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How to Use Strategic Incompetence at Work
Season 2
Episode 74
Published 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Description
In this episode of The Office Politics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the delicate art of strategic incompetence: when and how to deliberately underperform or decline tasks to protect your time and focus. Using the case of a mid-level product manager who curbed scope creep by 'getting bad' at low-value spreadsheets, the hosts break down the difference between smart workload triage and reputation-damaging slacking. They cover the research on task allocation in high-trust teams, the risks of the strategy backfiring, and how to deploy it without getting fired. If you've ever felt buried in busywork that isn't your job, this episode offers a tactical framework for saying no without saying no.