Once upon a time, I was the managing goofball of a team of 25 other dot-com goofballs, and I had a guy work for me who quit.
Who I then had to fire when he tried to unquit.
Short version of the story: Josh (not really his name) had a discussion with someone from another company that went something like this:
“Hey, you’re a cool guy. You should come work with us.”
“Totally! That’d be awesome.”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to some folks and make that happen.”
Josh then publicly quit, presuming that this conversation equaled “firm job offer.” See where this is going?
As his manager, I was—naturally—the last to learn about it. When I did, I asked him to tell me the story. I told him it didn’t sound solid and suggested he sleep on things before making a final decision. I suggested that he keep quiet, so that if things went south, he and I could preserve his job. He was a good guy, a decent performer, we were all peers, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, so I figured as long as he wasn’t a jacknut about it, I’d take care of him; no problem.
Fast forward 10 days. Josh has been making clear on a daily basis just how excited he is about getting out.
Until the new gig doesn’t materialize.
I bet you saw that one coming!
Josh flies into my office.
“I’m not quitting.”
“Hmm.”
“Seriously. The offer fell through. I’m not leaving.”
“Josh, we talked about this. You’re leaving.”
“But I’m not quitting anymore.”
“You already quit. Past tense.”
“No, that’s what I’m saying, I take that back.”
“Then I have to fire you. Today’s your last day, Josh.”
“What?!”
There were tears. It was bad. I still remember the feeling from that conversation, which I can sum up with one word: crummy.
Josh probably hated me at that moment. Maybe for a long time after, too. He probably thought I was a joke of a manager, and maybe I was. But this isn’t a referendum on my management (yet), which I’m sure could have been better. It’s about how competent Josh would have been to judge the situation.
I say: not very.
I tell this story because I saw this statistic from this company’s report that 51% of workers think that there aren’t enough qualified managers, and I immediately wonder:
How many Joshes took that survey?
We have a lot of work to do in corporate America building a better management class. Including developing a realistic understanding of what managers do and accepting that as workers, we sometimes lack sufficient span of vision to assess managerial decisions.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to start introducing content on my blog from Super Staying Power, to show how to elevate your perspective from worker to manager.
Whatever you do, you need to understand the manager’s perspective… even if all you do with it is accurately assess the performance of your manager.
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My thought on the end of your story: It is always funny to see people complain about management, especially middle mgmt & then, if they are unlucky ~ become a part of management. Many individuals have the flexibility to compain & cry when they are a subordinate “if I was a manager, I would change things and be much cooler than mine is.”
Then they realize that it is not as simple as they thought. As an subordinate you can have the freedom to only do task or basics. As a manager you do your tasks, sometimes the subordinates tasks, as well as think about all the other stuff that may or may not come up.
ahhh the life!
Twitter: @BenjaminMcCall
Website: http://ReThinkHR.org
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@Benjamin—There’s a great old movie from the ’30s starring Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone about a WWI flying ace who thinks his squadron’s commander is a buffoon… until he finds himself in his commander’s position and comes to understand things in a whole new light. It’s a great movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030044/ and makes your point nicely.
Jason, your story is truly unfortunate that it had to end up that way, but sometimes people need to take it as a life lesson, a life education and move on. Regarding criticism of management, it’s like getting parenting criticism from people who don’t have kids. Until they’re knee-deep in the role, they absolutely don’t know what they’re talking about.
Thomas
@Thomas—You said it, my friend. How great would it be if we could learn from other people’s mistakes? We could get a lot more done in life if we didn’t have to constantly relearn the basics.
(I’ll let you know when I can get myself on that plan, btw.)
Nice job, Jason. I’ve often said that newly promoted managers are “Instant Idiots.” One day you’re a smart person working for an idiot of a boss. As soon as you’re promoted, you become the Idiot.
Your story also reminded me of one from my career. I was working as the general manager for a trucking and rigging company. I fired a man who was unable to do the job.
The next day, the Yard Boss came to my office and told me that the young man had clocked in and was working in the yard. “I thought you said you’d fired him.”
I brought the man up to the office. Explained that he was no longer working there, reviewed the reasons, and asked if he understood. He said he did. He left.
The next day I got to the office a little late and the Yard Boss met me in the parking lot. “He’s back. Can’t you even fire someone?” I repeated the process of the previous day.
The next day, he showed up again, but this time I caught him at the timeclock. We went to my office. The young man started to cry.
It turned out that he was afraid to tell his wife that he’d been fired. So he packed his lunch and put on his safety boots every morning and left and went back to work.
We wound up getting his wife involved, which turned out to be a very good thing. She, in turn, got their Pastor involved for some counseling. He never came back to the yard. It was a happy ending.
The ending was made happier about two years later. The man sent me an invitation to his graduation from technical school. This “bad penny” crisis helped him realize that he was working in the wrong kind of job. With his wife’s support, he had gone to school and gotten some training that helped him land a job doing something he loved. I’m sure he was better at it than he was at working for us.
@Wally—That’s a great story, Wally… with all of the humanity they don’t prepare you for in school…
For Wally…
Who made the decision to bring the wife into the equation? That took some professional and personal guts. Wow.
I made the decision, Ed, but I didn’t and don’t see it as gutsy. It seemed like the only way to get real resolution on the issue. This one worked out well. As you know, they all don’t.
Well, my hat’s off to you whether it was gutsy or not. Glad — for everyone — it worked out.