Santanu Mukherjee (Joy)
Recently I had an experience in interviewing a candidate. When I asked her the reason behind her change in job, she replied “My Boss”. “Your Boss! But How?” That was my obvious question. She replied “ I do all the work. My Boss is lazy and he always puts pressure on me. I even do his assignments. So I think I should get the chair of my Boss and his salary.”
It is very clear I rejected this rebellion lady. But a thought came in my mind. How many people suffer from this syndrome “I contribute more than my Boss”.
I remember in initial days of my career , I used to get feedback from my peers about my the-then Boss exactly the identical which the lady told. Somehow my immature brain started to believe the same. Later on when I slowly gained experience I saw that as you climb up the ladder your tasks are no more quantifiable. Because you no more deliver measurable outputs in terms of tasks done but contribute to the growth of the company as a whole. That creates an illusion to the juniors that Boss is not working. My Boss once said me “Managers are like salts- whose presence is not felt but absence makes the food tasteless.” Now I realize it is so true.
Another common issue that the employees face is they feel that they are victimized of office politics. They feel depressed and often leave their stable job. For them my advice is “STOP. RE-THINK. First find the answers of the following queries:
1. Do you feel the next office is free from office politics
2. Why you feel you are victimized
3. What is the gain that your manager will get by victimizing you
4. Have you tried out other options like speaking about your problems with your Boss/ Escallating your issues to the top management?
5. Have you set your expectations right
I feel the change of job should always be for a better career option and not for escape. Because the escapists are never successful
I don’t disagree that office politics exists. But the theory of evolution says “Survival of the fittest”. And only way you can prove that your fittest, is by your output..
Some Managers are accused of favoring few people in the team. But remember he will never be at fault if his favoritism can ultimately prove beneficial for the company. If his decision affects the performance of the team then you need not worry. The company will take necessary action.
It happens at times that the gelling is not good with your manager. Somehow the chemistry is not working out. My suggestion will be simply perform at your best. Leave no margin of error. Don’t get mentally upset because that will affect your performance and put you in more trouble. All you need to do is perform at your best and show results to your Manager. I am sure you will gain his confidence and things will improve.
What I feel the focus of the people who are at the initial phase of the career is not to evaluate Manager’s performance but concentrate on self development and increasing efficiency. Even if you feel your manager is not supporting you, speak to him directly. Many confusions get clear once you speak face to face.
Just remember one thing. There is no alternative to hard work. If you are in the initial phase of your career then forget all. Just concentrate hard and produce profitable outputs.
You will be Manager very soon.
Very true! You have quite successfully put up the right facts. And this is your best write of all.
Nice post – I am glad that you are understanding things.
However, two comments:
1) You said – “If you are in the initial phase of your career then forget all. Just concentrate hard and produce profitable outputs.”
This is true not only for initial career, but through out your life. There is never an alternative for hard work. Experience acts as a catalyst, but does not get the job done!
2) You said – “Later on when I slowly gained experience I saw that as you climb up the ladder your tasks are no more quantifiable.”
Every job may not be quantifiable. However, there must be clear growth oriented goals for everybody with a deadline. The more senior you are, the more responsible you become to set those goals yourself in the overall scheme of things. This must be communicated / discussed with your boss. If this does not exist, then managers will gradually become obsolete (or in my language “old” and “outdated”)
Disclaimer: I could not spend a lot of time in analyzing the entire post and therefore my comments does not mean that I agree with every point made in the post.
You just raised your game Santanu!
If you allow me to be critical on this post- I would say, this is a combination of MANY good subjects with glimpse of explanations of each topic but as a reader I was expecting more !
All that you have written vary and depend on the “Size, Philosophy & Work Process” of the organizations.
Definitions of “Managers’ Work” and “Office Politics” and ‘nature’ and ‘result’ of “gaining Confidence of Manager” are also different in different organizations.
Good one.. However few observations
1. Going through the post it appears that its written by a manager upholding the manager’s perspective.
2. For a manager its also important that his team trusts him. Otherwise the manager also has to take the blame that they could not impart the confidence to his team.
To put it in other words, it happens at times that a manager’s behaviour towards one team member, makes the other feel isolated/not important/frustrated. Not always the manager does that intentionally but at times personal relationship takes precedence over professional relationship, which the manager has to be aware and be careful.
3. Now for hard work, its part and parcel of every role, a manager or a junior.
4. Office Politics: In this case its more of team politics rather than office politics that can frustrate a junior. In this case also a manager has to remain careful.
My comments are to just try to bring into perspective the concerns of some juniors who feel they are let down. Here is where the managers role becomes more important.
Thanks
Hi..
What if a Manager,instead of guiding in the right path, starts questioning his junior in front of Top Management, and when the same Management Believes him finding him more worthy than his junior, who has been Performing consistently even taking his boss’s burden on his shoulders without fail for quite a long time.
At such times, The situation arises that even escalations don’t work out and juniors feel that Top Management is Blind who dont even care whether they are working or not.
In a similar situation, one guy spoke to his boss face to face but still found no change in him despite making all his efforts.
Was it worth???
Hi Sam,
Good point . Exceptions are always there. What you need then is to understand the pulse and play diplomatically. Agree to the top management and re-think to improve relationship with your immediate Boss. But don’t rush and leave the company without getting a suitable option. I know this is easy to comment but hard to deliver, but that’s how the show runs in case of exceptions…