I suppose that one could argue that the massification of education has ushered in the knowledge era and it seems that everyone is telling us that smart people are the cornerstone of a successful firm, company or country.

But hardly anyone stops to consider that people with certificates do dangerously stupid things too, or that left unchecked these mistakes can destroy not just companies but entire systems, as we saw with the global financial meltdown last year.

Since regional universities train the mind but ignore character development completely, the development of work attitudes are left to faculty who are unprepared or entirely ignorant of the task at hand.

So our best resource, our young, go through their key developmental stage in becoming young professionals largely on autopilot.

They then enter the workplace and get up by all sorts of currents, many of which are negative.

This can make a perfectly viable human resource almost entirely unproductive for a lifetime.

The good news is however that these people can be identified by the stupid things that smart people do in the workplace.

Let’s consider some of the more common errors and behaviours of the certificated.

Presenteeism: This is where the person shows up for work but does nothing. They can be hard to find since they excel at staying below the radar.

If they are spotted, they are good at passing the buck or at killing initiatives through inaction.

They are the organisation’s equivalent to a black hole.

Absenteeism: This is one of the most dysfunctional aspects of organisational life in Trinidad and Tobago.

Union leaders have been extremely hypocritical in dealing with this, always willing to explain to the public what needs to be done to stamp it out, but rarely if ever supporting employer action when taken.

This sleight of hand is exceedingly dishonest and institutionalises poor productivity with the aid of another intelligent group - doctors.

The medical profession and union leadership have much to answer for here, both good examples of how respected professions can facilitate stealing time.

Delegating Up: The intelligent have mastered this in the workplace.

If you find that you’re overburdened with basic work and your subordinates are relaxed, the chances are that you are victim of upward delegation.

Delegating up is a subtle but powerful skill, and a manager’s willingness to help can be their worst enemy here.

Masters of this technique simply keep the ball in your court.

So they can’t get anything done yet because they’re waiting on you to do something or provide some piece of info or resource.

A variant of this is delegating sideways, where the delegator is being held back by colleagues and superiors, not just the latter group.

Bottom line is that the work stays with you while they get paid for little.

If you let this learned helplessness continue you’re a bad manager.

But it can be hard to spot or stamp out because the delegator always has a good reason why they are waiting on you, their boss, for something without which nothing can be done.

Learned helplessness: This is where smart people can tell you all the reasons not to do something or why it won’t work, or how it violates some medieval rule.

They do not accept responsibility for their domain, and they externalise blame for poor performance. Most often they blame other people or deficient policies.

Many of these people are procedure junkies, putting process ahead of outcomes, and they hide behind rules to justify inaction.

But policies can be changed and people can be convinced.

The helpless prefer not to find ways to convince others though, and miss developing this critical organisational skill to the cost of their companies.

The list goes on.

The descriptives are many but the prescriptions are few.

So if you come across someone like this, have a candid talk.

Point out what is going on.

Coach them to a better place.

And if this doesn’t work, then get rid of them.

What if you’re a person who displays these behaviours yourself?

Leave your job and start your own business.

You will fast become more positive and more productive.

Just be careful that you don’t hire someone with these problems - you might find it hard to face an employee in your own business as difficult and unproductive as you were in someone else’s.

Dr Rolph Balgobin is chairman of The Competitiveness Company, a think tank.

He can be reached at rolph@quicksilvertt.com