In this article, … [w]e argued that incompetence … not only causes poor performance but also the inability to recognize that one’s performance is poor. Indeed, across the four studies, participants in the bottom quartile not only overestimated themselves, but thought they were above-average…. In a phrase, Thomas Gray was right: Ignorance is bliss—at least when it comes to assessments of one’s own ability.
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In sum, we present this article as an exploration into why people tend to hold overly optimistic and miscalibrated views about themselves. We propose that those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.
Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, 77 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1121-1134, at 1130-31, 1132 (1999)
Phil Schatz was quoted extensively in the May 2010 issue of Inside Counsel magazine concerning best practices for the prevention of workplace retaliation claims. The full article is available here. The relevant sections follow:
Retaliation Reviews
To protect themselves against harassment liability, companies need to offer ways to complain outside of the immediate power ladder, says Philip Schatz, a partner at Wrobel and Schatz.
“The main problem JetBlue had was that its avenues of complaint were not really out of the management chain,” he says. “You had a small branch that was somewhat isolated, and everybody was interrelated.”
Human resources often takes on this role and should have autonomy to investigate claims without interference from other parts of the company, he says. Creating a hotline is another way to let employees safely report harassment.
Additionally, Schatz says corporations need policies restricting adverse employment actions against employees who have recently complained. Courts may assume retaliation unless the company conducted a thorough, objective review by someone uninvolved in the relevant area of the business.
“Make sure everything is documented and [conduct] a review by somebody who doesn’t have a dog in the fight,” he says.
Finally, companies must enforce rules across the board. In Gorzynski, supervisors applied rules differently for favored employees.
“The fact that younger employees were not disciplined for violating numerous policies was considered prima facie evidence of discrimination,” Schatz says. “There were a lot of unfortunate mistakes made here.
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Lost in the Branches
You might assume that a big, well-established company would be less likely than a smaller company to get in trouble for the relatively straightforward problems that arose in Gorzynski v. JetBlue.
That’s not necessarily the case, says Wrobel and Schatz Partner Philip Schatz. Easily preventable problems can arise when there is not enough management of offsite corporate divisions or offices.
“[JetBlue] is a big company, but it has a lot of branches,” he says. “This kind of problem can often happen in a bigger company more easily than a smaller one because there are so many moving parts.”
