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You have managers that trust their employees to do their work regardless of their whereabouts during work hours, and then you have managers who're so suspicious and paranoid that they constantly need to account for every employee. Unfortunately for me, I work for the latter at the moment.
You have managers that trust their employees to do their work regardless of their whereabouts during work hours, and then you have managers who're so suspicious and paranoid that they constantly need to account for every employee. Unfortunately for me, I work for the latter at the moment.
I used to work for a guy like that. Thought "management" meant "control".. in every sense of the word. At that firm, when you reset a password if was supposed to reset to your month and year of birth - for whatever reason, HR had my year right but my month wrong. Tired of having to remember the wrong birth month, I reached out to HR to fix it who said my manager could do it directly. I mentioned it to him, asking him to change the month from January to July...
An hour later he came to my desk and asked me to show him ID. I laughed thinking he was kidding and I asked him why: "Certain benefits are tied to both years of service and age". Translation: If you work for 30 years and are 55 you can take retirement benefits... In other words, the guy wanted to see my ID to make sure I wasnt lying about my birth month. Because, you know, maybe I'm working some scam where in 20 years or so I'll retire a few months early. Never mind that I was having him it change it so that I was younger not older...
A few years prior to that at another job, after working for the better part of the year I looked at my vacation balance and discovered I had just shy of two weeks left. At the time, it was use it or loose it, so I put in for vacation. My boss sent me an email saying that I had "18 hours left". Confused, I pointed her to the Peoplesoft printout, and she handed me back some printout from some kind of shareware timetracker she had downloaded that had frowny faces for days off and smiley faces for days in. I looked at some of the dates and noticed she had docked me for half-days off when I left an hour early to run an errand - sometimes, even work-related errands. She said thats how the software worked. I had to get HR to step in and explain that her little freebie software was not an official T&E system.
Reminds me of another story... I was working on a large engagement with a fortune 500 and regularly worked long hours. One night I managed to actually leave the office at 6pm - unheard of at the time - excited, I called my then girlfriend and said 'lets do dinner!'; we made reservations at our favourite restaurant. I got home and 20 minutes later got a call from my boss "Pack a bag, we got a car; we are going to NJ tonight; im on flight bla bla, get a ticket". Frustrated, but wanting to be a good employee, I booked the flight, cancelled dinner, and got us a car. On the way to the airport, I asked my boss "So whats going on in NJ?". He replies, and I'll never forget it: "Nothing, I just wanted to see if you'd drop everything and come. We'll be back tomorrow."
I used to work for a guy like that. Thought "management" meant "control".. in every sense of the word. At that firm, when you reset a password if was supposed to reset to your month and year of birth - for whatever reason, HR had my year right but my month wrong. Tired of having to remember the wrong birth month, I reached out to HR to fix it who said my manager could do it directly. I mentioned it to him, asking him to change the month from January to July...
An hour later he came to my desk and asked me to show him ID. I laughed thinking he was kidding and I asked him why: "Certain benefits are tied to both years of service and age". Translation: If you work for 30 years and are 55 you can take retirement benefits... In other words, the guy wanted to see my ID to make sure I wasnt lying about my birth month. Because, you know, maybe I'm working some scam where in 20 years or so I'll retire a few months early. Never mind that I was having him it change it so that I was younger not older...
A few years prior to that at another job, after working for the better part of the year I looked at my vacation balance and discovered I had just shy of two weeks left. At the time, it was use it or loose it, so I put in for vacation. My boss sent me an email saying that I had "18 hours left". Confused, I pointed her to the Peoplesoft printout, and she handed me back some printout from some kind of shareware timetracker she had downloaded that had frowny faces for days off and smiley faces for days in. I looked at some of the dates and noticed she had docked me for half-days off when I left an hour early to run an errand - sometimes, even work-related errands. She said thats how the software worked. I had to get HR to step in and explain that her little freebie software was not an official T&E system.
Reminds me of another story... I was working on a large engagement with a fortune 500 and regularly worked long hours. One night I managed to actually leave the office at 6pm - unheard of at the time - excited, I called my then girlfriend and said 'lets do dinner!'; we made reservations at our favourite restaurant. I got home and 20 minutes later got a call from my boss "Pack a bag, we got a car; we are going to NJ tonight; im on flight bla bla, get a ticket". Frustrated, but wanting to be a good employee, I booked the flight, cancelled dinner, and got us a car. On the way to the airport, I asked my boss "So whats going on in NJ?". He replies, and I'll never forget it: "Nothing, I just wanted to see if you'd drop everything and come. We'll be back tomorrow."
Damn, that's rough. I feel for you, man.
My current position is a bit more frustrating, because I really can't blame my direct boss for being a control freak -- he simply is so afraid of the CEO of the company that he feels the need to have every answer available at a moment's notice, and if not, then access to the employee who has the answer at a moment's notice. The words, "I'll find out for you" or "I'll get back to you with the stuff" never were applicable responses as far as he was concerned.
I remember an incident when I was in his office looking over a report and he was on his lunch break, talking to his wife on his phone. The CEO came by asking about some forms, and my manager hung up on his wife instantly (without saying goodbye or "call you back") to resolve the "issue." A second incident when I was in the bathroom, and dude was screaming in the office asking everyone about my whereabouts, because I was the only one who could answer some out of the blue question raised by his boss -- I heard everything from the men's room. He went so far as to ask a FEMALE employee, the one who gently informed him that I was in the men's room, to go inside and get me.
He is so deathly afraid of the big boss that, at times, I can't even work with him. His paranoia and gross subservience to his boss makes me uncomfortable as a worker, because it's like being in a foxhole with someone that constantly pi$$es himself. Someone like him will never allow me to telecommute.
Wow, thats pretty awful. But this thread has made some long repressed memories come back to life.
Two more stories... A long time ago, I got an internship at one of the big-name investment banks. As I was receiving course credit as well, it was an unpaid internship. I turned 21 while working there, and my boss invited me to drinks (he was middle management level, so his income was in the ~$400-500Kish range at the time). We got downstairs to some place, get two beers. We finish, he says he has to go to out with his wife to the opera.... and leaves me with the bill. Thats right, my $500K a year boss stiffed the unpaid intern with the bar tab on his birthday. That guy was a real prick. Story popped into my head as he also followed me to the bathroom one day and asked me why I went so much. Seriously. It was pretty damn awkward.
A few years later, not at the IB, I was working crazy hours consulting on some bankruptcy restructuring stuff, hated it with the fury of a thousand suns. I had been staffed there for some time and had to extend my rental car, so I called Hertz to do it. While I'm on the phone I get a message from my Boss in my email: "Dont make personal calls in front of the partner". I replied "This isnt a personal call, im extending my rental car reservation so I can come into the office tomorrow", she replied "I dont care; do it upstairs where he cant see you". Crazy stuff. The funny thing about that is I proceeded to go upstairs and make the call on my cell phone standing near a window, and of course the partner walked right by as I was doing it.
Some people just have really odd ideas of what good people management is or how to motivate and structure work. The peculiar thing about your boss' "I must have the answer now" attitude is that its bound to lead to lots of wrong answers; being able to say "We are investigating that and I should have a clearer picture by the end of the day" is the smart way to handle things virtually every time. Frankly, I'm surprised it hasnt come back to bite him.
The other thing this thread has done has made me realize how the grass is not greener on the other side. I've been contemplating a move lately cause I'm a bit underwhelmed with a few things at the office (just not that challenged) but when I think back to these experiences I'm reminded that, by comparison, I'm in paradise at the moment.
Remind me to never work for your boss... we aren't in similar jobs are we?
You'll have no worries about my boss. Company was recently bought out; he's moving away; and I'm waiting for my fat severance check.
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