Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
[quote=Rumble;19342538]As an Administrative Manager I have had the "my boss has no idea what I do from day-to-day" whining thrown at me in the past, and quite frankly, I am sick of hearing it. A manager shouldn't have to know what the details of a subordinates day-to-day responsibilities are. If a boss has to get down to that micro level of their work, chances are that person isn't doing their job. To effectively manage, he/she should simply have a high level understanding of what their subordinates do and its affect on the business.
This may be true in your job but not in most-my direct manager has NO IDEA what is going on and in my field (securities/investment) he must know in order to assist in escalated issues-he is a nice guy but a complete moron-plus he works 8 hours, not a minute more...while I'm working 55-60 hours a week to keep up..
Direct Managers have to know something about your job-if you need to approach he/she with issues or need advice how to handle a project and he/she stares at you like you are speaking another language-then what?
Well, of course he can with me. What am I going to do, fire him? Well, technically, yes. Once I land another job, I guess I'll be firing him, per se. In the meantime, I will continue to look for another job while my boss continues to have no idea what it is I am doing. Take that for competence!
I love this "you are fired" thing for bosses. If I wasn't frightened of burning bridges, I would use that in my hopefully "upcoming" resignation letter. Dear Sir: You are fired as my employer!.... Love it.
If you are fired. You have already burnt your bridges.
You can always do a blog or a report on Employee Justice Report or Yelp.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1984vt
I love this "you are fired" thing for bosses. If I wasn't frightened of burning bridges, I would use that in my hopefully "upcoming" resignation letter. Dear Sir: You are fired as my employer!.... Love it.
As an Administrative Manager I have had the "my boss has no idea what I do from day-to-day" whining thrown at me in the past, and quite frankly, I am sick of hearing it. A manager shouldn't have to know what the details of a subordinates day-to-day responsibilities are. If a boss has to get down to that micro level of their work, chances are that person isn't doing their job. To effectively manage, he/she should simply have a high level understanding of what their subordinates do and its affect on the business.
For example, as an Administrative Manager who also must manage the site's accounting, I guarantee you that my boss, the Director of Distribution, couldn't figure out something as simple as reconciling our balance sheet accounts on his own, even if you gave him an entire day to do it (commonly a two to three hour task for me). Does that mean he's incompetent? Hardly, as he sure as hell can read our profit and loss statement and wants to know potential corrective actions when we are missing budgets.
It always seems to be office workers complaining the most about how "incompetent" their managers are. I think one of the main reasons for this trend is simply due to the scope of work expected of managers due to downward pressures on overhead. It's not uncommon for today's office manager to perform some sort of tactical administrative function of his/her own in addition to the required strategic function of managing. Combine that with the fact that they are likely being asked to manage much larger headcounts and wider scopes of the organization that they simply don't have the time to put in the hours with each of their staff members.
Top management don't know, or rather don't care, what junior people do, as long as it contributes to the bottom line.
A tactical or functional level manager has more direct knowledge of business operations, hence should have knowledge of staff's responsibilities. Steve Jobs most likely doesn't care, or need to know, what employees do in the Apple Europe head office. The manager of the employees' unit, or even the CEO of Apple Europe may (and perhaps needs to know).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Take that for competence!
