Poll: Are you a Manager?

[Descartes]

I'm technically a manager because I'm 1/3 owner of a consulting firm. I'm typically responsible for the hiring, making sure everyone has what they need, etc.

I personally prefer a very flat hierarchy. I don't look at management as above anyone else; rather, just someone specialized in a different role. Finding the absolute best talent and keeping them happy is a talent all by itself, and that's what I try to do. Creative people can't be managed, in my opinion; rather, you simply have to yield their talents to the most appropriate task at the moment while still giving them full creative license.

The above probably isn't the case for those that manage fast food restaurants or any other type of an environment where many of the workers aren't necessarily capable (or willing) of working independently. I think, at least at its most ideal, management's primary purpose should be to remove the obstacles in the way of the talent.

 

[ThePresence]

I used to be.
I'm in the process of opening my own company.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: DaShen

Originally posted by: J0hnny
I am a manager and directly review my employees (ie. their raise depends on ME!). Just curious who else is.

Edit, poll might be a bit off, but suggestions are welcomed.

Non management, programmer. I work very hard. Most people in the department know I work hard. Most know I am a team player (I help anyone out regardless of whether they are asses or not because it is about getting the work done). My manager is somewhat lazy, so it makes my job much harder. She knows I am a hard worker, but sometimes can be unreasonable with requests that are simply not able to be done. I have made a name for myself in the department, and I am doing good work. I have gotten a raise in my pay within 6 months of starting. I am getting a 2 step raise, more than likely, in a week on my review day.

But again, OP, there are bad managers and some people have them. That is all.

I'd like to know how you conclude she is lazy? Because she doesn't do the programming anymore, because she plays on the internet (which is exactly what you are doing), or because she just doesn't come to work? My guess is your impression is based solely on comparing what you do versus what you see her do. What you probably don't see are the meetings, paperwork, personnel issues and other crap she handles on a daily basis. I won't even count the beating she gets from senior management if something goes wrong in her department. If you think you have it bad when she gets on your case, you've seen nothing.

QFT... I can be lazy too. I would rather not say, because this stuff can come back to haunt me. I do have other offers right now, but I am unsure whether I should go because there is a lot of things I could do here to improve and even save money for the whole department.

But suffice to say I work for government, so this is common. She is a nice lady and a lot of her suggestions are okay, but because she does this stuff, it makes it much harder on me because I don't have much guidance on the business side on my applicatiosn and projects. This makes it so that I need to scramble to find anyone with information. I guess lately I have been annoyed because the only time she gives me suggestions is at the last minute when admin and department heads come to look at the progress, basically at UAT. This makes it harder to meet deadlines. I keep her informed throughout the process, but I only get feedback at the last minute. Also, she promises things that she is unsure of whether they can be done but expects me to do them even though it was never run by me or anyone else (a lot of managers do this, but I am talking about fully functional OS/App system stuff that one programmer cannot do in such a short period). We have 2 other "developers", but one only knows old systems and can't help more than business models, the other is someone who is incompetent. It took him literally 1 week and a half to make a simple survey and post it on the internet and collect data. I finally had to drop my work to give him code. (he is being transferred soon though, BTW he is also the person that has caused a lot of trouble in our department if anyone remembers my rants from before) :disgust: I helped him out anyways because it isn't really him that I am helping, but the department, as I see it. The other developer didn't want me to do a thing, but that would just hurt our overall performance.

Also, there were a few requests lately, which were impossible (the information does not exist anywhere in our current data (I have done the analysis) / so the solution would be for me to drop everything and start data entering into millions of records). I told her on those things that it couldn't be done at this time, she got angry and stormed out. I was trying to be professional about it, but she kept addressing the issue. I kept explaining it to her, but she couldn't accept it. She finally accepted it, and moved on, but that really pushed me over the edge. Now I am actually considering other jobs, even though I know I could do SO much good for this department. It has also made me slightly less enthusiastic about work, which hurts my performance.

 

[Electric Amish]

I'm in a position to have as many as 4 people under me.

 

[Kelemvor]

I'd remove the word Salaried from the description since lots of us are probably paid hourly and are non-managers.

 

[GeneValgene]

i <3 my manager

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: xospec1alk

Originally posted by: CPA

I'd like to know how you conclude she is lazy? Because she doesn't do the programming anymore, because she plays on the internet (which is exactly what you are doing), or because she just doesn't come to work? My guess is your impression is based solely on comparing what you do versus what you see her do. What you probably don't see are the meetings, paperwork, personnel issues and other crap she handles on a daily basis. I won't even count the beating she gets from senior management if something goes wrong in her department. If you think you have it bad when she gets on your case, you've seen nothing.

and the budgeting, the headcount...its not easy stuff...

She doesn't handle that stuff. As for Senior Management pressure, I understand that that happens and I try to deliver as quickly as possible. But for example, I was given a 1 month deadline to deliver an fully functional application, that also migrated the flat file and non-lossy information off our old system. She just promised it would be done in a month without actually analyzing the work. I pulled so many overtime hours, it was ridiculous. It also turned out that the flat file data was so garbled that I would have to spend time literally data mining and data entering, just to get the millions of records into the system. Even another manager in the IT department, told her in that meeting that maybe 1 month was unreasonable (which gave her a way out), but she promised it anyways.

I estimated, and I did contract work before, that that same application with the migration would have been estimated to 6 months in a contract environment.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: DaShen

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: DaShen

Originally posted by: J0hnny
I am a manager and directly review my employees (ie. their raise depends on ME!). Just curious who else is.

Edit, poll might be a bit off, but suggestions are welcomed.

Non management, programmer. I work very hard. Most people in the department know I work hard. Most know I am a team player (I help anyone out regardless of whether they are asses or not because it is about getting the work done). My manager is somewhat lazy, so it makes my job much harder. She knows I am a hard worker, but sometimes can be unreasonable with requests that are simply not able to be done. I have made a name for myself in the department, and I am doing good work. I have gotten a raise in my pay within 6 months of starting. I am getting a 2 step raise, more than likely, in a week on my review day.

But again, OP, there are bad managers and some people have them. That is all.

I'd like to know how you conclude she is lazy? Because she doesn't do the programming anymore, because she plays on the internet (which is exactly what you are doing), or because she just doesn't come to work? My guess is your impression is based solely on comparing what you do versus what you see her do. What you probably don't see are the meetings, paperwork, personnel issues and other crap she handles on a daily basis. I won't even count the beating she gets from senior management if something goes wrong in her department. If you think you have it bad when she gets on your case, you've seen nothing.

But suffice to say I work for government,

I retract my statement, and solidly support you.