You’re here to look for the signs your boss thinks you’re incompetent, which means you’re already fed up with this drama.
Well, it’s not your fault; the problem is at your boss’s end who has strangled in his own misconceptions. He thinks you’re not competent because he saw you once or twice not working properly.
10 Weird Signs Your Boss Thinks You’re Incompetent
You’ll observe frequent signs about your boss like he won’t handle good projects for you. And even if he does, he’ll be there all the time, breathing on your neck.
He wants to make sure that you don’t make blunders in projects, so that’s why he behaves creepily around you. It’s alright to get fed up because of such actions of your boss, but you need to be more practical here.
Look for the signs to make sure your boss thinks you’re incompetent and then decide what to do next. We’ve also shown you the way to prove your competence.
1. He Never Trusts You With The Prime Projects:
when your boss makes you feel incompetent, he doesn’t consider you enough for a good project. You’ll always see him preferring someone else over you for these prime projects.
He might think you’re incompetent and got this job through the favoritism path, and you never deserved it.
Yet, he believes that if he chooses you for key projects, you’ll end up ruining things because of incompetency. That’s where his mind is making a mistake, but he believes it anyway.
2. Thinks You Won’t Make It To Success – Signs Your Boss Thinks You’re Incompetent:
Your boss acts like you’re going to work in this position forever, and you can’t progress in your career. He thinks you won’t be able to make it to successful life because you lack the skills and competency.
Although these are his perceptions that have nothing to do with reality, why thinks like that? Maybe when you were new in the office, you were confused and nervous and asked your boss so many questions.
So he thinks you’re an incompetent employee who got this job by chance.
3. Restless Body Language When Your Boss Makes You Feel Incompetent:
When you’re working on a project, your boss visits your desk gazillion times to make sure you don’t make a blunder. His body language is restless, and his hands seem to be eager to snatch that work from you.
He makes you believe that you’re struggling with the work by giving you several instructions standing on your head.
It’s an obvious sign he doesn’t consider you competent enough to do that work by yourself.
4. Your Boss Asks You To Rest When There’s A Meeting:
When there’s a key meeting in the office and clients from all over the industry are in-house, your boss tells you to rest.
That’s a clear-cut sign he’s afraid that you’ll ruin the company’s reputation by showing your incompetency.
He asks you to take a break or engage you somewhere else, so you don’t participate in that meeting.
You should get worried instead of relaxing whenever there are such meetings, and your boss sends you on a break.
5. High-Risk Tasks Go To Someone Else – Signs Your Boss Thinks You’re Incompetent:
As we talked about it earlier, your boss thinks you aren’t good enough when he gives risky tasks to others.
In his eyes, people who are working under you are even more competitive as compared to you. That’s the reason you never get to work on risky and challenging tasks.
The boss fears your failure and makes you emotionally drained without knowing what he’s doing to you. Just because of his perceptions, your career is at risk.
6. He Shows Micromanaging Behavior Around You:
Luckily when you get a nice project to work on, your boss behaves like a freaking micromanager. He’s always breathing on your neck and dictates you at every step.
Even if you’re doing the task right, he’ll keep speaking and instructing you and ends up ruining your task.
When your boss isn’t around, he appoints someone to oversee your performance. So you’ll see one of your coworkers or juniors creepily watching you from a distance.
7. The Boss Mentions It In The Conversations:
Your boss calls you incompetent in conversations and makes it look like a slip of the tongue.
His purpose is to make you feel bad and eventually leave the job because he doesn’t want to see you.
Even you hear your boss talking to other people about your incompetence and spreads rumors about you.
Also, your boss won’t let you speak during a decision-making session because he doesn’t trust your ideas.
8. He Sends You Outside When There’s A Delegation:
If a delegation is visiting the company, your boss will try his best to make everything look perfect.
As he doesn’t consider you competent and good enough, he won’t keep you in the scene. So he sends you outside for an irrelevant meeting and engages you there until the delegation is gone.
The boss thinks you aren’t good enough to show the competitors or clients from the industry.
9. Repeats What You Say During A Presentation:
Your weird boss won’t let you even give a presentation on yourself; he has to interrupt you in between. At times, you’ll see your boss repeating your words after you’ve finished speaking.
That’s because he thinks you’re incompetent and can’t even deliver your message properly. So he feels the need to repeat the things by himself and explains everything once again to the audience.
It’s a key sign your boss thinks you’re incompetent, and he should stay at your back to keep things on track.
10. Follows-Up With Your Clients – Signs Your Boss Thinks You’re Incompetent:
You see your boss following your clients to see if they’re satisfied with their queries. Yes, that happens only when your boss doesn’t believe in your competency.
He’ll ask the clients about their queries and answer them again because he doesn’t trust you.
That’s the weirdest sign your boss thinks you’re incompetent, but it exists and happens in workplaces.
5 Tips To See When Your Boss Thinks You’re Incompetent
It isn’t your fault that your boss sees you as an incompetent person, the problem is in his head, that needs to get cleared. Quitting or leaving your job isn’t a nice idea here; you should clear your image as a competent employee.
So here’s what you can do to save your reputation at work.
1. Talk To The Boss – Go Prepared:
You should request a one-on-one meeting with your boss to clear these misconceptions. But before you go to the meeting, prepare your mind to be relaxed as it’s a meeting after all, and it can’t go bad.
You’re going to discuss your performance with your boss, so ask him questions about your work. Where do you lack, and what do you need to do to fill the gap? Your boss’s feedback can help you a lot.
2. Honestly Assess Yourself:
It can be difficult to accept the fact that sometimes we’re not performing up to the mark. There can be different reasons behind it, and you have to find yours.
Be honest and true to yourself when you’re evaluating your performance and see if it is what it should be. If you think there’s still room for improvement, then go for it.
3. Request For A Plan To Improve Performance:
If you think your boss’s feedback is valid, request a performance improvement plan. This plan would definitely have some goals and objectives highlighted that you need to work on.
At every step, you need to ensure to align with your boss’s expectations. Try to achieve these goals and be specific about the guidelines.
4. Actively Communicate With The Boss:
You can request the boss if he has time to arrange some regular meetings for a specified time. So you can discuss the progress in your performance with him.
It’s a good way to see the little areas you need improvement in when connected to your boss.
5. Seek Feedback From Coworkers:
Yet, if you think your boss’s assessment of your work is a bit biased, request feedback from coworkers. People who work with you on a daily basis can tell better about your work than the boss does.
According to their feedback, you can identify those areas where you need improvement to be back on track.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Tell If Your Boss Is Belittling You?
A boss is undermining you if he throws you under the bus every time there’s a problem. He steals your ideas and presents them as his own. Also, you never get invited to participate in important meetings and social projects. They don’t give you feedback for your work.
What Are Signs Of Incompetence?
An incompetent person always says, that’s not my job, when he’s asked to do something out of the way. You’ll see such people be real quick in blaming others for their mistakes and taking credit for good things.
What Is A Condescending Boss?
A boss who shows his superiority and makes people feel inferior in their position is condescending. If someone confronts them, they’d probably deny it and say they were just doing the job.
How Do You Prove Competency?
Visit your doctor for a physical evaluation test and do psychological tests or assessments in intervals. Compare their results and see the performance. Evaluate your current functioning and compare it to the prior one.
Conclusion
Not getting to work on challenging assignments can be draining, you’ll feel stagnant in your career.
That’s all because your boss thinks you are incompetent and won’t be able to deliver good results.
Getting frustrated and thinking of leaving your job is easy. But proving your competency is not, and that’s what you need to do.
Talk to your boss and assess your performance and see where you should improve.
Feel free to share your experience in the comment section below.
Last Updated on 8 months by Aleena
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