One of the things that I’ve realized over the last couple years is that I don’t like having a boss. I’ll put up with it for as long as I have to and for the rest of my life if need be, but I don’t like it. I’ve also realized that one of the things that makes me hate having a boss is the fact that sometimes my employer puts me in a position where I look and feel stupid. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I ever become a manager or supervisor, my first rule of leadership will be, “Strive to never make your people look or feel stupid!”
It seems so obvious doesn’t it. It’s like something we learned when we were little kids trying to learn how to be a good friend or teammate. The complication comes when an organization gets big and internal communication has to work its way to so many individuals. I’m certain that the supervisors I’ve had over the years aren’t trying to make me or my coworkers look stupid. However, it happens and I think it happens because people have good ideas for change on the frontline but don’t spend the time really wargaming how that change is going to play out in reality.
At my last job I had coworkers who were crying everyday after work. The policies we had to enforce were so silly and lacked thoughtful implementation that they often put us in a position with guests where we were trying to explain things that we all knew made no sense and were unfair in many ways to the customers. Fortunately, I’m not seeing things this bad at my current job but there are still the same issues in a milder form.
Again, I want to emphasize, I know my employers aren’t trying to make me or anyone else look stupid to the public. I have watched supervisors run around frantically for my entire working life: Trying to fill holes in schedules, disciplinary issues, and special visits from hire ups. Seeing these things is why I’ve never wanted to take on a supervisor role. But at the same time it seems like if everybody just slowed down a little and communicated better and thought through systems better, you’d have a situation where rules make sense, customers don’t feel cheated, and employees don’t feel stupid… Maybe.
I don’t know what the solution is y’all. It’s just one of those things that I’ve seen at every job that seems like an obvious thing: Don’t put people in a situation where they feel stupid. But it happens all the time.
What has been your work experience?
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Travis Daigle 
You are so right Tim! Being secure in self as we are the only ones we can control!
I appreciate your perspective. I think most people struggle with feeling inadequate. Whether it’s supervisors or ‘underlings’. Couple that with a lack of awareness and you have the unfortunate interactions you mentioned. It takes a secure person not to project their feelings of inferiority onto others, and I’m sure those rare people are recognized and rise up the ranks…OR they choose a more solitary life as pioneers, veering off the beaten path, and blazing trails of their own.
Shaking my head, Teresa! I don’t get it. Seems like the most obvious thing in the world to ask the people who have to implement the change what they think. Like I said, if I am ever a supervisor it’ll be my rule number 1.
I totally get this. In the past 30 years, I’ve dealt with this kind of thing. Upper management mostly has never done the job on the frontline and have no clue what is a bad idea. 20 years ago, I was working in a convenient store that implemented white glove inspections, but only had one employee on a shift the majority of the time. One morning I was on duty when the white glove inspectors came. I watched them for awhile and they started writing down things about certain machines in the store. I decided to ask them how the machine worked etc. These guys had no clue how anything in the store worked including the register, yet they were giving negative marks on something they knew nothing about: running a busy store and being the only one on duty.
I have been a manager for a nationwide sports store chain. That lasted less than a year, because although I was great at my job, I couldn’t fire incompetent people. When people decided they didn’t feel like coming to work and were no shows, you couldn’t reprimand them much less fire them until they were no shows 3 times. HR did not want to be sued.
Back in the day, if you didn’t show up, much less call in, and there was no drastic reason keeping you from work, you got fired.
My current job is pretty laid back, but new administration decided to make a lot of changes without having the experience to know that it may not be a good idea. I am the one that had to do the changes in our system, which caused a lot of extra work on my part, due to their idea of streamlining was anything but. I felt stupid and still do a bit even though if things that worked just fine were left alone, I’d not have the issues to deal with. I am salary, and they definitely don’t compensate me for the extra work.