Is it possible to be a really good manager without your employees hating you? I don't see how its possible. Please sway my opinion.

9/6/2007 2:31:33 PM

Depends on the quality of the employees.

Some people will hate the manager no matter what. Typically these people are lazy and will never advance in their career at a fast food chain. If you happen to have hard working people that want to do good work then yes, they could like you for letting them work in their own way as much as possible.. Nothing is more annoying than a bossy ass manager telling someone how to do something when they will get it done perfectly fine on their own just as quickly.

[Edited on September 6, 2007 at 2:37 PM. Reason : asdf]

9/6/2007 2:35:43 PM

good point

9/6/2007 2:37:01 PM

I've liked 4 of my last 5 managers.

[Edited on September 6, 2007 at 2:38 PM. Reason : ]

9/6/2007 2:38:48 PM

If you are a really good manager, your employees shouldn't have any reason to hate you.

But it depends largely on who you are managing. You could be a manager at DQ and they would hate on you because you don't let them give there friends free blizzards, your being a "really good manager" but it's doubtful your employees would understand.

9/6/2007 2:39:18 PM

one of the managers i really liked used to push me harder then anyone else....when someone fucked up he'd take it out on me. It pushed me to be the best....I like a manager that keeps people on their toes so as a whole we do really well in the long run as a department.

As far as a manager when i was working in a cubicle...really didn't have much interaction except morning meetings and project assignments etc....they had their own office that was no where near my cubicle.

9/6/2007 2:42:49 PM

Just don't be a dick. Be nice to your employees. If they fuck up, treat them with respect and don't get pissed. And for the love of god don't act like you know everything.

What industry is it we are talking about?

9/6/2007 3:59:14 PM

Don't show up to work high, or buy pills from your employees.

*looks at my manager*

9/6/2007 4:00:29 PM

It has part to do with you not being a dick about things and part to do with your employees wanting to do a good job. People who look for direction and strive to meet goals should not have any problem with a focused and reliable leader (assuming they aren't a pompous jackass).

If people mess up, sit with them, explain the issue and work together to develop a gameplan on how to resolve it.

9/6/2007 4:01:16 PM

Yes - it's definitely possible....

9/6/2007 8:06:23 PM

my employees love me...but it can be a tricky time balancing productivity and quality while trying not to be a jackass.

9/6/2007 8:25:08 PM

Yeah, it's pretty easy. Be fair and reasonable with them. If they're absolutely useless and lazy, they'll hate you. If they're trying to advance in any sort of way, or are salt-of-the-earth types who don't mind working themselves as much as they are asked (like me, I mean, I took the job because I'm being paid to work), then they probably won't hate you.

Just don't be a dick to your new hires, don't act super high and mighty, and just be fair when you're correcting people for being stupid. If they come to you with a question just answer it as long as they aren't being rude. If they make mistakes, correct them without being like "omg you did that wrong, you stupid bag of fuck". As long as they think you aren't trying to make their life hell, they shouldn't hate you.

Also, going out to bars and such helps. Especially if you're working somewhere that covers business-related meals. Take yourself, another manager or two, and some of your underlings out for a decent lunch and just talk like you're normal people. If you have stuff to talk about, you'll get along better.

And yeah, I'm not a manager, I just have had some awesome managers lately and they do these things. They have my respect and they don't try to make my life hell just because they're having a rough day.

And there's my 2 cents.

9/6/2007 8:27:08 PM

Quote :

"Also, going out to bars and such helps. Especially if you're working somewhere that covers business-related meals. Take yourself, another manager or two, and some of your underlings out for a decent lunch and just talk like you're normal people. If you have stuff to talk about, you'll get along better. "

9/6/2007 8:48:23 PM

The job of a manager is to plan, implement, motivate (a step that is often forgotten), and control the input-transformation-output process so as to effectively and efficiently achieve established organizational goals. (BTW, I didn't read this from anywhere--it's in my head. My undergrad degree is in business administration.) And it's not just a load of bull.

I have found that early adoption can be quite helpful. Get your employees to adopt your plan early on and you'll be ahead of the game. The employees that cannot or will not follow management directives, however, need to be identified and culled out early, too.

9/6/2007 8:56:46 PM

the better your employees are, the less they'll hate you.

9/7/2007 12:47:04 AM

i like my manager.

9/7/2007 9:11:41 PM

I lead by example. I'm the first to jump into the dirty work so I don't really expect to hear anyone else complain about it. I feel like they respect me because I never ask them to do anything I haven't done or aren't willing to do myself. I'm really good at what I do and they know it. I try to approach constructive criticism from the point of view as "I've made that mistake so you don't have to, here's what I learned."

9/8/2007 12:00:09 AM

In other shit jobs I've had shit managers who wanted to be there about as much as me, knew less than me, did FAR less than me, and expected to be worshipped as a god. These people sucked. Shit I'll give you some examples from previous jobs.

Enterprise: First manager was alright. The job was shitty and the hours were 55-60/week, which really sucked. He made the best of it he could, and tried to let us have fun as best we could. He put a Nerf basketball goal up and when we were slow, we'd play horse, and shit like that. He would take us drinking and usually buy for all of us, even when the company wasn't buying. He was okay.

Second Enterprise manager was a BITCH. She went back on all the promises my other manager made me when he set me up with my job (pay for my gas to work, pay for my hour difference, etc.) and basically completely took advantage of me. She spoke to me like a fucking child, even though I had been running this new office for 3-6 months on my own and doing a better job of it then when she got there. She would cuss me out and then say a quick "Sorry" an hour later and expect that to make up for chewing me out for 15 minutes over something that I made a call on that she didn't agree with. One of the best days of my life was the day I dropped my letter on her desk and let her deal with that shit on her own. I worked my ass off for that company and didn't mind it so much when I had a nice manager I also considered a friend, but it felt like it was killing me when I had a shit manager. I still keep up with my previous manager to this day, even though I haven't seen him in years, and I have never spoken to the second one since the day I hit the door.

Cellular: I worked for a few months fulltime at a little cellphone company, and still work there part-time. The manager here is okay. She is nice to everyone, and I usually don't have issues with her. I work hard, even now that I'm just fulltime, but I am growing to despise her for her unequal treatment of the employees. Myself and the other part-time girl get shit on all the time, and the guy that took over when I left here fulltime gets nothing said to him about his mistakes. She plays favorites and its painfully obvious. Its not that she treats me bad, she doesn't, but you get some animosity when another coworker shows up sometimes hours late and nothing is said, yet if you don't sweep the floor or take out the trash you get mean little e-mails. The guy sits on his ass all day, has his boy come in and talk shit about women the whole time, they look at young bitches on MySpace and he otherwise doesn't do shit. Whats worse is he has no motivation. He's fucking happy to work here like that. Somebody called and bitched to his manager because they talked to him 3 times about turning off service, he never sent it in, and they LAUGHED about it. WTF? That is no way to make anybody else feel like your being treated equally. Hell he even went with that same manger, her husband, his g/f and a group to a Rascal Flatts concert yesterday. She let him come in 2 hours late and leave 2 hours early. Not the best manager.

School IT Dept: My current boss is fucking great! The guy treats us all very fair, wants us to work hard and do as much as we can, constantly challenges me without being a hardass, has taught me a shitload, and rewards us for our work. I don't think I could ask for a better boss, and even though I have been considering looking for another job in a bigger place like Wake County, it would have to be a serious pay increase to lure me away from my manager. He works even harder than any of the rest of us, knows more than all the rest of the staff combined, and very important to me, backs his team up. He doesn't belittle us in front of others, and backs our decisions. Afterwards he will tell you what you could/should do different, but he does it in a teaching manner, not in a know it all boss to shitty employee kinda way. It may help that this is the first career job I have taken, as I love working on computers, and the guy has known me for a long time (a friends dad and certain TWWers father-in-law) but this is a job that I enjoy so much I can't wait to get to work and want to learn all that I can from him, and everybody else there.

9/8/2007 10:32:20 AM

you always remember the first write up of an employee

9/8/2007 10:50:50 AM

Depends on how much the employees are paid. Managing a fast food restaurant is different than managing product development.

9/8/2007 11:52:00 AM