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This kind of thing does indeed happen with alarming frequency. I used to work for a transport consultancy and we had a lot of jetsam left over from when that pa

by mickeyp 13y ago

This kind of thing does indeed happen with alarming frequency. I used to work for a transport consultancy and we had a lot of jetsam left over from when that particular transport industry was government-owned, and those guys... well, we never really knew what they did. They'd been with the company (and before then, the gov't) for decades but few knew what they did all day. They worked 9-5 and seemingly had their fingers in lots of pies, but nobody could quite tell what it was they did; occasionally they'd chime in in meetings or get drafted by managers to do stuff as they were "Subject Matter Experts" but ultimately they reported to nobody in particular, and had no real clout or job function beyond looking busy and massaging excel spreadsheets. One guy in particular had a "birthday cake club" that he managed with ruthless efficiency; if you were a new starter you had to tell him your birthdate and he would allocate you a date where you'd bring in cake for everyone else in the office. He had a spreadsheet and everything. When it was somebody's turn to give away cake he'd go into each wing of our office and announce that cakes were ready, then bolt back to the kitchen to have first dips. Very strange guy - nobody knew what he really did beside that. One day he was gone -- early retirement -- and the cake club, and spreadsheet, left with him.

dirktheman 13y ago
YES! It's been a while, but you suddenly reminded me of a similar arrangement we had for fetching coffee. We also used an elaborate Excel spreadsheet that took into account how much coffee you drank, the percentage of part-time (old geezers get to work less hours for the same pay, so it's only fair that they get to fetch less coffee, right?), off-days, holidays, etcetera. I'm pretty sure it was the most used spreadsheet of the entire department.
vacri 13y ago
I once asked a colleague in the inventory department what his boss actually did, his boss managing inventory and factory floor. I knew he did scheduling and also programming security dongles (2 min job a couple of times/week). My colleague was given the scheduling to keep him interested enough to stay (inventory is dull...) and I was puzzled as to what his boss now did. "So, apart from reprogram dongles, what does he do?" > "I don't know either" "No, I'm not trying to be funny here, you work with him, what does he actually do?" > "I'm not being funny, I actually have no idea what he does with his time"
- dirktheman 13y ago
  I had a boss who was full time manager over six persons. That was his job. Managing 6 people. We had a weekly chat with him for about 10 minutes each. That leaves him with 4 days and 7 hours of which nobody knew what he was doing...
  - tanzam75 13y ago
    Meetings with the other managers. I knew someone who was put into a partial-managerial role, i.e., still did real work, but counted as only half an FTE for the purposes of project planning. The management role was to oversee two people. So if half a manager is for two people, it's not that great a leap to get to a full-manager for six people.
  - dangero 13y ago
    I would say that's pretty normal and even reasonable. It depends on what the people do, but managing 6 people can easily be a full time job. I've actually been a manager of 6 people and found myself with no time to do anything else, but manage them. As a manager of a software team, my goal is to make sure that everyone on the team is completely unblocked to do their job, so even though I only had 6 one on one employee meetings a week, I have meetings with managers, meetings for updates on projects, budgeting meetings, meetings to report to the company executives, getting all the signatures required for large purchases, meetings to discuss planning for future projects, meetings to plan our new process integration, meetings with higher ups to try to correct issues for my team. At one point I had 6 hours of meetings a day, so I think it adds up quickly. I'm not saying my company was efficient, but that's the reality of even a midsize company.

by mickeyp 13y ago

dirktheman 13y ago

YES! It's been a while, but you suddenly reminded me of a similar arrangement we had for fetching coffee. We also used an elaborate Excel spreadsheet that took into account how much coffee you drank, the percentage of part-time (old geezers get to work less hours for the same pay, so it's only fair that they get to fetch less coffee, right?), off-days, holidays, etcetera. I'm pretty sure it was the most used spreadsheet of the entire department.

vacri 13y ago

I once asked a colleague in the inventory department what his boss actually did, his boss managing inventory and factory floor. I knew he did scheduling and also programming security dongles (2 min job a couple of times/week). My colleague was given the scheduling to keep him interested enough to stay (inventory is dull...) and I was puzzled as to what his boss now did. "So, apart from reprogram dongles, what does he do?" > "I don't know either" "No, I'm not trying to be funny here, you work with him, what does he actually do?" > "I'm not being funny, I actually have no idea what he does with his time"

dirktheman 13y ago
I had a boss who was full time manager over six persons. That was his job. Managing 6 people. We had a weekly chat with him for about 10 minutes each. That leaves him with 4 days and 7 hours of which nobody knew what he was doing...
- tanzam75 13y ago
  Meetings with the other managers. I knew someone who was put into a partial-managerial role, i.e., still did real work, but counted as only half an FTE for the purposes of project planning. The management role was to oversee two people. So if half a manager is for two people, it's not that great a leap to get to a full-manager for six people.
- dangero 13y ago
  I would say that's pretty normal and even reasonable. It depends on what the people do, but managing 6 people can easily be a full time job. I've actually been a manager of 6 people and found myself with no time to do anything else, but manage them. As a manager of a software team, my goal is to make sure that everyone on the team is completely unblocked to do their job, so even though I only had 6 one on one employee meetings a week, I have meetings with managers, meetings for updates on projects, budgeting meetings, meetings to report to the company executives, getting all the signatures required for large purchases, meetings to discuss planning for future projects, meetings to plan our new process integration, meetings with higher ups to try to correct issues for my team. At one point I had 6 hours of meetings a day, so I think it adds up quickly. I'm not saying my company was efficient, but that's the reality of even a midsize company.