Sometimes bad management is a pain in the ass, literally, figuratively and whatever other -ely you want to add..
People skills, soft skills, the hardest things to quantify, why is the Dilbert Principle still so predominant?
Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management, in order to limit the amount of damage that they’re capable of doing. In terms of effectiveness, it is related to a band of gorillas choosing an alpha-squirrel to lead them.
And well yah it happens, in Asia it also tends to happen because of who knows who, not who knows what.
Sad but true.
The worst thing you can do to your employees is tell them you need something by tommorow on pain of death so they work till 2am to do it pouring blood sweat and tears into it..
Then look blankly at them the next day and say what thing? No nothing is happening, no rush..
Same things for longer terms…make someone work every day till 2am for 2-3 weeks to finish a project…then when the deadline passes, nothing happens, no action is taken, the final result just sits there.
People get demoralised, they stop working hard, they stop caring about the company and the outcome of projects.
The whole ethos of the company can change, everyone stops respecting deadlines and responsiblities for what they are because the management doesn’t follow up and they don’t mean what they say.
So why bother listening in the first place right?
It has a knock on effect, it makes everyone unresponsive, even to each other, you have to fight to get things done, even when it is important..because of bad management.
Thankfully most people with brains learn to quantify and assign priorities to tasks so they do get done within reasonable timelines.
Not the timelines given by the incompetent managers..
But still, it ends up with a big mess..
I love the dilbert principle 🙂 the book i mean 🙂
Everything is due yesterday mentality, utter horshit that we have to put up to.
No big deal, I will never let bad management slip by without a fight.
I am a troublemaker because I will fuck the manager when he fucks up schedules or when he sadistically wants to display his authority by working us to death.
Then again, I am always ready to lose the job.
I can be a very good employee ONLY if I get a manager worth any respect from me. (Never met anyone worth respecting so far)
Otherwise, I will make life hell for those who try to make mine one as well.
I’ve thumbed my nose at my CEO a few times and several times he avoided a direct confrontation with me, because I am also known for very loud voice and bad temper when challenged, he himself is one bad tempered fuck, kicking tables, chairs, screaming when he’s pissed off, but these posers wouldn’t dare do the same shit with me.
Too bad they need me more than I need them that time. 😉
I am ready to quit anytime but they’re not ready to lose me in the middle of an important project.
just like shadow, i tends to fight the mgmt but damn, what does that gets me ? Into a pot of boiling oil. on top of that, they freeze me…chuckle ! so, to avoid that and to avoid, shoe polishing, I just keep my BIG mouth shut and just do my work. Lots of BMW here – Bare Minimum Work ppl …but thats life….
The thing they won’t do is give u moral support, praise you and give u a raise.
because we slave to make them rich and make their life more comfortable. anyone that think Slavery is dead ? go shoot yourself.
Best way to deal is by undercutting them, planning great sabotage, get a fix of meth onto their coffee….
But then nowadays the employee has a mind of his own. They still need management but generally once the work is given they have to try to complete it successfully.
No one’s disputing the need for management.. What we’re disputing is the need for just ANY management.
Management people must be of quality material, not people who do not understand the scope of our work and mismanages our timeline and project scale, and abuses his authority to show he has power and bully us.
Maybe as a warning to that fucktard, first thing to do is smash his car secretly with a brick as a warning/threat. Usually this act alone is more than enough to threaten the guy, and will make most bullies (Most of them are cowards anyway) into resigning.
My understanding is that these bully managers are cowards in real life and won’t stand up to a real fight.
@SmartFox: Reading your post was like reading myself. 🙂 Loud voice, a temper… and also ready to quit anytime.
Incidentally, the company I’m now working for seems to go down the drain because of a terrible case of mis-management. I can recall numerous occasions when ‘mismanagement’ wants the company to go in a certain direction, focussing on a certain area, that the technical department has always warned them of any problems, possibly infeasabilities, etcetera. They are always to happy to ignore the advice from the people who know because they rather believe what their friend-manager tried to convince them off.
The spineless, full-of-crap managers that say one thing to you to keep you happy, whilst they say something else to their superiours, to keep them happy, and they’re stupid and naive enough to think that we don’t know that they’re up to no good and are only trying to save their own ass in stead of the company’s.
This fat-ass in my office that’s supposed to be my ‘manager’ is one of those spineless bastards.
We’ve stopped fighting mis-management because, basically, we stopped caring… It’s just a matter of sitting back, relax and watch the company decay even further to say, once again, `Hey, we told you so — you just didn’t want to know.‘.
Chill, ST… chill.
Here’s my 2 cents on handling such situations.
STEP 1:
Figure out whether your manager’s actions are worth getting upset over (i.e. does anything really happen if you ignore him).
Depending on answer, go to track A or B
TRACK A
STEP 2A:
If they are, talk to him in a calm, diplomatic manner. Be firm, but not rude (screaming and shouting never gained anybody respect – and you’ve got to be real inexperienced if you believe it does).
In most cases, having a calm discussion and giving polite reminders will do much more. If you don’t step on someone’s ego, you’re more likely to gain some level of cooperation.
In fact, it’s even funnier if you can remain calm while your manager ends up losing his cool – because that means you’re in control of the conversation and he knows it.
STEP 3A:
If he doesn’t concede and if you are 100% sure that it’s something worth fighting for (and are pretty damn sure that it’s not you who is at fault), take it to his boss in an orderly fashion – set up an appointment and get all the necessary documents and memos ready.
STEP 4A: If you succeed, then power to you. But unfortunately, that’s not how office politics normally work in real life. Often, something else (whether real or not) will be brought up against you, thus making you look like a complete idiot – which is why you have to be 100% sure before you march on.
And of course, make sure that you’re not an easily replaceable goon before you even think of doing this. All people overestimate their importance in an organisation – it’s only natural.
TRACK B
STEP 2B:
If it’s not important, just tell your manager “Ok, I’ll do it” and do the bare minimum, concentrating instead on what’s really important instead (assuming you’re not a completely lazy person yourself).
STEP 3B:
After hours, grab yourself a pint.
I’m glad most of you don’t work for me – bare minimum work, sabotage, etc, etc!
As for promoting useless employees, in Malaysia one may have no choice. Labour Laws make it almost impossible to fire staff even if they are useless, so if they are screwing up a project then one has to shuffle them off somewhere else.
Employees with decent work ethics are pretty difficult to find in Malaysia, while tricks like clocking in then eating breakfast, taking maximum MC EVERY month, jumping ship for RM10/month extra. etc are far too common.