Just to comment on incompetent people. There are kinds of incompetence. It also makes a huge difference where in the hierarchy they are. Incompetent boss will not let you save the day, but will make you take the blame, for example.
Here's an example of incompetence I deal with every day. The head of R&D department either pretends not to understand or is genuinely this stupid as to engage in the following process over and over:
* We release a program with many defects due to the short development and testing cycle, but especially due to poor (or missing) planning.
* Customers complain they cannot achieve what they want using our program.
* R&D lead bravely rushes to "extinguish the fire" by adding new feature to work around the customers' complaint.
* Because the feature was never properly planned it creates multiple new issues while coming late to the testing stage.
* We burn past the deadline, and eventually have to release still half-baked.
* Customers complain again...
There's no place in this scenario where any of the underlings can swoop in and save the day, because saving the day would be to tell the R&D head that he needs to go through due process of planning his contributions and coordinating with other department heads, esp. the QA. But nobody can, because this will be judged as insubordination and violators will be fired. Over half of the underlings are on work visa, not to mention that the company is almost exclusively filling its niche. So, nobody wants to speak up out of fear of being fired.
On the other hand, such incompetence only lowers morale, leading to most underlings losing interest in the subject matter and doing the absolute minimum to hold the job. You'd think it's a miracle such a dysfunctional company keeps sailing... but, I have this to tell you. This is not the first company of this kind I met in my life. All companies of this kind that I've met by the time I've met them were over 20 years old, profitable, big, fearlessly looking into the future...
Here's an example of incompetence I deal with every day. The head of R&D department either pretends not to understand or is genuinely this stupid as to engage in the following process over and over:
* We release a program with many defects due to the short development and testing cycle, but especially due to poor (or missing) planning.
* Customers complain they cannot achieve what they want using our program.
* R&D lead bravely rushes to "extinguish the fire" by adding new feature to work around the customers' complaint.
* Because the feature was never properly planned it creates multiple new issues while coming late to the testing stage.
* We burn past the deadline, and eventually have to release still half-baked.
* Customers complain again...
There's no place in this scenario where any of the underlings can swoop in and save the day, because saving the day would be to tell the R&D head that he needs to go through due process of planning his contributions and coordinating with other department heads, esp. the QA. But nobody can, because this will be judged as insubordination and violators will be fired. Over half of the underlings are on work visa, not to mention that the company is almost exclusively filling its niche. So, nobody wants to speak up out of fear of being fired.
On the other hand, such incompetence only lowers morale, leading to most underlings losing interest in the subject matter and doing the absolute minimum to hold the job. You'd think it's a miracle such a dysfunctional company keeps sailing... but, I have this to tell you. This is not the first company of this kind I met in my life. All companies of this kind that I've met by the time I've met them were over 20 years old, profitable, big, fearlessly looking into the future...