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This is a question Worst Person for the Job

In a week where it emerges that the new Health Secretary is a fan of the hocus-pocus that is homeopathy, tell us about people who are spectacularly out of their depth in a job. Have you ever found yourself wallowing in your own incompetence? Tell us. (Note: "Name of football manager/politician - nuff said" does not constitute an answer)

(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 12:48)
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Right family, wrong man
I used to work for one of the big companies nobody thinks about but everybody's heard of. From a quiet unassuming office in a business park 30 miles from the obvious place for a firm of this scale, it sits on and enjoys a rather lucrative market in semi-essential mechanical devices.

All was going swimmingly, 'til a director - of finance, as it happens -chose to leave and was replaced with the owner of the business's son-in-law.

Now this owner was a very clever chap, in about 60 years he and his father had turned a beat-up old military factory in a regional power where it's still 1952, even now, into a company that had global presence and top-3 market-share. The son-in-law was not cut from the same steel, and, determined to show his worth, starts routing all daddy-in-laws personal expenses - which were on the scale expected of a multinational's CEO - through product development costs.

And his more talented staff start disappearing. A few hang on and keep their mouths shut while dreaming of the pension that would result (and are indeed rewarded. 30 pieces of silver, plus inflation, is worth it). One or two more stay to try to change the system from within by use of contacts and good sense. And good luck to them, you can imagine what happened to the ringleader.

And shortly afterward this bright shining FD gets an unsigned postcard.. and leaves the country within days.. Apparently he's in some sort of disgrace.

He really shouldn't have left the ringleader alone, consigned to filing-duty !!!!! in a room with the usual FD-level kit and a lot of incriminating documents while gathering his wits as to what to do with him. Most of the really important files in his archive room, the ones with the truth and authentic signatures on them.. are now replaced with colour photocopies.

Another, publicly funded and rather more serious-minded body of professionals has been examining the originals for a while.

A little company that made it big is about to get one hell of a knock. All because the wrong person knew he was the wrong person for the job, but tried to compensate.

Give me ignorance any day. That at least is an extreme form of honesty.
(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 20:12, 12 replies)
Would these products be a single primary colour perhaps?
...and built quite close to a large public attraction? Obviously, you can't name names: the father-in-law (if it's the one I'm thinking of) once turned up at my firm in person in a helicopter when we stopped his production line.

Edit: looked up the company and noticed the CEO "left to pursue other opportunities". Learning how to safely pick up soap among them I presume.
(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 20:54, closed)
you might very well think that
However - I couldn't possibly comment
(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 21:07, closed)
Indeed
However big the knock they'll take, there will be always enough money for vengeance.

The chap I'm thinking of may or may not have dug a lake round his neighbour's house when he wouldn't sell, and submerged the driveway to a depth of exactly one inch. The law regards that as not quite interference with an easement.
(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 21:21, closed)
More clues please.
Who is it, who is it, who is it?
(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 22:10, closed)
Here's a clue
Re-arrange these letters to get a well known manufacturer.

BCJ
(, Wed 12 Sep 2012, 18:02, closed)
i don't understand any of that

(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 22:41, closed)
My money's on it being a convoluted Star Wars reference.

(, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 23:38, closed)
Same here...

(, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 0:15, closed)
I came here to see if it was

(, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 1:10, closed)
Big company
boss puts daughters dopey husband in unsuitable position in his company.

Dopey husband pisses everyone off, at the same time sidelines weasel like middle manager to a place where he can gather documents showing that dopey or father in law have been naughty boys.

Blackmail ensues, apparently.
(, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 8:48, closed)
Thanks - At least that was in English
Why post on the internet if you want to keep something secret?
Weird.
(, Mon 10 Sep 2012, 12:08, closed)
dito

(, Mon 10 Sep 2012, 16:56, closed)

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