Story 136

2/2 At Citi, incompetent bosses expect unconditional obedience—especially if you’re more qualified than they are.

Pass your way, competent worker. You will be sacrificed on the altar of corruption.

The Pattern

A director was protected by their network despite everyone knowing they’d delivered nothing.

Former colleagues stated that person shouldn’t have been promoted past VP. Their own mentor had advised against taking the role, warning it would require significant up-skilling for them to perform.

But competence wasn’t the criteria. Loyalty to the network was.

What sort of feedback did that director give?

“You’re too direct”. One week later: “we can use more direct people”.
“Don’t go to these meetings”. One week later, invited the rest of the team to attend as I was “getting a lot out of it”.
“You’re making me look bad”. 2 months later, “I don’t want you to leave, you’ll make me look like a bad manager”.

She had no clue what she was doing. She kept checking every step of feedback with her line manager or mentor, and contradicted every single piece of “feedback” she had previously given.

The Gaslighting Playbook

Every attempt at alignment met with twisted words. Every conversation designed to protect the manager from accountability while shifting blame to you.

When a stakeholder pulled out of a commitment you secured, suddenly it was your fault—while the MD should have been responsible for securing it themselves in the first place.

The ultimate gaslight: “You are expected to take orders or direction from people less competent / senior than you.”

Translation: I’m explicitly telling you that hierarchy matters more than capability. Obey or leave.

The Impossible Standard

They want you competent enough to deliver results they can claim.

But not competent enough to question why they’re not delivering anything themselves.

Not competent enough to notice the protection networks keeping failures employed and promoted.

Not competent enough to expect actual collaboration instead of performative escalation.

What You’re Told to Do

The advice is always the same:
* Have an “open dialogue” with your boss
* Seek clarification on their thought process
* Offer alternative solutions
* Document your concerns
* Know when to push back appropriately

What Actually Happens

* Open dialogue → You’re “difficult” or “not a team player”
* Seek clarification → You’re “questioning leadership”
* Offer alternatives → You’re “not following direction”
* Document concerns → You’re “building a case” and now a threat
* Push back → You’re gone

The advice assumes good faith. These systems don’t operate in good faith.

The Real Choice

You can be competent and disposable.

Or obedient and protected.

Pick one.

Because competent people who won’t submit are not welcome. They expose the incompetence of those above them simply by existing and performing well. “You make the rest of us look bad”, I was told. No kidding. I should have been employed two grades above you.

The system doesn’t reward your capability. It punishes the threat you represent to people who haven’t earned their positions and know it.

For Anyone Facing This

If you’re more qualified than your boss and they’re treating you like an insubordinate rather than an asset—you’re not imagining it.

If you’re delivering results and getting punished instead of promoted—you’re seeing clearly.

If you’re being gaslit about your own competence while watching failures get protected—trust what you see.

This is the system working as designed: protecting hierarchies of loyalty over meritocracies of performance.

Your competence isn’t the problem.

Their fear of being exposed is.