I'm off doing TEA stuff and this thread is moving at the speed of light. Don't you guys have anything to do today?
Nope, because there're all managers in some way or other They would do well to remember this, the true definition of a manager:-
A manager is a person who achieves results through the efforts of others,
Take away the others, and they are about as useful as a sack full of shit, as they say, those who can DO and those who can't become managers
That certainly was the trouble with my last company I worked for, management increased all the time, workforce shrank but the workforce was tasked with an ever-increasing workload for in effect a decreasing reward and zero respect for their efforts.
I work on the following principle of management.
1. Manager tells me what to do and the period in which to do it in.
2. I agree entirely and say yes etc.
3. Then I go and do exactly what the fuck I think is right which is completely the opposite to 2.
4. Manager is now faced with the dilemma of admitting that I didn't do anything he asked and looking like a bad manager or taking credit for it.
5. Inevitably the type it attracts tend to go to the second option at which point I now own them.
6. After Nth attempt the manager is tea boy and just does what I ask so I can keep giving him things that are good to report back.
Yep, managers are good at taking the credit for your efforts, and in fact your method was indeed my method as well and indeed worked up to a point where I would always commit to writing what I had done, or required in order to progress to next level, which worked until the management grew to such an extent that I was told on many occasions that nobody had the time to read my many requests, but to save time make such requests verbally. This even came down to me from the MD on many occasions and I become accused of being a keyboard warrior etc. and getting peoples backs up, but verbal requests were adequate.
I tried verbal requests but these were subsequently denied had been made, and I was then asked why if the verbal request had been ignored had I not put it into writing. I also discovered that things I told my manager verbally had taken and passed onto his superior as if my achievements had come about as a direct result of his management input and that without his direction and instructions, I was like a coat hanger on a rail, waiting to be taken down and told what to do. So forgive me if anyone thinks I have a rather jaundiced viewpoint of management. I do and it comes from a lifetime of observations and one only has to look at some managers CV to observe this first hand at the sheer number of jobs they have had since becoming senior management, some lasting only a few months, and yet these were the very people telling me what how I should be doing my role, one that I have many years of being successful in, but to become more successful required the company to make an investment in some additional "tools" and they didn't want to invest a few miserly 100's of £ because of their lack of understanding the problems, because local management was making the claims that were directly responsible for the work I was bringing in, and I was not prepared to follow all their instructions.
I decided to it was time to retire and since I have been retired I hear through the grapevine that they have suffered badly because they could not recruit a suitable replacement for my role and my local manager and his superior who had been so dominant that their methods worked and mine didn't, were also unable to fill my boots and so that particular function with the company now no longer exists. When a company has more Chiefs than Indians then clearly something is wrong.