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Consider the case where a professor is erasing a board and one of the teaching assistant tries to help him by erasing part of the board.

Unfortunately, while trying to pick up the eraser, the teaching assistant bumps into the professor and they both drop their erasers.

An outside observer sees this and says the TA is ______, rather than helping.

The missing word or phrase would capture the good intentions but also express the fact that the intended help had the opposite of the intended effect.

In Mandarin Chinese, the phrase 帮倒忙 comes to mind, but the Google translation "disservice" does not quite capture it.

merlin2011
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    *Hindering. Or, as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions* (though, on reflection, I imagine that speaks more to un-acted-upon intentions, rather than intentions gone awry). – Dan Bron Mar 02 '16 at 12:47
  • Did you try to find example sentences with the word disservice? –  Mar 02 '16 at 12:50
  • It’s easier to find nouns for this than verbs, so I’ll just post this as a comment. English has imported a couple of terms from Yiddish that may be relevant here: schemiel and schlemazel. You seem to be looking for the schemiel. One is the giver and one the receiver of this clumsy bungling The difference is that the schlemiel is the inept would-be benefactor who’s trying to be nice and helpful and serve somebody a nice bowl of chicken soup, while the schlemazel is that somebody whom he has just spilled the soup on. – tchrist Mar 02 '16 at 12:53
  • You might say that the TA is "bumbling" or "ham-handed", but those are both adjectives rather than verbs, so they don't fit in the blank. Maybe "bungling"? – Doug Warren Mar 02 '16 at 14:33
  • The teacher might use the phrase "Stop helping!" spoken to the TA to communicate that the TA is hindering the efforts rather than helping. – abiessu Mar 02 '16 at 18:51
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    I know this doesn't help much but in Russian there's same phrase. Literally translation would be more of 'the help of a bear'. The thought being that the intent to help is there but you end up breaking something or messing something up. I have not heard of a phrase as such in English language as of yet. ("Doing more harm than good" that's the top answer I feel is simply a technical description of it rather than the phrase) – StanM Mar 02 '16 at 19:16
  • @DanBron i don't see how hindering implies "trying to help" in and of itself. it could, in conjunction with other words, but that's not a meaning inherent to the word. hindering means blocking, or causing a stop in progress. – user428517 Mar 02 '16 at 19:29
  • @sgroves Then maybe your best course of action is to downvote the answer (currently at +12) which offers "hindering"? – Dan Bron Mar 02 '16 at 19:31
  • @DanBron you commented here so i thought i would respond here so that people who don't bother scrolling down to the answers would see it. perhaps your best course of action would have been to provide an answer instead of a comment ? – user428517 Mar 02 '16 at 19:45
  • @sgroves If I wanted to provide an answer, I would have. I didn't, so I didn't. In general, I'm more than happy for anyone who likes one of my comments to convert it to an answer under his own auspices. And I'd argue that most people ignore the comments on a question which already has a number of highly-upvoted answers, so if you really wanted to maximize visibility for your dissent, it would benefit you most to post it under the corresponding answer. Thanks. – Dan Bron Mar 02 '16 at 20:07
  • @DanBron thanks? as in you work for stackx or something? as in i should change my behavior? you posted something blatantly incorrect in a comment (which got upvoted for some reason), so i figured i would comment to correct you, in case someone sees it. i didn't want to write an answer either. that's all there is to it. i haven't done anything wrong. "thanks." – user428517 Mar 02 '16 at 20:39
  • @DanBron I've always understood "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" as referring to doing corrupt actions but excusing it as being for the sake of some good - "I know I should've have, but it was for the sake of the children, dear" or "it was him or me, and let's face it, he wasn't a nice person" or "they expect employees to take a little for themselves; it's a perk of the job, really," and so on. – user867 Mar 02 '16 at 22:56
  • His actions backfired, and, "Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice" comes to mind. – ErikE Mar 03 '16 at 18:00
  • A related word, although not quite appropriate here, is misguided, with the implication being that reasonable action was taken based on a premise, but that the premise itself was erroneous. Somebody may be well-intentioned but misguided. (The reason I think it's inappropriate is it wasn't really the TA's action itself that did the damage as much as it was his poor execution of it.) In this specific case, though, you might say the TA was well-intentioned but clumsy, doing more harm than good. – Jason C Mar 03 '16 at 20:25
  • @StanM: An English idiom that appears to be similar to your "bear" one is "like a bull in a china shop", but that refers to carelessness and/or clumsiness in general, not specific to attempts to help. – Scott - Слава Україні Mar 03 '16 at 22:26
  • Could the TA be described as a frenemy? an oxymoron and a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy pretending to be a friend or someone who really is a friend but also a rival – Underverse Mar 04 '16 at 07:14
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    @StanM: The phrase is also known in German: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A4rendienst "Bear's service" – Mladen Jablanović Mar 04 '16 at 14:38
  • Possible duplicate of http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/120681/expression-for-intend-to-help-but-instead-making-things-worse – Jon Apr 02 '16 at 04:25

15 Answers15

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The TA is doing/causing more harm than good.

to be damaging rather than helpful

Usage notes: usually said about things that are intended to be helpful but do not have a good result

[The Free Dictionary]

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BiscuitBoy
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    I think this is the most common one. +1 – Shevliaskovic Mar 02 '16 at 13:59
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    Agreed; optionally with the addition of a remark about why the TA's actions are being described this way, e.g. The TA was well-intentioned but clumsy, doing more harm than good. – Jason C Mar 03 '16 at 20:27
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Hindering. "You're hindering rather than helping!" is something my grandmother used to say to me when I was a child trying to assist in the kitchen. It means, according to Merriam-Webster,

to make slow or difficult the progress of

Charl E
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    I don't think "hindering" really applies unto itself. It's only the full phrase "hindering rather than helping" that meets the intention. – Brad Mar 02 '16 at 16:26
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    Your answer tempts me to paraphrase the old “friends/enemies” saying: “With help like that, who needs hindrance/s”! +1 – Papa Poule Mar 02 '16 at 16:53
  • I've heard "harming", not "hindering". – AAM111 Mar 02 '16 at 22:47
  • Try "inadvertently hindering" – user1833028 Mar 03 '16 at 18:36
  • You would say this, but the other one captures good intentions better. However, no one under 60 says the other one. – jfa Mar 03 '16 at 19:02
  • @Brad That is implied; the question has a fill-in-the-blank pattern, and this is the word which fills in that blank. – Kaz Mar 05 '16 at 15:32
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Counterproductive. The TA is being counterproductive.

His uncontrollable anger is very counterproductive to his attempt at saving his marriage.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/counterproductive

BenL
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Well-intentioned probably fits the bill. It only literally means the first part of your definition - "intending to help" - but it's generally only used when you want to point out the discrepancy between what is intended and what the actual results are. A headline that began "Well-intentioned new housing policy" is much more likely to end with "makes things worse" than "is a brilliant success".

Robotman
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Consider,

do someone more of a disservice than help

-and-

Road to hell is paved with good intentions

Prov. People often mean well but do bad things. (Can be a strong rebuke, implying that the person you are addressing did something bad and his or her good intentions do not matter.) Jane: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; I only wanted to help you. Jane: Oh, yeah? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

Using the phrase in your example,

A professor is erasing a board and one of the teaching assistant tries to help him by erasing part of the board.

Unfortunately, while trying to pick up the eraser, the teaching assistant bumps into the professor and they both drop their erasers.

An outside observer sees this and says: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions..."

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Elian
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A related phrase might be:

Too many cooks spoil the broth/soup.

In this case, the specific blame isn't on any one individual "cook", but rather that too many people performing a task actually hinder eachother rather than help.

Darrel Hoffman
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  • purely FTR i guess an older version of that is "too many cooks spoil the broth". I haven't heard anyone say "...soup" but I guess times change! – Fattie Mar 05 '16 at 15:34
  • @JoeBlow - Based on nGrams, "soup" appears to be somewhat more common in American English than British, though "broth" is definitely more common in both. I think I learned it as "soup" because when they teach it to children, kids (at least in the US) are more likely to know what "soup" is than "broth". – Darrel Hoffman Mar 06 '16 at 15:11
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The best I've been able to come up with is the cure is worse than the disease.

Related phrases:

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Scott - Слава Україні
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Inadvertently harmful.

Inadvertent means unintentional. It's close to what you want.

David
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You could borrow a term from Dov Waisman’s title and discussion of the fairness of granting tort immunity to “[good but somewhat] clumsy Samaritans.”
(from ‘Negligence, Responsibility, and the Clumsy Samaritan: Is there a Fairness Rationale for the Good Samaritan Immunity?’ at ‘Private Law Theory’)

That TA is [what I'd call] a clumsy Samaritan.

Papa Poule
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There is a word like this in Swedish and some other European languages, and the Wiktionary entry has some insight into how to translate it:

  • A disservice
  • A mistaken kindness
  • A misguided helpfulness

To make it fit into your sentence you could say, for example, "doing a disservice" or "what the TA is doing is a mistaken kindness".

user163440
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I'll go ahead and post this as an answer, even though I have no supporting documentation other than my own experience:

In my part of the world, this is known as hepping, as in "helping" pronounced in a babyish voice.

"Mommy, I'm hepping," said the child as she methodically poured the macaroni all over the kitchen floor.

Will you stop hepping? I'm already running late.

Marthaª
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  • Nice word! What part of the world is that, southern California or eastern Pennsylvania? – Law29 Mar 06 '16 at 11:00
  • hepping brings to mind the word hapless which I think is a better match than merely clumsy. – Law29 Mar 06 '16 at 11:05
  • @Law29, well, Pennsylvania, but I believe it's actually current with a fairly large subset of the historical recreation group I'm a member of, so there are people all over the world who have had potential exposure to this usage. (Because heralds are silly people. Also fencers.) – Marthaª Mar 06 '16 at 17:51
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In your specific example I would actually say:

An outside observer sees this and says the TA is clumsy.

The reason is because the TA's course of action actually was, presumably, a good one. It's not the case that attempting to help erase the board is a bad idea. What actually happened was that the TA executed a good idea poorly in the physical sense: The TA failed to maintain awareness of what the professor was doing and collided with him.

What you are focusing on dictates the language here. If you are trying to make a case against helping to erase the board, you would focus on the TA's underlying motives and general consequences (misguided, harmful, etc.) - something that would affect all TA's attempting the same thing. If you are trying to make a case that this particular TA has personal problems executing an otherwise helpful plan, you would focus on this specific TA's actions (clumsy, uncoordinated, distracted, etc.)

Jason C
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Although this is not describing the TA, you can say that his plan backfired, which means that his plan had the opposite effect of what was intended. He was trying to help, but instead caused a mess.

Jon
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  1. If a well-intentioned person causes havoc wherever they pass, they are said to be like a bull in a china shop. In the OP's scenario the teacher's assistant is clearly a bumbling sort of person

... while trying to pick up the eraser, the teaching assistant bumps into the professor and they both drop their erasers. The TA was as awkward as a bull in a china shop.

  1. For a stronger negative slant, the following idiom is used to convey the idea that someone or something is a crippling encumbrance. Often but not exclusively used as a derogatory term for a wife.

ball and chain
A burden and restraint, as in Karen regarded her job as a ball and chain, but she needed the money. The term, dating from the early 1800s, alludes to chaining a heavy iron ball to a prisoner's leg. Later it was transferred to other kinds of restraining burden

  • The TA was more like a ball and chain than a help
Mari-Lou A
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This calls for an adjective: Dangerously helpful! Annoyingly helpful!

bearvarine
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