The World is Full of People Who Are Flat-Out Incompetent

I try to believe the best about the people around me. But it's cost me.

Years ago, Michael’s and my insurance agent retired, and we were handed off to a younger agent, Angie.

I soon began finding errors in our statements: wrong premiums, incorrect coverages. To hear Angie tell it, it was always someone else’s fault.

Shortly thereafter, Michael and I bought a very unusual house — not a lot of square footage, but made almost entirely with custom-made materials and finishes.

I saw the list of coverages Angie had come up with for our new homeowner’s policy, and I immediately objected. “Angie, I think these numbers are too low,” I said. “This is a really unusual house. If the whole thing burned down, we could never replace it with the amounts our insurance would pay.”

Photo by Vlad Deep on Unsplash

“It’s fine,” she told me. “This is what the computer program says! I’m trying to save you money.”

I interviewed several other agents, and also asked several real estate agents, and they all emphatically confirmed I was right and Angie was wrong. So I wrote her an email saying we were switching agents, explaining how I’d been unhappy with her services for some time.

A few weeks later, Angie called, very upset with me. “You switched agents without telling me?”

“I did tell you,” I said. “I sent you an email explaining everything.”

“I never got any email!”

There was a pause. And then I said, as patiently as I could manage, “Angie, this is exactly the problem. You never get the email.”

“But I can’t lose any more clients!” she said.

These days, I would say, “That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.” At the time, I said, “Angie, I’m hanging up the phone now. Good luck.”

It was one of my first obvious experiences with a member of a unique — and uniquely frustrating — group: the Flat-Out Incompetent.

But truthfully? Until fairly recently, I thought that most of the Flat-Out Incompetent didn’t last long in their various positions. Didn’t systems self-police and self-correct? After all, Angie was young, and it seemed pretty obvious she wouldn’t be long in the world of insurance agenting.

Alas, I’ve had a couple of experiences lately that make me think this Just. Isn’t. So.

In fact, I now know for a fact that a person can be quite “accomplished” and well-known in their field, and still be Flat-Out Incompetent.

Unfortunately, the damage these people can do to your own career and good fortune can be breathtaking.