Is there a word or words to describe a workplace where employees end up managing managers?

Question

I'm looking for a way to describe a workplace where the employees end up having to manage their own manager. This takes the form of employees having to ask for work, constantly check work has been signed off, check staff rotas have been written, etc. This is happening because of incompetence and/or indecisiveness on the managers part, not because this is an agreed system of working.
I want to use it in the phrase along the lines of "Employees are having to take on managerial tasks not in their job role because it's a ________ workplace." I want to describe the system, not the individual if possible.

rajah9 · Accepted Answer

This dynamic is called Managing Up.

Bad bosses are the stuff of legend. And too many managers are overextended, overwhelmed, or downright incompetent — a topic that HBR has covered extensively over the years. Even if your boss has some serious shortcomings, it’s in your best interest, and it’s your responsibility, to make the relationship work.

HBR recently ran a special series on managing up, asking experts to provide their best practical advice for navigating this important dynamic.

(From What Everyone Should Know About Managing Up by Dana Rousmaniere, Harvard Business Review, January 23, 2015)

Employees are having to take on managerial tasks not in their job role because it's a managing-up workplace.

Andrew Leach · Answer

One word which might resonate is dysfunctional:

Not operating normally or properly.

Government stonewalling and a dysfunctional justice system also jeopardized the case.
It's not a threat to write a book about a dysfunctional intelligence organization.

— Lexico

That particular dictionary is happy to describe physical objects which don't work as "dysfunctional", but I'd prefer to reserve it for systems which don't work well (like the way a company should be managed).

user405662 · Answer

This is one of the many possible answers: rudderless

Lacking in direction, control, or coherence

the confused and rudderless financial markets; characterized the administration's Central American policy as rudderless.
[American Heritage Dictionary]

Steve · Answer

If there is a desire to be scathing, then existing answers like "dysfunctional" or "rudderless" will do.
However, consider alternatives like resilient, co-operative, or non-conforming, since the workplace appears to consist of many workers capable of performing managerial tasks, and the work is substantially getting done despite the claimed incompetence of the formal management.
The apparent problem is not that the workplace is failing to function, but presumably only that actual duties are not reflected explicitly in job titles or pay, or that power and skill exist in an arrangement which differs from stereotype.

Is there a word or words to describe a workplace where employees end up managing managers?

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