Comments on: Who Are You to Judge Your Manager?

By: Carnival of HR – The Hangover Edition « TalentedApps

Carnival of HR – The Hangover Edition « TalentedApps — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:07:09 +0000

[...] Jason Seiden shares an incredibly awkward yet powerful lesson in understanding the other person’s perspective in Who Are You to Judge Your Manager? [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:40:24 +0000

Well, my hat’s off to you whether it was gutsy or not. Glad — for everyone — it worked out.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:03:04 +0000

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.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:34:21 +0000

For Wally…

Who made the decision to bring the wife into the equation? That took some professional and personal guts. Wow.

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:08:23 +0000

@Wally—That’s a great story, Wally… with all of the humanity they don’t prepare you for in school…

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:32:22 +0000

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.

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:57:37 +0000

@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.)

By: Thomas Huynh

Thomas Huynh — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:28:04 +0000

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

By: Jason Seiden

Jason Seiden — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:23:11 +0000

@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.

By: @BenjaminMcCall

@BenjaminMcCall — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:43:42 +0000

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 LinkedIn