My #BadManager:

I am tired of my Manager, always doing micromanagement. I am done with
my Boss and am going to talk to HR about the way employees are treated.
My Manager is useless, he does not know anything and tries to expect us
to do everything on time, does he know about what this work is all
about, what process we follow. I am done, and putting down my papers,
can’t work with such Manager and management like this.

So, have anyone of you also had such feelings and thoughts about your
Manager or your Boss. I am sure yes, there are instances when you feel
your boss is not doing justice to you and is expecting too much from
you. We also feel that we are doing everything as expected for my job,
but I am not given full credit of that, or me being a good employee have
been never appreciated by my Manager. This is true and honestly, even I
have felt the same in my earlier days when I was new to the industry and
corporate world. But, have we ever thought are we right in making such
remarks or making judgment about our immediate boss. What if you were at
their position and how you would have handled the situation which you
are in, would you have done something different, well I doubt and
depends on the situation.

We all sulk, crib and judge the other person who is managing you or you
are reporting to, I can say 85% of employees are not happy with their
management and there are various factors responsible for that which I
will discuss in another article. But we have never tried to be in our
Managers shoes and see things from his/her perspective, why because they
are also answerable to someone and they do have their limitations.

So, here are few areas where we need to really work on and have focus to
have good relationship with your Manager:

Communication: Very fundamental principle in any relationship, is
communication. Do we talk and discuss where we need to work on? If your
Manager is not happy with your work or performance, did you ever spoke
about it, did you tried to setup a One-on-One meeting with your Manager
and discuss why he/she has this perception or what triggered this, your
Manager is observing you, there may be instances where you may need to
focus ON. So, start communicating about your performance once a month,
get feedback how you are doing etc. and vice versa.

Visible: You are doing wonderful job, your peers are so happy with your
work as you help them and share your expertise, the best thing, your
Client appreciates your contribution, and you observe your Manager is
not bothered about all this and when it comes to performance review you
don’t get what was expected by you. Why, reason is you and only you,
because you never highlighted your good work. When you are doing good
work make it visible, show your Manager your initiatives what you do for
team or when you get client appreciation share with your Manager, if its
verbal appreciation, request for same on mail and forward that to your
1^(st) Line and 2^(nd) line Manager. This is called being in limelight,
if I am doing good work why won’t I talk about that, you should.

Feedback: Always ask for feedback from your peers, your stakeholders for
you work who are involved in day to day business, Client, Management
etc. who deal with you and know that you are contributing the best of
knowledge and you are fit for your work. Make sure this feedback is in
black&white and then share the same with your Manager.

Work/Data: We work so hard every day and make sure that we meet our
deadlines and deliver on time. We make sure not or never to miss SLA’s
and be the best of breed. But, do we keep track of our work, do we have
our data points ready when appraisal time will come, and I can prove my
work. I remember few years back when I was working for Dell, we had
points system for all employees and at the end of the month top 50
employees were announced and among them top 10 were the best breed of
that month. This one time I knew coming month I will be the No.1 and was
waiting for the list to come out and flash on the board, I had my data
points measured and had met all the points in metrics to have top spot,
however when list was uploaded to my shock I was No.10, you can say wow
still you made top 10. Na, wrong as I already said I had all my data
points ready and I should be at Top of the list. You know I straight met
with my Senior Delivery Manager and discussed about my rating for the
month, he was so happy to see me and my passion, he made reporting team
to relook in whole list of 800 people and see where error has happened.
And you know when new list was out, I was No.1 for that month.

So, how all this happened, I made sure I do the best of best. Worked in
such a way so that no one questions my capability be it anyone. Always
made point that my work speaks for me and most important my data points
are ready with me.

Finally, we came to an end and what we learnt is, always note what you
do and keep record of that. Most important always ask for feedback. When
you set clear communication and expectations, make your work visible,
like this we will never complain, or say my Manager is bad or he/she
does not understand me, or is having undue expectations, or never
appreciates my efforts. Remember, always your Manager is not wrong, you
can be at fault too. You may be the best at your work but say you missed
the SLA or you missed the timeline for presentation. Tomorrow you will
be also Manager and managing employees, so imbibe above points and share
the same with your direct reportees.

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our
manners. …”