A widow-maker position is a job that defeats two competent people in a row.
“Widow-maker” is the term that nineteenth-century New England shipbuilders used to describe a well-built new ship that still managed to have two fatal accidents in a row. Instead of attempting to fix the problems with the ship, they immediately broke it up to prevent another accident from occurring. In organizations, a widow-maker is a job that defeats two competent people in a row. It will almost certainly defeat a third one, no matter how competent. The only thing to do is to abolish the widow-maker position and restructure the work. Widow-makers typically appear when an organization experiences rapid growth or rapid change. ...
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