Get Rewarded By Being A Bad Employee

We all know that in Malaysia, just like anywhere else around the world, there are some employees who seem just useless or f*cked up, but yet they don't get fired. Some even get promoted, making it seem that being useless or f*cked up is actually being encouraged and rewarded by the company.

CareerBuilder.com gives 10 reasons why this is so:

1. The employee has a relationship with someone higher up - connections; those people with "ampu bodek" skills ("cable" or crony colloqually called in Malaysia).

2. The boss relies on the employee - he / she has some "special skills" or resource (whether work related or not) that the boss likes.

3. The employee brings more value to the company than he or she costs - again, he / she has some "special skills" or resource (whether work related or not) that is beneficial to the company.

4. The boss thinks it could be worse - the boss thinks that better the bad employee than nothing. This usually happen in my experience when the boss is not willing to pay market rate for top employees.

5. The boss is afraid of the employee - the employee might know some of the boss' or company's "secrets" thus can blackmail them, the employee is a thug and the boss is afraid of violent consequences etc

6. The boss feels sorry for the employee - the employee might be to sole bread winner of his family, he or his family members have health problems etc

7. The boss doesn't want to go through the hiring process - the boss is too busy or lazy to look for another employee. In some cases the boss himself have some personality defects that only this employee can tolerate. (this is related to number 4 above)

8. The employee knows something - the employee might have some connections with major customers, or have intimate information about an ongoing business of the company etc (this is related to number 1 and 4 above)

9. The employee has everybody fooled - the employee is good at playing "office politics" and is skillful at manipulating people and the work environment for his own benefit. He knows how to "play tai chi" or "main wayang kulit" (colloqually called in Malaysia).

10. He or she is not really a bad employee - the employee is only perceived as a bad employee. He / she is not a genius but is average and do perform tasks allocated to him /her.

Read the full article here.

I think whatever it is, you need some kind of advantage ("kelebihan") that the boss or the company has no choice but to keep you on the pay roll or even be forced to promote you.

The best "kelebihan" I can think of are having good connections, proficiency at office politics, being tolerant to an idiotic boss and being the cheapest (salary) in the job market (cheapskate bosses like this).

Please post your comments, what do you think ?