is it me or is everyone some sort of manager at work?

[rh71]

do they just hand out these titles like candy these days?

Can someone be a manager of one aspect of their company's operations (even if small), not necessarily a group of employees, and have the title? WTF is going on? Apparently 75%+ of my linkedin contacts have manager in their title... maybe I'm just going up the wrong career path. I apparently know 3 VPs too and these are not your gray-haired execs... these are 30-year olds like you and me.

 

[Bignate603]

Yes, my plumber is a manager of fecal blockages.

 

[Vehemence]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Yes, my plumber is a manager of fecal blockages.

Hey me too

 

[gorcorps]

There's a lot of managers at my place, but that's because it's a monstrous company. All of the managers hired that are called 'managers' have a degree, 90% of which are some sort of engineering.

 

[Kirby]

Nope. I'm a Engineering Student Trainee. I think they choose the ghey title to establish dominance over us. It works.

 

[nakedfrog]

I've never had a manager title, but I've managed a couple projects with up to four people under me.

 

[S Freud]

I am the lowest of peons where I work.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Yes, my company has a number of managers and directors without any reports.

 

[QTPie]

At my company of about 250 people, the IT Manager has ONE employee and some other department managers/supervisors have 2-3 employees. There is also a director that manages only 1 person.
I told them that someday they had to bid and pay for having employees. lol

 

[cthulhu]

Originally posted by: rh71
do they just hand out these titles like candy these days?

Yes, because calling someone "manager" or "vp" is cheaper than giving raises. And some people are fooled into thinking a title is better than a raise.

 

[Brovane]

Never had a manager title. I am just responsible for myself.

 

[Ns1]

anybody who is a "manager" who doesn't have people working under them is no manager.

 

[nublikescake]

Originally posted by: cthulhu

Originally posted by: rh71
do they just hand out these titles like candy these days?

Yes, because calling someone "manager" or "vp" is cheaper than giving raises. And some people are fooled into thinking a title is better than a raise.

Yes. HR plays with your mind. :Q

 

[LS21]

what about business development manager?

 

[scruffypup]

Many customer service positions try to give their entry level peon type of jobs a name for the position which makes it sound to the customer that they are more than a peon,.... "special service account manager", "insurance services manager", etc. There are many take offs of this that are not always "manager", for example, "computer support engineer" (was a microsoft windows 9x peon with no engineering classes needed). If I had to think harder I could come up with many more real life examples,... but I don't like to think to hard.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Around here the Structure is like this
VP <--- Directors <--- Managers <--- Team Managers <--- Team Leads <--- Peons in Support
All of the Peons in my Dept report to our team managers.
We also have an "executive assistant" who reports to our director

Essentially, everybody with "manager" in their title has people under them ...
Team Leads usually oversee 3-10 people.
Team Manager usually oversee 2+ teams, or larger teams with 10-15 people.
Managers usually cover multiple team managers and all of their teams ... overall anywhere from 20 to 50 people
Then Directors cover several managers, usually 100+ people under them, and they report directly to a VP.

Of course the company I work for, different divisions have different layouts ...
The help center had supervisors instead of team managers .... and they were in charge of 20 or so people ...
In Development where I am now, almost every developer is technically a "project manager" since we all do our own project management. (note: the title though is Programmer/Analyst for many, System Engineer for those guys with like 20 years experience who know TONS, and Systems Architect for the true elites.)

 

[trmiv]

They love to give people the "Director" title here. In addition to the many plain "Directors" there are many "Executive Directors" and "Managing Directors" and "Senior Directors." There are also a ton of VP's at this company.

 

[Fritzo]

I'm more of a director, thank you very much

 

[bignateyk]

I am the Executive Senior Vice President of the water fund. All I need to do now is get that bastard Bob fired and I can take over as the President.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Ns1
anybody who is a "manager" who doesn't have people working under them is no manager.

why does it have to be people that they manage?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Ns1
anybody who is a "manager" who doesn't have people working under them is no manager.

why does it have to be people that they manage?

So, farmers and herders are managers because they manage livestock?

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Ns1
anybody who is a "manager" who doesn't have people working under them is no manager.

why does it have to be people that they manage?

So, farmers and herders are managers because they manage livestock?

if there isn't already a title that fits, why not?

 

[Tobolo]

Originally posted by: S Freud
I am the lowest of peons where I work.

Yeah the fry cook at McDonalds is a lowly profession.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Ns1
anybody who is a "manager" who doesn't have people working under them is no manager.

why does it have to be people that they manage?

So, farmers and herders are managers because they manage livestock?

if there isn't already a title that fits, why not?

The point is it is diluting the term... if you're a manager, you are not partaking an active role in analysis (not talking about excel reports here), engineering, development, support, etc. You are overseeing those who do. Manage, not do. That's why there's an ongoing line that says managers get all the credit while the peons do the dirty work. But at least they are superior, position-wise. If everybody's a fricken manager, what's the point of hierarchy?

I develop/support for a few applications for a contract of ours and there are subject matter experts for each one and I have a team lead. He should be the manager (which he is, just not mine), not all the SMEs that I deal with as well, but as it stands, all of them have manager in their title... every last one of them. It's ridiculous to see the org chart like that.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've noticed the same thing too. All fancy titles like "Product Service Manager" and "IT services Manager" (not the same as "IT Manager"). There are probably like 5 managers at the company I work for that are IT related, but they all have their own role.

In fact I worked for the same company as student and I was considered a manager. To avoid loosing the server guys during any type of strike, they just made Level 3 a management position. Think that's what lot of companies do with positions they can't afford to have people on the picket line, in the event of a strike.