#28

My worst experience with a manager was years ago. I was doing a lowly admin/support role, and going through a really tough time as I was in my early twenties and one of my best mates was dying from cancer. She knew that but gave me no support or leeway on any of it. Just focused entirely on things that I did wrong. If I was 15 minutes late into the office there’d be an official meeting about it.

Ended up breaking down in tears in a meeting with her and saying how difficult I was finding coping with everything. Her response was to write up a report that I’d used an inappropriate word in a meeting with her (believe I’d said something like “I’m not sleeping and I’m so tired, I don’t know what to do and I’m fucking scared”). Ended up bailing on mutual agreement that it wasn’t working out.

I think over time and having now got about 10 years of management experience of my own I’ve become more empathetic to her situation. She was quite young herself and very new to management, and I’m not convinced she got the support she needed to be a good manager. It was quite a laddy environment as well, and I got the impression she had a tough time getting the old bloke senior manager twats to take her seriously, which I think then impacted on the way she led the team.

#29

current one is the only full time one i’ve had so hard to compare but pretty good on the whole. really competent and proactive but without putting too much pressure on people

also seems to think i work really hard when i don’t at all

#30

one time my manager at M&S lent us his car to go and pick up grit to de-ice the entrance to the store so we just drove around town for hours and then went to my mates house and came back with 1 bag of grit.
Also called him when hammered on the Saturday to say I couldn’t come in on the Sunday and he was just “I know you’re drunk and not ill, so be here tmrw!” Never showed up.
He was a sweet man that Tyrone

1 Like
#31

My manager was an absolute rock when I had my cancer scare. But he’s fucking terrible at managing. Luckily I have no ambition so don’t need to worry about his inability to further my career or run the team I’m in or any of that crap, so I just stick around.

#34

cheers. yeah, it should have been a great learning experience and led to other things. I’m sure for another type of person it would have been, but for me the main thing I took from it was that I wasn’t equipped to operate in that environment and it took me 5 years to actually start developing a career I was interested in after that.

1 Like
#35

All my "managers’ (the ones with that word in their job title) have never done the job I do and aren’t qualified to do it.

Bit weird that, but it is what it is

#36

would love to work under somebody inspiring who I believed in. Don’t even know what that means though, I don’t want to make money and I can’t do science or important things that help people. Actually I’ve changed my mind

#37

Are you going to go back to work at some point bam?

#38

honest answer for you I think it’s too late for me I’m going to struggle on here with scraps of art until things get really bad and I either have a psychotic break or am forced to take an entry level job stacking boxes in a warehouse. I try not to think more than a day ahead because it’s scary

#39

Would you like some help from us to try to help you identify a job role that you could do that would be ok for you?

#40

that’s very kind of you bless you but it’s ok. There isn’t too much around here and I don’t have the ability to travel so warehouse work will suit me best I think. Maybe I should have done the etsy thing with my drawings but it’s too stressful for me really. Cheers again for your concern :slight_smile:

#41

Well if you ever do want help please just say - there may be things out there you can do that you’re not aware of. And the Etsy thing is definitely worth revisiting - your pictures are so good. I would’ve ordered one myself if I could think of a suitable picture to get done.

1 Like
#42

I had a terrible manager for about 8 years, just no good, promoted out of his ability and then due to tech company politics ended up very high until a buy out put him out to pasture.

Then a few years later he rejoined and I was effectively in charge of him. Very odd. Quite hated him as a manager, massively appreciated him as a coworker because one of his skills was the ability to grind away at tasks that were mind numbing, like all the skills that failed him as a manager were excellent as a worker.

Fucking odd really. That’s what you get for working in one place for 20 years I suppose

#43

Said this last week and I’ll say it again - everyone rises to their own level of incompetence.

The reason why The Office (US) is so good is because it plays this out so well. The Office (UK) doesn’t really explore this - you’ve got no idea how or why David Brent came to be running the show and how he remains employed doing it. Michael Scott, however, makes perfect sense.

#44

Weirdly this is a very old Dilbert joke too, although probably it’s an older anecdote than that.

#45

Oh it’s an old quote, not sure who it’s attributed to

1 Like
#46

We used to get this a lot but then it was impossible to eat them while taking calls.

3 Likes
#47

Had an awful prick of a manager when I ran the bar in our university. The bar had come under the control of a large catering company and he was the son of a managing director. I was 22 and managing the pub and the was 21 and managing me, a completely ludicrous situation.

He was a right arse, a complete sexist who, when interviewing potential employees came to me afterwards commenting on which ones looked good and which ones didn’t. He started sleeping with one of the barmaids, while also cheating on her with another one for about a year.

Everyone hated him, from the security staff, to the local Gardaí to the patrons. He was a smarmy git, completely two-faced. I left the company after four years with them, couldn’t stand the man. The bar has since been completely run into the ground, with no-one going there anymore. I’d like to think it was his fault and that it happened when I left was more than a coincidence.

#48

This?

1 Like
#49

Yeah must be! Cheers for that :+1:

1 Like