Breakdown of Soit que le chef soit incompétent, soit que ce soit la lassitude, l'équipe est lente.
être
to be
ce
it / this (with être)
lent
slow
le chef
the boss / the manager
Questions & Answers about Soit que le chef soit incompétent, soit que ce soit la lassitude, l'équipe est lente.
Why does this sentence use the subjunctive form soit instead of the indicative est?
The structure soit que... soit que... (whether... or...) presents alternative conditions or hypotheses. Because it introduces uncertainty about which condition is actually true, it always triggers the subjunctive mood.
The word soit appears four times! Are they all doing the same grammatical job?
No, this is a coincidence of conjugation! The first and third soit belong to the fixed conjunction soit que... soit que... (whether... or...). The second and fourth are the verb être (to be) conjugated in the subjunctive mood.
Why does the second clause say ce soit la lassitude instead of elle soit la lassitude?
We use the impersonal pronoun ce (it) with the verb être when identifying or stating what something is using a noun (here, la lassitude). In the indicative this would be c'est la lassitude, which simply changes to ce soit in the subjunctive. We don't use the feminine pronoun elle for this type of identification.