Some leadership styles are downright ineffective.

This employee struggled with a boss who refused to assign tasks directly to specific team members.

The boss would instead ask them to “figure it out” and “run it by the team.”

So when a new project started, they all kept quiet until the boss decided to do it on his own.

Check out the full story below for all the details.

Emails and Permission

The fallout just happened.

This compliance seed was planted a couple weeks ago.

My boss likes to send tasks via email to a group of employees.

He tells us to figure out who will do what.

This employee finds his boss’s style annoying and inefficient.

To further complicate it, when someone volunteers to do a task, he will then tell you to make sure it’s okay with the rest of the team.

This annoys me to no end because it is incredibly non-confrontational. It is inefficient.

It fosters a lazy working environment where one person does most of the work.

He didn’t reply to his boss’s email, but he was later ordered to do the task.

We get an inquiry to create a new training curriculum.

Boss sends the normal email to myself and another lead and asks who wants to do it.

I don’t reply because I don’t want to do it.

Boss meets with me in person and says he wanted me to do it.

He says he had me in mind when he sent the email.

Why didn’t he just assign it to me!?

When he ran the plan to his coworkers, everyone kept silent.

So he does his typical “run it by the other employee first.”

You already know. I send the email asking the other employee.

I make sure to CC the boss on it.

An important note is that because of this, dynamic employees have learned to just not reply to any emails.

Even if it is to approve of the coworker taking the task, they stay silent for fear of being roped into the task.

His boss panicked and decided he would do both orders on his own.

Shockingly, the other employee does not respond.

My boss just left my office panicked because not only did this one not get done, but now there is another order.

I’m swamped because I have been volunteering for his other email tasks that could warrant their own post.

He realizes he is too much of a coward to force his other employees to do it.

He is now having to work both orders on his own.

Friday eve got a little better.

Let’s read the responses of other people to this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

This one makes sense.

This person has the same kind of boss.

This is a rare one that can’t “boss,” says this user.

Finally, here’s a valid point.

A great leader shouldn’t be afraid to delegate tasks to specific team members.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.