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A manager is supposed to see that goals are being met on schedule. He/she is not supposed to micromanage everyones job. Those who have been hired to achieve these goals are supposed to do it without a lot of hand holding. If you need hand holding to do your job, you could find yourself on the chopping block.
I was in a low level job in my 20s, and even I knew then, not to involve my boss in anything that I could solve myself.
A manager is supposed to see that goals are being met on schedule. He/she is not supposed to micromanage everyones job. Those who have been hired to achieve these goals are supposed to do it without a lot of hand holding. If you need hand holding to do your job, you could find yourself on the chopping block.
I was in a low level job in my 20s, and even I knew then, not to involve my boss in anything that I could solve myself.
If a new person is not trained properly and was hired to work in a new field then it will always be situations they need help with the first 6 months. Now everyone who is new will be scared to ask questions and take things in their own hands and do something wrong.
Every year, I get a set of new engineers straight from college to train in my team. I tell every one of them this. I will give them 3-5 weeks to ask stupid questions. If they are going to ask stupid questions, ask them during the first 3-5 weeks. During the next 3-4 months after that, their questions to me better be good. No more stupid questions during this period. After the 3-4 months period is up, only come to me if they have already tried to resolve an issue and could not find an answer.
Of course, I've come across people who have had years and years of experience but never quite learned how to look things up on their own.
During a pre-con meeting last year, we had 2 engineers from one of our subs. I've seen these guys' resumes. Looked pretty good. To my amazement, they started asking questions that even my trainees could answer. A few of their questions, my answer was "look on page so-and-so in the special provision". In other words, the answers to all their questions could be answered by simply looking up in the special provisions themselves.
This is the professional work world now, not grade school anymore. If they want to be treated like professional engineers, they need to act like professional engineers. I'm their supervisor, not the freakin' index.
She sent this email today to everyone explaining that too many staff members are just asking for assistance and not trying to resolve the problem first. So basically she wants to get paid to do nothing and not help her staff.
Just to be fair, I'm pretty sure the manager's job description includes more than "help staff do their jobs for 40 hours a week".
If a new person is not trained properly and was hired to work in a new field then it will always be situations they need help with the first 6 months. Now everyone who is new will be scared to ask questions and take things in their own hands and do something wrong.
I understand where you are coming from. I worked a job where I was in over my head. I was told to stop asking questions. I realized I was the problem. Yes I had a very poor manager and was not trained properly. But I didn't do the work and try to figure things out on my own. It took me a long time to realize his.
There is a common theme on this thread, take out advice.
It is a clumsy way for the manager to address what might be high-maintenance staff. The possible reasons the staff are high maintenance are many, ranging from innate personality to a manager that enables the behaviour.
One mistake a manager can make is to be too available. I don't mean shortchanging a training period, good managers don't do that. Once training is done, a manager should stand back a bit. Let employees make a few mistakes, and make them work for answers. It will take more time than doing it yourself, but the benefit is a better employee. They will know more about their role, and they will understand that they are expected to work through situations on their own.
I have to ask. What is the job vs your background and how much training did you get?
Basically other than first job out of college, I've been expected to be a self starter, self trainer, and develop others. Even the formal training I get is not on how to do the job, but knowledge and skill development for future jobs. Our training programs are based on the idea than employees are educated, capable individuals who need general guidance, not hand holding.
Heck, most of my career has been more of "you know what to do, go figure it out and do good things." Even my current micromanager doesn't know what I really do. He can't say "no" to the questions I don't ask.
Just to be fair, I'm pretty sure the manager's job description includes more than "help staff do their jobs for 40 hours a week".
Let's hope so.
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