure out but regardless, many have tried to analyze this behavior. In their own pervasive ways they are very successful people even if the concept is perverse in many ways.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I am looking at this all wrong. Maybe these people are smarter than me; maybe they are not as dumb as they want me to believe and maybe just maybe they engage in this type of behavior deliberately and find it useful for their own needs and opportunities.

Perhaps they have learned the art of “playing the part” better than I and are smarter and more logical candidates for things to be done at the office or elsewhere. Maybe they pretend to pretend and become so successful; they continue this behavior to ploy and con others along the way. Regardless, this type of behavior is infectious and makes other people act the same or mimic styles that appear to work for others. In its own way it’s another version of perverse narcissism and a real lust to be noticed and eventually paid for being clueless.

The answer appears to be located somewhere between being in the right place at the right time making the clueless person not so clueless at all. Not necessarily a hapless person, they may in fact planted themselves in this position to attain a distinct advantage over others and in the end the winner of an uneven race but nevertheless a race that was won by a clueless person.