Dire Strengths and Dead Weight in Workplace Culture If it is not clear by now, it should be obvious that there is a fundamental problem with the contemporary workplace, and that problem is what could be called “dead weight.” Dead weight, in its various forms, can be found in virtually every workplace, and it is one of the leading causes of workplace dysfunction, but in very simple terms, dead weight is a person who is there but not really needed. The workplace is a place where things get done, and if it is a workplace where something is going to be done, it is almost always going to get done better if there are fewer people needed for the task. The number of people needed to get a job done can be a source of great conflict in any situation that may be subject to deadlines, quotas, and other forms of performance accountability. Dead weight does not perform; dead weight cannot perform. Dead weight is just dead weight, and nobody wants to see dead weight around. The problem is that dead weight is usually a person whose contributions have gone so completely unnoticed that nobody thinks they are really needed, and when it becomes clear that they are really not needed, it becomes obvious that they are a problem. The problem is not that they are too slow or too dumb or too whatever; the problem is that they are in the wrong place for the job. The problem may be related to age, as you will be well aware if you are middle-aged or older, but it may also be related to attitude or experience or education. Whatever the problem might be, the result is the same, dead weight. Dead weight is not necessarily a negative thing; most of us who have been alive for more than a few decades have dead weight in our lives. It is a fact of life and living. If you want to be positive, we could all use some more dead weight; after all, life is much too short to be dealing with those people who show up to work fully functional and are able to get the job done better when fewer people are doing the job, but there is a problem. Dead weight is dead weight, and dead weight has proven to be an unhelpful way to perform a task when it comes to the people whose job it is to get the work done. Dead weight is an impediment to the task. Dead weight is an excuse to get rid of dead weight, and since dead weight is an impediment to productivity, it is usually a good idea to get rid of dead weight. If we are going to get rid of dead weight, we may need to get rid of dead weight at the next level up, which is the level of management. So, in some circumstances, management is a source of dead weight, as well as a source of encouragement and support to the dead weight in the lower levels of the organization. If a business or industry has a lot of dead weight at the top, which is really a good thing, it is also likely that the next level of management is also filled with dead weight. The reason for this is obvious. The boss knows what is expected, and he gets to see the results, and if the results are not what they should be, the boss can always dump the problem on someone else, and at a higher level of management it is often a little harder to do this. But what is really interesting is what happens if you have dead weight among the folks on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder. What happens if you are the guy who takes his instructions from someone who is full of dead weight at work? You should probably leave, because the problem will catch up to you; dead weight will eventually show up at your doorstep looking for a job or a promotion, and you will have to make a decision. Do you want to be responsible for someone who is just a little slow and a little useless? There are people who would say no, I am not that dumb, but that is not really an option if you are not going to get rid of the dead weight you have hired. People who do not get along with dead weight will be people who will eventually get the boot as well. The people who do not like being around the dead weight will be the people who ultimately decide the fate of those around them, and if they have good reason to want dead weight removed from the workplace, they are probably right. Those who hire a job seeker will be the last people they are going to want to see complaining about having to deal with a dead weight, so being able to dump the job seeker would probably be a way of saving your own neck. Dead weight is usually also a source of conflict in the workplace, and this conflict can be caused by a lot of different things, including lack of performance and sometimes even things like workplace personality. In many workplaces, everyone knows someone whose work is basically below the level they should be getting and yet they are still getting pay checks. I think I mentioned that in some jobs, or at least in some professions, it is a pretty good idea to have dead weight as a source of conflict in the workplace. At a lower level of management, the guy who is the boss of the dead weight may not like having to answer to an overgrown adolescent in the workplace who is supposed to be making enough money to justify the big bonus. But, the boss may be dead weight himself, or he may even be dead weight of a different kind, and there may be an endless list of things that will cause a great deal of conflict in the workplace. Conflict is what it is all about at the workplace; the way you do it is important, as we have seen, and the way you do it often has to do with who you hire to work with you. It is all about who gets the job done, and it is all about how many people are needed to get the job done. If you have a guy in your organization who is a dead weight, then you need a guy with a good personality to deal with him. It is not enough to have a better trained person; the best person will still get into trouble. Most workers know when they are in the wrong place and the right thing to do is to try to get out of the wrong job and into a different one. It is just not the right place for them, and if they hang in for too long, the wrong thing will always be waiting for them. Dead weight is not good for the bottom line and dead weight is never, ever a good idea in any organization. Dead weight is going to cost money and dead weight is going to cost a lot of money and dead weight is going to cost a lot more money than it could ever have been worth. So, if you want to be a positive force in any organization, beware of dead weight and avoid it at all costs. If you want to be a positive force in an organization, then get out of the dead weight business as soon as possible and devote your time to making a great place to work. If you make the right choices on what is supposed to be done, and you really do get the right people, you may not even need to hire your own people. And, if you hire your own people, keep in mind that it is likely to be just as important to find dead weight out of your own group as you are to try to avoid dead weight in the workplace from the outside. Dead weight is an undesirable condition in any organization, and many organizations find themselves with dead weight because they have the wrong kind of person in the wrong position, and sometimes even because they have the wrong people in the right positions. Dead weight is something that you want to avoid, but even if you can’t avoid it, you still need to have the right people in place to do the right things. The problem is that it is just one more thing you have to worry about. Dead weight is not just a problem for your organization; it is a problem for all organizations. You cannot