Self-Evaluation: Poor Management Is a Nope

I will try to write this post in as professional a manner as possible, but I have long been holding in my views on poor management so it could be difficult.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Many of us have probably had a bad experience with poor management during our careers. All you have to do is take one look online about why people quit a “good” job, and you will find references to management being a prime factor. On my first page of Bing search results, I found the following articles among many others.

Indeed has an article of 15 reasons why good employees quit, and the very first one is about management. Forbes (beware the paywall) has an article examining an actual work situation in which an employee was looking for a new job, and the first three reasons pertain to company leadership. Harvard Business Review and Forbes also have entire articles addressing the role management plays in causing employees to quit.

For full disclosure, I have been a manager, served as substitutes for managers, had great bosses, had questionable bosses, and had terrible bosses. As a manager, I was young and inexperienced, and I don’t know if I would have liked working for myself. I’ve thought about my successes and failures in that role, and I can honestly say that I have no interest in being a manager again because I don’t like dealing with all the personalities in the workplace. As a substitute manager (i.e. serving as a temporary manager while management was out for the day), I felt pretty much the same way. I don’t like being a manager because it is an exceptionally difficult job that only some people get right, and no one gets it right all of the time.

I have definitely left jobs because of poor management. I liked the work and employees, and I had even been financially rewarded for my own work quality. However, I also had managers who never went to bat for employees especially with fair pay raises. In academia, this is an issue between management with higher level degrees and regular employees who actually do the jobs that keep the school operating each day. I had managers who threw us under the bus even when we did our jobs correctly. They let rank-and-file employees take the blame because management didn’t like confrontation with customers. I had managers who were out to promote themselves alone and never responded to employee complaints, and I have had managers who were resentful of more capable employees.

For the record, I have had wonderful bosses as well. I’ve had bosses that fought for raises, defended us against rude customers, and never treated us as if they were better or smarter. These bosses knew how to do our jobs as well as we did, and if we had done our jobs correctly, they came to our defense against rude customers. These bosses encouraged us and rewarded us for our hard work and attention to detail. If projects were a team effort, they made sure that everyone who participated was credited for their work instead of taking credit for themselves. Everyone has a bad day now and then, but a good manager doesn’t have a bad day every day.

At my age, a poor manager is not a quality I’m willing to tolerate in a new job. This can be a bit dicey when you are doing an interview. How do you ask about the personality and character of your direct manager during an interview? Indeed gives a great list of questions to ask during an interview including one about management style. This is a question that I learned too late to ask, and now I’m burnt out with poor managers. Definitely consider how you want to inquire about the management of a company before you accept a job. Is there a definite chain-of-command when it comes to legitimate complaints about management? Is the supervisor a micromanager? Does the manager accept constructive criticism? Will the manager fight for pay raises and fair treatment for the employees?

If you have had a bad experience with management, make sure you have your own set of questions to ask during an interview. Don’t make it the central point, but be sure you have a feel for what management will be like in that company by the end of the interview. I’ve reached a point where I’m not certain I can work under many types of managers. As I’ve aged, I have less patience with poor management, and I no longer hesitate to ask tough questions when a decision seems faulty. I also don’t appreciate a “helicopter” boss when I have proven that I am a capable, hard worker. Leave me to do my work, and I’ll give them my best effort. I also have zero tolerance for an inexperienced or poorly trained manager. If someone doesn’t know how to do my job, they shouldn’t come to me with suggestions unless they know the entire process and can genuinely improve it.

Yes, I’m narrowing the possibilities of jobs because of my experience, but the reality is that I can’t handle another poor manager. I’ve hit my limit. I’m out of patience. I lack the tolerance level required to be patient with managerial ignorance. This is one of the reasons that freelancing and writing is an appealing career field to me. If I’m not capable of handling a poor management situation, then I need to be very wary of reentering the workforce in a situation that will turn out badly.

Again, I’m not an expert, but I have learned through experience. When you are making a career transition, it is very important to ask yourself questions about management. If that is important to you, you need to take management styles and manager personalities and characters into consideration when entering new career fields and applying for new jobs.

References:

Christiansen, J. (2019, September 10). 8 Things Leaders Do That Make Employees Quit. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/09/8-things-leaders-do-that-make-employees-quit

Kelly, J. (2019, November 22). People Don’t Leave Bad Jobs, They Leave Bad Bosses: Here’s How To Be A Better Manager To Maintain and Motivate Your Team. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/11/22/people-dont-leave-bad-jobs-they-leave-bad-bosses-heres-how-to-be-a-better-manager-to-maintain-and-motivate-your-team/?sh=3c3dd7c022b9

Krosel, A. (2023, February 3). 15 Reasons Why Good Employees Leave (And How To Keep Them). Indeed. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/why-good-employees-leave

Munsey, B. A. (2023, August 10). 15 Questions To Ask a Hiring Manager During a Job Interview. Indeed. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/questions-to-ask-hiring-manager

Ryan, L. (2018, April 17). The Top 10 Reasons Great Employees Quit. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2018/04/17/the-top-ten-reasons-great-employees-quit/?sh=6e09b3aa1cd5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inspirational Verse for the Day:

Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38, CSB)