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Once I had a great job, I managed myself most of the time and was trusted to just 'get on with it'. Then the company got busier and started hiring more people

by dazc 8y ago

Once I had a great job, I managed myself most of the time and was trusted to just 'get on with it'. Then the company got busier and started hiring more people who were less able to manage themselves. As a consequence, I acquired a manager who wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be doing. This led to situations where he would need to do things that justified his existence, like phoning me every hour to ask 'how it was going', 'where was I, and so on... Needless to say, I started enjoying my job much less... Then, when it became obvious my new manager wasn't coping so well, they gave him an assistant. You can probably guess how that panned out?

vinceguidry 8y ago
> This led to situations where he would need to do things that justified his existence, like phoning me every hour to ask 'how it was going', 'where was I, and so on... You missed a great opportunity to manage upwards. Surely you have some meaningless menial tasks in your job that you hate to perform? Excellent delegation material! You know what they say, many hands make for lighter work. They hired him an assistant? Looks like you just acquired a whole department!
jon-wood 8y ago
This just sounds like you ended up with a bad manager, rather than a failure inherent to all management. A good manager would have recognised that you're pretty much capable of knowing where to focus your effort, and generally get that call right - given that they can be more or less hands off, but provide you with a screen from things that really shouldn't be getting near you in the first place, and a route to push things up the chain when needed without having to shepard them along.