My boss favors the least competent but most confrontational employee in our office

by Karen
(AZ)

There is an employee in my office who thinks she can do no wrong. Evan when you show her what she did wrong, she denies it and tries to place the blame elsewhere. She's very confrontational and my boss will coddle her to the point of allowing her to sweep her mistakes under the rug or in most cases, blame others, because she doesn't want to deal with a confrontation. She was allowed to step into a position in the office that was vacated with no experience in doing that job. And the person in the office who knows how to do it she won't ask any questions of because we believe it makes her feel inferior. So, instead she makes huge mistakes that require in some cases much time to fix (but remember, it's not her fault). My boss lets her get away with coming and going as she pleases, reducing her work hours to go to school when she wouldn't do that for another employee who ended up having to quit, expecting communication from the rest of us but not from her. The 2 days she works here are the most stressful days for the other 3 people in this office. You can cut the tension with a knife. When she's not in the office, everyone is happy and gets along great. I've talked to my boss about the perceptions in the office but instead of getting better, she favors her even more. What can we do???

Response from Carl: Hi Karen. If there are others in your office who are feeling the same about this person and your boss won't do anything about it, I wonder if approaching your boss as a group about the problem might help. Presenting a united front might illustrate the problem to your boss.

It's odd that your boss favors someone who only works 2 days a week to begin with especially as this person seems to negatively affect the rest of the office both days she's there.

Carl