Stupid dumb managers and team leaders
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It doesn’t seem to matter how straightforward you make a process, or how foolproof you think the system you have developed is. There is always a manager out there who takes it upon themselves to throw a spanner in the works and do it their own way regardless of the guidelines you set out for them. I'm pretty sure that cleaning up after them wasn't in my job description and I do not suffer fools gladly! |
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I’ve got a pretty mundane job these days, but it is occasionally brightened up by some of the stupid things those in a position of some authority do. These so called team leaders and managers are looking after a team of people, but it would seem that they are basically incapable of following a few simple rules to get a job done. These rules are designed to make my job straightforward and reduce the chances of making mistakes with the data. When they decide to do their own thing, it gives me a whole load more work to do to sort out the mess. Why can’t they just follow the procedures that I set out? It’s really not that difficult! |
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Okay, just to clarify things a bit, I receive a number of spreadsheets each week containing basic data such as employee numbers and dates. I simply transfer this information into a database so that someone somewhere can run a report. No problem you might think. Anyway, last year the format of these spreadsheets was agreed by all parties and the managers and team members were duly sent out a copy with very specific instructions as to what was expected of them. We’re talking about 3 simple columns here on one worksheet, so it’s pretty hard to screw up. To date at least a quarter of the returned sheets have to be amended in some form or other. They either put useless comments in the fields, or leave out dates all together. Sometimes they do both. I really don’t care that such and such wasn’t in that day and you don’t know the dates. Just send me ‘good data’ in the format we requested or send nothing at all! It saddens me to think that most managerial staff get paid way more than technical and administrative staff when clearly so many of them do not have any common sense and think that if they don’t like the way something is done, they can change it whenever they like. |
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Comments from visitors
Absolutely true, This fools so called managers and team leaders supervises are getting pay lot more and more than Technical staff. but they dont simply understand simple process, they only know how to screw something, some one. i've been working in such a environment for 4 years, still cannot find a way out. these Indian monkeys got no idea what the practical side of their stupid instructions are...we are poor people awaiting to be rescued by God..
-5
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I work for a firm which has gone mad. It is introducing new procedures one after another. I can see that none of these new procedures really improves the way we work, nor adds any benfits to our customers whatsoever. Nor makes any money. They are simply there because they seem to justify the managers who think these up, their jobs and positions. These procedures are driving me personally mad, and others too. We all see they are wrong, but most of my colleagues are too feeble to challenge the authority above us. I am too old to change my job. I must keep working at it for the next 4 years before I retire. What can be done? What should I do? It is making me ill with concern. If I was younger I would have left this firm years ago, but the economic situation necessitates staying at it.
+3
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If I worked for Waitrose as a Nightshift Manager I'd keep it bloody quiet. You have the staff you deserve as your scum company are no doubt, like others, clearly into the current trend of paying people the minimum they can get away with and demeaning them as much as possible in the process.
I'm absolutely certain that you enjoy making their workshifts as miserable as possible whilst feeding your ego.
I bet you used to bully other kids in school and sucked up to the PE teacher so you could be on the 'team'. F*** Off.
I'm absolutely certain that you enjoy making their workshifts as miserable as possible whilst feeding your ego.
I bet you used to bully other kids in school and sucked up to the PE teacher so you could be on the 'team'. F*** Off.
-3
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I work as a Nightshift manager for Waitrose In Kingston surrey. I have twenty three full-time and part-time staff under me.
I have just read the above gripe about "Stupid Managers" etc. Well of the twenty three staff I have I would say about four or five of them can work without any supervision at all. As for the rest? Well some of them are not capable of wiping their own backsides without some sort of help. Half of them cannot manage to perform the simple function of opening boxes and placing the contents on a shelf without constant supervision. Most of them are always Losing their case-cutters or gloves and moaning their heads off to have them replaced. When I cannot replace the items it"s always my fault, never theirs.
So if anyone starts off about "stupid managers" or "stupid supervisors" they should first think about two things.
1. Have they ever had the courage to take on a role of higher responsibility?
2. Can they work effectively and independently without supervision?
I have just read the above gripe about "Stupid Managers" etc. Well of the twenty three staff I have I would say about four or five of them can work without any supervision at all. As for the rest? Well some of them are not capable of wiping their own backsides without some sort of help. Half of them cannot manage to perform the simple function of opening boxes and placing the contents on a shelf without constant supervision. Most of them are always Losing their case-cutters or gloves and moaning their heads off to have them replaced. When I cannot replace the items it"s always my fault, never theirs.
So if anyone starts off about "stupid managers" or "stupid supervisors" they should first think about two things.
1. Have they ever had the courage to take on a role of higher responsibility?
2. Can they work effectively and independently without supervision?
+8
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I used to work for a large multinational corporation and they had these absurd bullsh1t appraisals, usually conducted by much younger people who had no command of English, no interpersonal skills, and very often no real knowledge of the industry in which we worked nor the jobs we performed. All they had was faces that fitted, tongues that had licked the right backsides, and a Master Bullsh1t Artist degree from some shonky university somewhere.
They used to turn out the type of drivel that you have been kind enough to share with us. It would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that people like these had the power to determine the professional development and remuneration of people who were in every way their superiors.
If this smacks of jealousy (no doubt my lovely new friend Chloe if she reads this will tell me I have 'anger management issues') then I can assure you there is no jealousy at all. I left the company with an excellent package and am now master of my own time, destiny, and income. Who's jealous now? ..... the managers and directors I left behind who are still trapped on the treadmill!
Mud Grinder, you have my sympathy, I've been there, and I hope you can get out. On the other hand you only have 3 years or so to go to retirement, I had a lot more.
They used to turn out the type of drivel that you have been kind enough to share with us. It would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that people like these had the power to determine the professional development and remuneration of people who were in every way their superiors.
If this smacks of jealousy (no doubt my lovely new friend Chloe if she reads this will tell me I have 'anger management issues') then I can assure you there is no jealousy at all. I left the company with an excellent package and am now master of my own time, destiny, and income. Who's jealous now? ..... the managers and directors I left behind who are still trapped on the treadmill!
Mud Grinder, you have my sympathy, I've been there, and I hope you can get out. On the other hand you only have 3 years or so to go to retirement, I had a lot more.
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Mud Grinder
You say the manager is a "remote one working in another country".
Is English his second language? The appaling drivel he writes certainly suggests this.
You say the manager is a "remote one working in another country".
Is English his second language? The appaling drivel he writes certainly suggests this.
+4
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It's Annual Appraisal Time. I'm 62 with 40 years of work experience in many organisations. I have had my fair share of redundancies. I am a graduate. Now I get an annual appraisal from my manager who comments:
Jim needs to improve regarding associating and correctly
categorizing knowledge items to customer problems. My
expectation would be that at least 50% of the problems closed
with solution would have provided an associated knowledge item
attached which is categorized as ...
If there's anyone aged 62 out there who needs to "improve" please let me know. Otherwise this is the kind of claptrap I got in school reports 50 years ago.
My manager, a remote one working in another country, did not know I was a graduate.
Jim needs to improve regarding associating and correctly
categorizing knowledge items to customer problems. My
expectation would be that at least 50% of the problems closed
with solution would have provided an associated knowledge item
attached which is categorized as ...
If there's anyone aged 62 out there who needs to "improve" please let me know. Otherwise this is the kind of claptrap I got in school reports 50 years ago.
My manager, a remote one working in another country, did not know I was a graduate.
-2
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You can try and foolproof everything. But someone will build a better (worse?) fool!
+1
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Companies are blackmailing you and you know it ! They are private and untouchable and outside firms responsible for investigating them are incompetent !!! They can migrate to foreign countries and wind you up with foreign accents and then come back to the UK to make you appreciative of a fluent English speaker! If you become complacent and overdemanding they will migrate again !!! Its a globalised and capitalistic world. You get away with alot. You get what you pay for. At the same time it would not cost alot to improve call centre work practices. Doing this will be the only way to improve the customer experience of a caller. Unhappy call centre staff warrants unhappy customers. Call centre staff are blank canvases and you make out of them what you will, as with any new reqruits to any other job so dont be so silly as to consider 'thick' workers as the problem.
+1
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So many people just do not get it. A call centre fails a customer and staff because inefficient opperation. Most are opperated by the same system. A new person is unskilled and so is told to learn as they go along. They learn how, what, where and when and become efficient and a beneficiary to the customer experience of the caller. The factory like poor working quality standards take a toll on the full time worker. They take call after call in over demanding call quantity and are often short staffed, they multitask and have to fend from overdemanding customers whilst logging calls exactly and all the time being overmonitored and overworked into target meeting and hoop jumping. Quality monitors blackmail workers with underscore tactics in fortnightly evaluations and pick one call out of five hundred to tear apart, for small insignificant details. Reports are kept and you must obtain the average score level and not drop below it. Quality monitors do not pay attention to the things that do matter to the customer. Customer's dont care how a call is logged as long as it says everything !!! Nobody cares about the callers or the workers alike.
-3
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Edgar, the description I have provided is an entirely accurate description of our situation. Unfortunately I am at that time of age where it is difficult to find alternative employment, and I have several years to go before I can afford to retire, if ever. Moreover my pension fund has been wiped out by the recession. And the little matter of the credit crunch makes it impossible to get another job in a like field. Also the whole field I work in has become this way across the whole employment scene. All employers in my industry follow this kind of practice. It's a disease of the industry. Just like soldiers can expect to get killed, technical support staff can expect to be treated like dirt.
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Brunt-Bearer - 14-Dec-08 11:41
Edgar, the description I have provided is an entirely accurate description of our situation. Unfortunately I am at that time of age where it is difficult to find alternative employment, and I have several years to go before I can afford to retire, if ever. Moreover my pension fund has been wiped out by the recession. And the little matter of the credit crunch makes it impossible to get another job in a like field. Also the whole field I work in has become this way across the whole employment scene. All employers in my industry follow this kind of practice. It's a disease of the industry. Just like soldiers can expect to get killed, technical support staff can expect to be treated like dirt.
-2
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Brunt-Bearer - 14-Dec-08 09:54
Brunt-Bearer, if what you write is an accurate reflection of your work situation, your manager and employer are heading for trouble. Success in any occupation involving a team needs co-operation of all team members, and that is not achieved by browbeating the "lower ranks". I've seen this from both ends of the spectrum. I hope that you can find a better future employer.
-2
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Our managers are smart. They have engineered our work, and the measurement of our individual performances so that it is impossible for us to do right or get anything done correctly. We are always in the wrong. The statistics that they come up with on a weekly basis prove that we never ever in the right whatsoever. So that when the whole house of cards that they have built so carefully comes tumbling down, as it will do so inevitably, who do you think will get the blame? The statistics "prove" that we were in the wrong. The manager escapes.
Our manager says it is not his responsibility to make us happy in our work. If we are not happy it is our own fault he says.
Our job is technical highly skilled job, but we have been told that that is not the most important aspect of the work, in spite of the fact that it is and central to our performance. We will not be measured on the significance technical assistance we provide customers, rather more on what they thought of us as people.
Our manager refuses to discuss the efficacy of the changes the organisation made to our work programme this year with us. He says he can do nothing about them and that we have to work them willy-nilly. And there is no point trying to discuss them with him. Just get on with the job.
Every week our manager takes one of our current projects from each of our queues and goes through it with a fine toothcomb just to check whether we have followed company procedure to the letter. If we have not literally followed this to the letter he notes this and tells us off. This takes two and half hours, time we have to make up out of our own time.
There will be no pay rises this year. Our statistics are so poor we don't deserve them. We have no union.
There will be no Christmas bonuses or party.
I can't wait to leave. These people are destroyers of the national wealth.
Our manager says it is not his responsibility to make us happy in our work. If we are not happy it is our own fault he says.
Our job is technical highly skilled job, but we have been told that that is not the most important aspect of the work, in spite of the fact that it is and central to our performance. We will not be measured on the significance technical assistance we provide customers, rather more on what they thought of us as people.
Our manager refuses to discuss the efficacy of the changes the organisation made to our work programme this year with us. He says he can do nothing about them and that we have to work them willy-nilly. And there is no point trying to discuss them with him. Just get on with the job.
Every week our manager takes one of our current projects from each of our queues and goes through it with a fine toothcomb just to check whether we have followed company procedure to the letter. If we have not literally followed this to the letter he notes this and tells us off. This takes two and half hours, time we have to make up out of our own time.
There will be no pay rises this year. Our statistics are so poor we don't deserve them. We have no union.
There will be no Christmas bonuses or party.
I can't wait to leave. These people are destroyers of the national wealth.
-5
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Brunt-Bearer - 13-Dec-08 11:43
To those who work under managers who know less than them, and who do not talk to staff about how to get the job done, there is a simple solution. You follow your manager's instructions to the letter and when things go wrong as a result you make sure that the manager shoulders the responsibility - that's what he/she gets paid for.
I was a middle manager and had done the jobs. of the staff that I managed but I consulted them about changes to work and used their ideas when appropriate. That way the job got done efficiently and most of us were as happy as workers could be.
I was a middle manager and had done the jobs. of the staff that I managed but I consulted them about changes to work and used their ideas when appropriate. That way the job got done efficiently and most of us were as happy as workers could be.
+2
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Oh, by the way - Equitable Joe... not in fact a data processor, not an excel geek either. That part of my job was merely importing data into a database and analytical system that I designed and these muppets needed the reports that it produced. I wasn't paid enough to clean up they're crappy data and they didn't have the budget to pay someone to do it (so they say...)
As John says... managers being incapable of following a few instructions, no doubt they expect everyone else to wipe they're @arse for them. Let's hope the global recession etc. lands a few of them on the dole queue (You too Equitable joe, since you have such a high level of disdain for mere data entry staff... perhaps some of that kind of work might help you adjust your attitude!).
As John says... managers being incapable of following a few instructions, no doubt they expect everyone else to wipe they're @arse for them. Let's hope the global recession etc. lands a few of them on the dole queue (You too Equitable joe, since you have such a high level of disdain for mere data entry staff... perhaps some of that kind of work might help you adjust your attitude!).
+1
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Bayesian Analysis: I'm no longer in that job having become self employed, working my own hours, be my own boss etc. As you see, not an inconsequential cog in someone elses grinding machine!
There were no forms by the way, badly designed or otherwise. We just needed simple information, three columns, three pieces of data - a name, a date and a course code. Really hard to screw up you would have thought.
Luckily, I enjoy the days and nights without dealing with idiots any more. Hey, I'm not rich but I'm sooo much happier because everything I do is for my benefit now and I don't have to train monkeys anymore!
There were no forms by the way, badly designed or otherwise. We just needed simple information, three columns, three pieces of data - a name, a date and a course code. Really hard to screw up you would have thought.
Luckily, I enjoy the days and nights without dealing with idiots any more. Hey, I'm not rich but I'm sooo much happier because everything I do is for my benefit now and I don't have to train monkeys anymore!
-7
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To "Equitable Joe"... I read your post and I'm sorry, these issues have nothing to do with the poster being an "Excel geek" but rather managers who can't follow a simple set of instructions because they don't think that rules apply to them or they simply don't bother to understand the process. The first people that get fired in a down turn is middle management because they're mostly expendable... the job will continue to get done with upper management and those in the trenches. My experience is that as with people, there are good managers, average managers, managers who don't understand anything about the jobs their employees are doing but don't mess the process up and then those managers who make the lives of everyone around them miserable.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, manage. Think about it.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, manage. Think about it.
+1
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I have had alot of Managers and I can confirm that 99% of those in that position only got their job because of who they know. Knowledge and skills do not come into it, in fact the thicker they are the more likely they will be to get the job. Big companies do not want people will a mind of their own in management positions, they want YES men!
-2
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Get in the real world. - 9-Apr-08 22:29
Sounds like the whole of the original griper's problem was a set of badly designed forms, forms which are incapable of capturing real-life data with all its imperfections and missing values.
If the original griper does not understand this, they will remain an inconsequential cog in someone else's grinding machine for the rest of their working life.
If the original griper does not understand this, they will remain an inconsequential cog in someone else's grinding machine for the rest of their working life.
-4
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