> Although I’ve never had a boss that needed to find an error.
I think that is key. A great mentor early in my career pointed out to me: "A" rated people need to work for "A" rated bosses. It's possible to have a "B" or "C" person work for an "A" boss, but when you put "A" people under "B" or (god forbid) "C" bosses, all kinds of problems ensue.
[I've personally experienced that situation only once, and swore never again.]
I’m not sure what maps to “A,” “B,” “C” here. My gut says: “B” is the kind of person who you’d use this trick on, “C” might be too lazy and just not bother, and “A” might be confident and respected enough to say (and have everybody believe) that they checked and didn’t have any issues. Only “B” has that mix of insecurity and some ability…
Actually, I bet you could have an ok workplace with “A” workers under “C” management. Or maybe the “C” turns into an “A” if they manage to hire good people and get out of their way…
I guess it depends on what "A", "B" and "C" means exactly.
But the problem with "C" managers is that they won't judge "A" work as "A" work, won't understand why some of the "A" work is important, and will get in the way of the "A" engineers, making them go down "C" paths.
A "C" level manager brings the whole team down to "C" level and destroys the morale of "A" and "B" workers while they're at it.
An "A" level manager can guide everybody towards "A" level work.