The original Pointy-Haired Boss is the fictional manager in the Dilbert comic strip. The phrase pointy-haired boss has acquired a generic usage to refer to incompetent managers. See Dilbert for the original character; this article is about the generic concept. (Note that under a Dilbertian view, "incompetent manager" is redundant phraseology.)

It is also possible to speak of someone being pointy-haired or having pointy hair, metaphorically meaning that they possess PHB-like traits.

The academic version, a Pointy-Haired Dean (PHD), is similar.

Traits

Typical traits of a PHB:

• Does not understand what his employees do for a living.
• Enjoys using buzzwords such as "synergy", "leadership", "evangelize", "competency ", "collaboration", "empowerment", "quality", "paradigm", "team-enhancing", and "culture-shift" often to escape having to commit or be precise.
• Pretends to understand technology, but is really clueless. He often shifts towards buzzwords (see above) to compensate or change subject.
• Easily mesmerized by silver-tongued sales people peddling management or technology fads.
• Decisions seem random or capricious.
• Gross failures of logic, such as holding repeated long meetings to discuss why a project is behind schedule.
• Likes meetings because he/she does not know how to use email properly or does not want his/her bad decisions committed to writing.
• Steals his employees' ideas and presents them as his own, almost always to the same employees
• Is always right. Or at least, thinks he/she is.
• You warn him/her to do X or else Y will happen. He doesn't do X. Y happens. You somehow get the blame.
• Doesn't seem to remember anything beyond a month's range.
• Rewards employees based on how well they stroke his/her ego instead of how well they do their job.
• More focused on sounding important than being important.

Related Acronyms

The usage of "PHB" to refer to a character type resembles the usage of "BOFH" and "PFY", both also derived from specific fictional characters. Less closely related is the military term "REMF", which is descriptive rather than a reference to fiction.