That's all true, and I've been there too, for sure. But there's also the other side; at least you two seem to understand that bosses often have a different responsibility list, and different metrics. There are a LOT of people that are all like "F my boss, man, I could way do his/her job so much better than they can!" then you dig in and realize that they have zero clue what their bosses obligations/deliverables really are. If they are a boss, they by definition they have staffing issues, they have review responsibility, they have roll-up (for numbers) responsibility...
Bosses are not EXCLUSIVELY around to make your job easier; they are around to meet their metrics. GOOD bosses will make every effort to do both, and will be honest and forthright (and will contribute themselves) when they cannot.
I'm not at all suggesting that anyone here is wrong or out of line in their criticism of bosses - first, how would I know I don't work for or with them, and second, even if I was to guess what it's like, it doesn't sound like it - but to sort of provide the alternate view.
I've tried to understand all of that from my boss. Saying that, the boss I speak of is my boss' moss, but my boss is more on my level and the boss above them is the one the buck stops with. I've tried for years to see the side of what he does and try and get a bit of a more optimistic view to try and curb my negative viewpoint. The problem is, it always comes back to him being an absolute liar, leech, backstabber and a boss that wouldn't have a damn clue who most of his staff are and what goes on from a day to day point of view.
I don't expect him to have an in and out knowledge of day to day operations because as you say Bill, he has different roles and criteria to meet. But when the boss gets caught out as a liar over and over, takes 2 hour lunch breaks, tells the staff about how much he drank on the weekend and which sports team he is going to bet on, yet if those staff are doing something wrong and he sees it, won't say anything and tells me to tell them off, get fucked. He also crumbles under pressure, and when the heat is on, doesn't back us up and throws us under the bus to save his on skin.
I get what your saying when people go off half cocked and really have no idea on the underlying responsibilities or pressure a boss can be under but my particular boss I've worked with for 7 years now and in all that time, he hasn't helped me one bit. I simply don't need him to do my job, yet he fucking needs me. The only one thing I've learnt from this guy is what NOT to do as a manager. I've learnt so much watching him that it's made me stronger, a better supervisor, made me create a better culture within my team and simply affirmed how I run things and go about my duties and people management. Saying that, being so invested he simply takes advantage of my work ethic and as I said, reaps the benefits.
I kind of like the "lead by example" persona of a manager. That means getting your hands dirty when necessary.
I lead a 12 person data center team at my previous job, while I felt some of my reports would be annoyed I would be at my desk doing work while they were maybe doing something physical or tedious in the data center, but that's not really my problem for having some poor idea of what their boss should be doing. However, when the work would pile up or the team would be struggling, I'd have no issue dropping my individual responsibilities and helping out, showing the team how to do things and leading by example of what they should follow.
Yeah, it can really be that simple. Creating that culture that you are a manager are no better than their staff and you would go out of their way simply goes a long way in getting the productivity and respect back. There's nothing worse than a boss telling people to do things yet, if they had to step in and do it themselves, they'd be fucked. Yes, this is not expected of some managers because as Bill said, they would have different things to fulfill, but being seen to be all in goes a long way. Just don't get suckered in by staff taking advantage of that. Don't let it get to a point where it's like they think if they don't do it, you'll come and clean up after them. I've been there too and that's just as bad.
Topic: What pissed you off today? (Read 124591 times)
