Don’t Be A Stephanie

A Stephanie, every work place has one, a simple minded creature that has managed to get (through dubious means) a position of power that is generally 5 levels above their abilities. They continue to climb the ladder through other peoples hard work, a lot of bullying and general sucking up to those above, whilst continually putting those (they consider) below them, down, generally in the worst possible way. Everything that went wrong is ALWAYS someone else‘s fault, and through the magic of hindsight (and after the fact “I told you so’s”) they always can prove they where right.
Their technical prowess is phenomenal (always after someone else has presented the concept several times to them in crayon drawings), and your implementation of their solution is always bad.
Their concept of what “EVERYONE” else is doing wrong, is legendary, and there ability to “KNOW” exactly what needs to be done, (if only the board of directors would hurry up and ask), is known far and wide.
They can be defined and identified by the short and abrupt, 6 to 12 month contracts, as the hiring company generally moves on as soon as possible, but unfortunately, like a fart in a space suit, they hang around long enough to cause grief and harm before being released back into the wild.
Should be avoided at all costs if possible, if seen in the native wild, multiple beatings with a big stick may cause some short term relief, but be wary of any long term acquaintance.
There is no know permanent cure.

An implementation is going slightly off the rails with some minor issues, someone points out how they should have done what I said all along, the response “Don’t be a Stephanie” will normally bring things back into alignment.

Someone points out the ridiculous changes being made to make the company better (when there is nothing wrong) - the comment “Gee xxxx is really being a Stephanie on this one”.

by anonymous October 7, 2022

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