The living embodiment of
The Peter Principle
(or worse — see below), this is a person who has been promoted way beyond his level of competency, a person who hangs
inspirational posters unironically. He or she may have had a clue at some point, but they have misplaced it. Sometimes it is a
Modern Major General.
Frequently overlaps with the
Stupid Boss, and often the result of being
Kicked Upstairs.
Examples:
- The name comes from the original Pointy-Haired Boss in the daily comic strip and former animated TV series Dilbert, seen above playing chess against a pineapple — and losing. (Count the captured pieces!)
- According to Scott Adams's 1996 book The Dilbert Principle, the truly Pointy-Haired Boss is a reflection of the abandonment of the aforementioned Peter Principle — that while in the past, competent people were promoted until they reached a position overreaching their talents by one level, now the absolutely incompetent are immediately Kicked Upstairs (where, kept out of contact with the customer base and daily work load, they will do the least harm). This unfortunately denies their underlings even the slight relief of knowing their boss at least used to be good at something...
- Lieutenant Brass comes off very much as an incompetent and biased boss in the first episode of CSI, but it may just be that his promotion put him in over his head - when he is demoted to Homicide in the second episode, he becomes every bit the equal to the crime lab folks in professional competence.
- Detective Gharty on Homicide Life On The Street is incompetent both as a beat cop and as the head of IAD, but turns out to be proficient when he finally lands as a homicide detective. When he is finally re-promoted to head the homicide division in the finale movie, he loses some of his competence again, becoming a shill for the department brass.
- Lt. LaGuerta in Dexter (both print and TV) got her job on talent for political maneuvering, and is in way over her professional head, showing no apparent ability as a detective. Her behavior toward subordinates could also qualify as harassment in some cases (such as her nowhere-near-subtle sexual overtures toward Dexter).
- She redeems herself to a certain extent by the end of season 2, however.
- Michael Scott of the American version of The Office was (and is) a superb salesman. In a classic case of the Peter Principle he was promoted to the post of Regional Manager - a job he is absolutely unskilled for. Note that his UK counterpart, David Brent, is more in keeping with the aforementioned Dilbert Principle in that he evidently never had any skills to begin with and his promotion to management is otherwise an enigma.
- Considering the phone call we hear between him and one of the higher-ups, he has a lot of friends in high places. It's also entirely possible that, as some have suggested, he was a tolerable-to-competent boss until the cameras came in and the sudden "fame" went to his head.
- And David is likely to be the same idea as Adam's theory, being put into a position where he can do as little harm as possible, until he can be promoted even further (a promotion which he doesn't get for insurance reasons), simply because getting rid of him is infeasible (Wernham-Hogg is evidently in financial straits, which would make hiring a replacement more costly). He only ends up fired when his presence is definitively proven to be detrimental to the company.
- Many of the Network Supervisors of the Bastard Operator From Hell series certainly are this, but it's semi-justifiable in that a position with such a high turnover rate probably doesn't particularly attract the employment agencies.
- Almost everyone in FEMA during Hurricane Katrina.
- Not just them. FEMA was just a cog in a great machine of incompetence.
- In 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy was promoted to oversee the production of Liz's comedy show after having invented a microwave. He seems to be a competent businessman, but clearly has no understanding of comedy. Note that he acted more pointy-haired in earlier episodes.
- Too many Real Life examples to count.
- This troper is astonished to find no Troper Tales for this entry.
- Captain Frank Hollister of Red Dwarf is revealed to have only reached his rank through blackmail (from the lowly position of Doughnut Boy no less), implying that he is possibly even less qualified than Rimmer or Lister (though clearly cleverer and/or more ambitious).
- Lord Stanley the Tool from Erfworld, not only is he a Pointy Haired Boss, he's a Bad Boss who threated to kill Parson for simply noting that Stanley is short. And to top it all off? He believes that he is holy, and on a Mission From God.
- To some extent, the Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully from Discworld.
- Except that even though it's hard to tell, he's extremly competent in his job; before him an Archchancellor was lucky to survive a year without being murdered. The actual duties of an Archchancellor seem to be largely ceremonical, apart from some adminstrative duties to the city government, so it's difficult to say whether he's competent in the job it self per se, but if something magical threatens the city, he's your man.
