{"id":85022,"date":"2026-09-01T10:44:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/?p=85022"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T11:19:09","slug":"strategic-incompetence-selective-absenteeism-and-the-humblebrag-3-workplace-behaviours-that-make-people-so-unlikable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/strategic-incompetence-selective-absenteeism-and-the-humblebrag-3-workplace-behaviours-that-make-people-so-unlikable\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Incompetence, Selective Absenteeism and the \u201cHumblebrag\u201d: 3 Workplace Behaviours That Make People So Unlikable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Humans have some surprisingly sophisticated cognitive strategies. At work, we all try to put our best foot forward. But along the way, certain survival mechanisms can take hold\u2014often without us even realizing it. Here are three particularly irritating behaviours that can undermine workplace dynamics.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>1. Strategic incompetence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Strategic incompetence is a \u201cpersuasion technique\u201d in which someone deliberately acts as though they are unable to perform a task properly, with the aim of getting someone else to do it for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cIt is used by people who don\u2019t want to take responsibility for a particular task. There is an element of bad faith, but there is also a self-protective dimension: it\u2019s a way of avoiding a workload they don\u2019t want to take on,\u201d psychologist Claire Petin explained in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologies.com\/moi\/moi-et-les-autres-moi\/victime-incompetent-strategique-entendez-lune-de-ces-5-phrases-alerte-therapeute-conjugale-Claudia-de-Llano-600195\">Psychologies<\/a><\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3>Red flags include:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Proudly declaring an inability to do the task without making any attempt to learn. For example: \u201cThere\u2019s no point explaining it to me. I\u2019ve never been good at this.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlighting a colleague\u2019s superior abilities: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you do it? You\u2019re so much better at this than I am.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Offering to \u201chelp\u201d rather than taking full ownership of the task, a convenient way to avoid ever learning how to do it independently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>2. Selective absenteeism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To keep your job, it helps if your managers have a positive impression of you. Some employees have therefore mastered the art of looking good in meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They are energetic, proactive, and quick to suggest solutions. They volunteer for tasks and make commitments. But once the meeting is over and they are out of the manager\u2019s line of sight, they seemingly shift into neutral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the scientific literature, this behaviour is explored through the concept of <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/109442819922005\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">impression management<\/a>: the ability of some employees to deliberately choose highly visible tasks\u2014such as participating in brainstorming sessions\u2014while avoiding less glamorous, low-visibility work, such as actually producing the deliverables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, they make sure they are seen doing the work, rather than necessarily doing the work that needs to get done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>3. The \u201chumblebrag\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The term \u201chumblebrag\u201d, loosely translated as \u201cmodest boasting,\u201d was coined by American comedian Harris Wittels in 2010. He created a Twitter account called \u201c@Humblebrag,\u201d where he reposted examples he considered particularly representative of the phenomenon. A column on the website <em>Grantland<\/em> followed in 2012, as did a book, <em>Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The basic idea is simple: you announce an achievement you are proud of, but frame it as though it were a complaint or a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019m so disappointed. I didn\u2019t get 100% on the exam,\u201d when you actually scored 90% and the class average was 50%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cI hate having to get up at 5 a.m. to finish the quarterly report,\u201d when the results are excellent and everyone is grateful for the work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing I hate more than having to travel across three different time zones,\u201d when you were actually lucky enough to be chosen to represent the company at an international meeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>American researchers Sezer, Gino and Norton studied this strategy and reached a fairly clear conclusion:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People primarily resort to false modesty when they want to appear likable while also impressing others. Although we might assume that combining a boast with a complaint would allow us to reap the benefits of both strategies, research suggests that humblebragging delivers the advantages of neither. Instead, it can backfire because people tend to perceive it as insincere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider yourself warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Explore <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/training.isarta.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">our trainings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Humans have some surprisingly sophisticated cognitive strategies. At work, we all try to put our best foot forward. But along the way, certain survival mechanisms can take hold\u2014often without us even realizing it. Here are three particularly irritating behaviours that can undermine workplace dynamics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":85027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85022"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85022"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85039,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85022\/revisions\/85039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isarta.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}