The Work Thread 2 - Get back to work!

[Green Gecko]

That's simple. It's because managers always have to look for problems in people to justify their jobs, or their managers start questioning their effectiveness.

What's the point of paying managers higher salaries if the people are managing themselves effectively?

Yeah, try answering that.

[aayl1]

I just don't understand how they can be so bad at managing staff. The second we start doing really well, get the overall ticket numbers down and everyone starts to feel happy they start getting anal over strawberry floating nothing. It achieves nothing and all it does is make people hate working.

You need to be constantly working. If there's nothing to work on you find something to work on.

If there's nothing to manage those middle managers will be out of a job.

Gotta look busy.

[Green Gecko]

I think a lot of the time managers are too well paid, so they panic and make gooseberry fool up that makes no sense and makes everyone's lives miserable. But if you can invent performance metrics and then measure those, it gives you something to do, seeing as when it comes to product, well, it's strawberry floating nothing.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

I need to stop leaving my copy of Evil Bastard People Management for Dummies lying around this place. You're all finding out too many of our secrets!

[Kezzer]

AMAB

[Qikz]

AMAB

100% this.

Maybe if they did some actual work and less unnecessary micromanaging I wouldn't care as much.

[Cuttooth]

Most good operational middle managers I know are more than content with the teams they manage "doing well" and don't look to push their teams beyond that. Those that need to always be proving their own worth I find to be in areas or companies where career progression is locked down to the tradition of having to manage people. So you get tonnes of people without the necessary skills or passion trying to be responsible for other staff mainly because "it's the thing you're meant to do next".

[Qikz]

Most good operational middle managers I know are more than content with the teams they manage "doing well" and don't look to push their teams beyond that. Those that need to always be proving their own worth I find to be in areas or companies where career progression is locked down to the tradition of having to manage people. So you get tonnes of people without the necessary skills or passion trying to be responsible for other staff mainly because "it's the thing you're meant to do next".

Middle management is entirely pointless. It exists purely to give people a way to move up from what they were doing and get another title.

If anything from my personal experience all middle management has ever done is made things worse. It's so much harder to actually do your work when you have someone trying to micromanage everything you do. I've been here 5 strawberry floating years, been one of the best members of staff in terms of ticket closures, lack of complaints and efficiency. You telling me to do pointless gooseberry fool that I could ignore and do actual work can go strawberry float off. Your suggestions are wank and you've got no idea how any of this works.

[Dual]

But who middle manages the middle managers?

[Rocsteady]

Most good operational middle managers I know are more than content with the teams they manage "doing well" and don't look to push their teams beyond that. Those that need to always be proving their own worth I find to be in areas or companies where career progression is locked down to the tradition of having to manage people. So you get tonnes of people without the necessary skills or passion trying to be responsible for other staff mainly because "it's the thing you're meant to do next".

Middle management is entirely pointless. It exists purely to give people a way to move up from what they were doing and get another title.

If anything from my personal experience all middle management has ever done is made things worse. It's so much harder to actually do your work when you have someone trying to micromanage everything you do. I've been here 5 strawberry floating years, been one of the best members of staff in terms of ticket closures, lack of complaints and efficiency. You telling me to do pointless gooseberry fool that I could ignore and do actual work can go strawberry float off. Your suggestions are wank and you've got no idea how any of this works.

You do realise that your experience in one role doesn't necessarily reflect management across every organisation, right?

[Qikz]

Most good operational middle managers I know are more than content with the teams they manage "doing well" and don't look to push their teams beyond that. Those that need to always be proving their own worth I find to be in areas or companies where career progression is locked down to the tradition of having to manage people. So you get tonnes of people without the necessary skills or passion trying to be responsible for other staff mainly because "it's the thing you're meant to do next".

Middle management is entirely pointless. It exists purely to give people a way to move up from what they were doing and get another title.

If anything from my personal experience all middle management has ever done is made things worse. It's so much harder to actually do your work when you have someone trying to micromanage everything you do. I've been here 5 strawberry floating years, been one of the best members of staff in terms of ticket closures, lack of complaints and efficiency. You telling me to do pointless gooseberry fool that I could ignore and do actual work can go strawberry float off. Your suggestions are wank and you've got no idea how any of this works.

You do realise that your experience in one role doesn't necessarily reflect management across every organisation, right?

I support over 100 smaller businesses and I can tell you first hand that middle management in all of those companies is pointless. Maybe it serves its purpose in big organisations but I'm yet to see it ever make a positive impact on smaller businesses.

[Tomous]

Most good operational middle managers I know are more than content with the teams they manage "doing well" and don't look to push their teams beyond that. Those that need to always be proving their own worth I find to be in areas or companies where career progression is locked down to the tradition of having to manage people. So you get tonnes of people without the necessary skills or passion trying to be responsible for other staff mainly because "it's the thing you're meant to do next".

Middle management is entirely pointless. It exists purely to give people a way to move up from what they were doing and get another title.

If anything from my personal experience all middle management has ever done is made things worse. It's so much harder to actually do your work when you have someone trying to micromanage everything you do. I've been here 5 strawberry floating years, been one of the best members of staff in terms of ticket closures, lack of complaints and efficiency. You telling me to do pointless gooseberry fool that I could ignore and do actual work can go strawberry float off. Your suggestions are wank and you've got no idea how any of this works.

You do realise that your experience in one role doesn't necessarily reflect management across every organisation, right?

I support over 100 smaller businesses and I can tell you first hand that middle management in all of those companies is pointless. Maybe it serves its purpose in big organisations but I'm yet to see it ever make a positive impact on smaller businesses.

To be fair, no you can't. There's no way you can judge their overall impact across those smaller businesses, you're just saying a narrow view, with the impact in a specific area.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving.

StayDead, there's a lot of money to be made here. You should take up consultancy positions in all these firms and show them how to work much more efficiently and save money by simply removing all layers of middle management.

[Qikz]

I just strawberry floating hate middle management. I have a narrow view, but in my life I've never met someone who was a middle manager who wasn't a total bellend.

[Tomous]

I feel personally attacked.

[Cuttooth]

:lol:

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving.

StayDead, there's a lot of money to be made here. You should take up consultancy positions in all these firms and show them how to work much more efficiently and save money by simply removing all layers of middle management.

Just missing the smirk emoji.

[Red]

If every middle manager you've met is a bellend, it might be worth asking, 'am I the problem?'

[Victor Mildew]

Staydead also works in I.T. so it's a warped view of the world anyway.

[Sandy]

I support over 100 smaller businesses and I can tell you first hand that middle management in all of those companies is pointless. Maybe it serves its purpose in big organisations but I'm yet to see it ever make a positive impact on smaller businesses.

The CEO or MD of a company can't make decisions on every single thing that comes along. So they create rules and guidelines and then delegate certain amounts of decision making to a rung of management below them. The larger the company the more rungs there are.

If anything I would say middle management is more effective in a smaller company because there are less points of dilution.

The structure is pretty sound. The problem is normally the types of people that are put in middle management positions.

[Dual]

:lol:

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving.

StayDead, there's a lot of money to be made here. You should take up consultancy positions in all these firms and show them how to work much more efficiently and save money by simply removing all layers of middle management.

He will become the very thing he swore to destroy.