Need a word....

[adonirum]

Anyone out there able to help. I can't bring to mind a word. It means a "jack of all trades master of none" and is particularly applied to workers who are moved from one position to another without ever being proficient or competent. I've used it in the past but am having a senior moment I think!!!

[rupert45]

Factotum?

[red devil]

Any of these?... http://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/jack_of_all_trades.html

[adonirum]

rupert45, thanks for reply/suggestion,much appreciated, but the word is more of a "derogatory" description.

[KidKruger]

Cabinet Minister ?

[Kath243]

Dilettante?

[intexasatthe moment]

bugger ,now I'm searching the small area that used to be my brain and wanting to know .....

[rendelharris]

Yes me too it's like an earworm now!

Until someone with a better/younger memory comes up with it, a memory from my first ever job working in a shop between school and college: the manager introduced me to a visiting salesman as "our little Swiss army knife..." I later heard that when I'd left the room he'd added "...but all the blades are blunt and stuck in the handle." Blunt Swiss army knife has stuck in my head for a poor jack of all trades ever since!

[tomskip]

I've had a good think and don't think there is an English word for such a person, op.

I bet the Japanese have a word for it though, they have some brilliant untranslatable words.

[ianr]

"Makeweight" conveys the insufficiency, but isn't a "Jack of all trades".

"Kicked upstairs" too specialised.

Is there anything in the "third reserves" sort of area?

[Elphinstone's Army]

itinerant

[ianr]

A chocolate teapot would be a good match for a blunt Swiss army knife.

[maxxi]

dilbert

[QDED]

Transient

[steveo]

Middle manager

[Jah Lush]

Bungler.

[red devil]

Lackey...

[rodneybewes]

Hump

[Loz]

Journeyman?

[lavender27]

secondment

re-assignment

factotum

handyman

gofer

mr/mrs fixit

odd-job

succedaneum

dummy

[Alan Medic]

Idle fart....off the top of my head...or not

[Alan Medic]

Apologies...that's two words. Tosser.

[Jules-and-Boo]

Peter's Plateau - the theory that people are competent in their job and get promoted and therefore people are either learning (and not fully competent) or not good enough to get promoted (not fully competent)..

Either way the world if full of people who cannot do their job as they've reached their Plateau

[Loz]

Jules-and-Boo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Peter's Plateau - the theory that people are

> competent in their job and get promoted and

> therefore people are either learning (and not

> fully competent) or not good enough to get

> promoted (not fully competent)..

That's actually called the Peter Principle: "People rise to their own level of incompetence".

In other words, people who can do their job well get promoted. So, you will keep getting promoted until you can't do your job very well.

[ruffers]

journeyman