Been doing mechanical engineering for 15 years at various companies in several industries, including all of the Big 3. One drawback that is a show stopper for me is most of how people behave in office settings. To me, being a professional merely means having a good grasp of your job, having a good grasp of the fundamentals in your area of expertise, and doing a good job. It does not mean projecting a false self, walking around with a smile when you really want to frown at times, holding your emotions in, not saying what you want to, minimizing conflict to get along, etc, etc. This is horrible and the main reason I ducked out several years ago. The money is great and I miss that, but the unwritten behavior expectations (at least in my mind and I don't think I'm alone) is a no-go for me. Not willing to do that....just want to hear anyone else's take on this and if it bothers you. I mean, others are free to behave like they wish, just don't expect me to be anyone but myself. I don't plan on cursing you out in front of others or starting fist fights or anything, I just want to be me which is why I left. Too many uptight folks in large corps who hold everything in, no wonder their blood pressure is high and some have bad health. It's not healthy to do this. I can behave that way and did, but decided I'm no longer willing. It limits too much of my true self.
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I can say for most of the young people in IT...we see through it very well.
We are just here for a paycheck and to get experience before moving on.
Seconding horrific middle management. It's quite the toxic system- people don't escalate issues because they have seen management make things worse more often than not, so you have lots of situations where things SHOULD be escalated but they are not.
Middle management in GM IT is horrific. Unprofessional and unskilled at people management in general. Group think is prevalent. Drive2Great is a perfect example. Let's have a Christmas Holiday Party in the middle of waiting for layoffs. Great idea. All of this works with new college hires because they don't know any better. It doesn't work for experienced professionals. I knew after one month I made a mistake taking a job at GM. I agree with the OP 100%.
Sound like my manager in WTC. NO MANAGEMENT SKILL
Be BOLD but shut your mouth when I say so, I am the manager and need to show I can be a leader. Is it so obvious I am insecure?
To : rxg , Sounds like a sr manager from Pontiac Global propulsion systems on cost engineering side.
This is so true. I recently received emails from my "young" manager about what I am allowed to say/worl and what I can not say/work according to his view of GM.
I swallowed but won't forget since he is doing the same. Bad management skill, unable to pause before sending emails ... and emails .. and emails to justify a paycheck. I am sure many of us relate, especially at GM , a compamy lost in processes and acronyms.
When you've not been taught to communicate, this is what you do.
It is a low level passive agressive attitude to cover insecurity. Micro managing never go much farther than the tip of the nose.
User @rxg this sounds like my manager.
We should start a thread here and title it "Questions that our micro-managers do not let us ask" and they we should point the upper management to read it during an department or company wide meeting
hitting the enter button and adding some paragraphs does miracles.
if done here it'd quadruple the number of arrows up, i almost gave up after the third row...
good and accurate post though
Well, control comes from underlying feelings of fear and insecurity and control is a low-level passive-aggressive way of dealing with those feelings. Also sounds like he has poor social skills which is a separate issue.
I don't work at GM but as a professional engineer and we have similar problems as you described in the post. My manager is a total jerk. He doesn't have any experience or education in management at all and micro-manages everything even though we have project manager(s) within the group. He watches what time you come in and what time you leave, but doesn't appreciate people working until late into the morning hours to get the work done. He's a bully, control freak, and always conflicting with everyone from upper management, people outside his group, and many people within his own group who have worked with him (when he wasn't a manager but worked within the group with others) for over 20 years. He even wants to control what questions we are allowed to ask upper management during an department or company wide meeting. Upper management want us to ask them questions but my manger restricts us from asking or if we do ask then he wants to know why we asked the question. Like I said, he's a total control freak with no management skills and fights with everyone.