The life and times of David Brent

Ever wonder what David Brent's CV would look like? The world's biggest, baddest boss is back. Cue the cringe!  |Ever wonder what David Brent's CV would look like? The world's biggest, baddest boss is back. Cue the cringe!  

Ever wonder what David Brent’s CV would look like? The world’s biggest, baddest boss is back. Cue the cringe!  

Ricky Gervais’ notorious character David Brent from The Office is back. In a mockumentary hitting theatres tomorrow, the world’s most famous fumbling boss will make a mid-course career correction as a rockstar. 

Every office has its David Brent: ineffectual credit-stealing tragicomic pseudo-leaders who coast along in middle management.

Research from CIPD suggests these style of leaders are not the only threat to corproate success. Mediocre managers are just as damaging to employee engagement and productivity as the in-your-face bad bosses.

Some of the worst attributes of poor managers include a lack of accountability, passing the buck (and blame!), piling on stress, panicking about deadlines and commanding rather than consulting staff.

These characteristics often go unnoticed by senior management, while the more outlandish David Brent style behaviour like inappropriate humour, favouritism, and cluelessness directly impact employee motivation.

Now with Brent safely out of The Office and On the Road, Euroffice put an infographic together on what his CV would like.

As a stellar example of what not to do, here’s David Brent in all his glory.

Praseeda Nair

Praseeda Nair

Praseeda was Editor for GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2016 to 2018.

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