I’ve had a really bad manager for a while. Type that breathes down the neck, micromanages and is an insanely unpleasant and arrogant person. Always an obstacle, never assistance. All he manages to achieve is to interfere with our focus and reduce our efficiency. Majority of my team are people you can’t rely on, at all, but they will use every opportunity to play office politics and undermine you. I learned not to care and take it personally. Just doing my job without any extra effort, I don’t pay any attention to what others do, and I learned to literally tune out when the manager is in the picture. That is not to say that I consider it a normal state of affairs. I’m actively looking for other opportunities, I just won’t allow myself to be bothered by this particular set of useless team/managers. Do that, and you’ll see how much energy and health you’ll retain.
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Just keep your head down, document your work, and let your manager know that you have records. If they try to throw you under the bus, "Only [their] pants will be down for the spanking".
@nfo+1ucG2dcr We have a legion of 'facilitators' -- not managers. There is a big difference. To be a manager you have to know what the team is doing and why they are doing it. As you say "the basic knowledge and skill sets necessary to lead". @OP is correct -- set your boundaries as you quietly quit.
Every WEEK my team is driven to update progress slides in two to four different SharePoint sites. Fill out descriptions on time spent in two places (soon to be three). Put work evidence in DMS, NSS, SharePoint trackers...Oh,MY freaking ---!
(I'm happy for my job. I'm happy for my job. My job is happy. Where is the free coffee so I can medicate?)
So true!!
There are way too many management levels at Wells Fargo. You will realize this the further away you get from this hh.
Why?
Start with a simple bank. It gets larger... but manages like it is a small bank. So processes aren't reviewed. Mistakes like the scandal happen.
Then the bank hires a whole layer of management for RCSA.
The bank needs new applications and needs them to run on and or integrate to advanced infrastructures (such as the cloud, service bus, AI ruleset). Something is wrong with WF SDLC. So let's enter the agile world by hiring yet another layer of management, the scrum masters, to "do" agile.
Then they realize they are bloated and inefficient. If rumor is true they are getting a new layer of management, the Brigiteers?, to govern efficiency. Everyone always focuses on the small picture, without getting to the large picture. The root cause is a lack of product/process design and a single SDLC with accompanying UI libraries and other assets with defined building standards. I am sure McKinsey will someday come along and say the same thing.
Well said. I feel like I'm in a similar situation, though my peers are reliable/capable performers. We're all just being led by total incompetence. When you have to spoonfeed the boss everything and they don't know ANY DETAILS about what the team does, it's a constant struggle. On top of it, the boss has such a limited (almost non-existent) technical skillset that even updating an excel file or editing a PPT is beyond their ability. I get it though.....if your 'work' amounts to sitting on teams all day and just talking to people, you lose your skills to do anything but manage email and Teams meetings.
We have a company-wide legion of 'managers' who just flat out don't have the basic knowledge and skill sets necessary to lead their spans of control effectively. The result is total misery among the rank and file. It's sad, but true in so many areas. OP's advice is good.