Dealing with Supervision

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Dealing with Supervision

  • Often i find that if my manager is hovering it is a sign that i have not set or communicated timelines and/or expectations effectively. It can be helpful to have a print out to point to at your desk to walk them through.

    If yet they still hover then i let them have a voice or say in the decisions being made because it must be important to them!

  • Many years ago I was in a team that had a manager who was prone to micro-manage. Usually we factored that in to our estimates but I remember once, when we were all under a tight deadline: We knew this guy had a thing about the smell of garlic, so at lunchtime we all bought Chicken Kiev and chips from a local vendor to eat at our desks. This was not planned in advance, there was no conspiracy, we all just happened to choose the same meal option. And as the aroma of garlic filled the open plan office, the manager was strangely absent for the rest of the day. We made the deadline.

  • I think it's hard for any tech worker to operate with someone looking over their shoulder. I guess explaining the decisions you are faced with and why you are doing what you are doing is the sensible thing to do.

    Alternatively you could try my colleague's approach - bring up a word processor and write in large red font 'YOU ARE MAKING ME NERVOUS PLEASE PISS OFF'

  • I found an effective way was to ask "Don't you have coffee to drink?" knowing his mug was empty. "No" replied my boss, falling for my cunningly baited trap "I've drunk it all."

    "Well you'd better make some more, this might take some time. And while your at it I'll one." I replied handing him my mug.

    Result, I got rid of him for 5 minutes and get coffee! By the time he got back I knew what the problem was and so was a lot more relaxed and was able to tell him what the fix was and how long it would take.

    If they are hovering, it usually means that they don't have anything to do, make something for them to do.

  • I am probably more intolerant of micromanagement than most, and have had to train a few bosses over the years that a hands-off approach works best with me.

    What I want is a set of objectives and timescales. If I don't think they can be achieved, I will say so. Otherwise I will get on with it, and how I achieve them is largely my business. Once a boss has figured that I deliver if trusted, that is how it continues.

    My current boss is a joy in that respect. For a start, he is 120 miles away. The overlap between his tech skills and mine is relatively small, so he has little choice but to trust me. It is in my interest for that situation to continue, so I am careful not to betray that trust.

  • You can try the Chloe O'Brian (from 24) approach. This isn't word for word but it's close. "It takes longer when you stand there asking questions!"

  • I tend to find the biggest problem is when they do not accept the limitations of the situation. Particularly when you have highlighted the pertenant one(s) as issues before as there is sometimes the attitude of "you're only doing this so you can say 'I told you so'". As they never say this outright I cannot answer them with "No. I want to get the job done and would rather have done it by now and I raised it in the first place so I could NEVER say 'I told you so'".

    It seems the most paranoid are...the most paranoid!!! Problems tend to be grief all round. I do find it insulting when people assume that you are making jobs harder than they really are.

    Gaz

    -- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

  • I've actively shooed spectators away from my colleagues desks during a difficult deployment.

    You...stay I need you to do this.

    You....stay I need you to do that.

    The rest of you, I will inform when it is done. Go away....NOW.

  • David.Poole (2/4/2013)


    I've actively shooed spectators away from my colleagues desks during a difficult deployment.

    You...stay I need you to do this.

    You....stay I need you to do that.

    The rest of you, I will inform when it is done. Go away....NOW.

    I know its going to sound patronising or like I'm blowing smoke but I don't care, as someone who hasn't always had that backup can I say thanks for doing that (in case your colleagues were so under the cosh they were oblivious). 🙂

    Gaz

    -- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

  • Peter Trevor (2/4/2013)


    Many years ago I was in a team that had a manager who was prone to micro-manage. Usually we factored that in to our estimates but I remember once, when we were all under a tight deadline: We knew this guy had a thing about the smell of garlic, so at lunchtime we all bought Chicken Kiev and chips from a local vendor to eat at our desks. This was not planned in advance, there was no conspiracy, we all just happened to choose the same meal option. And as the aroma of garlic filled the open plan office, the manager was strangely absent for the rest of the day. We made the deadline.

    Where's the 'Like' button on this page? 🙂

    Hakim Ali
    www.sqlzen.com

  • My experience has been that the best way for one to avoid micro-managment, at least the "hovering over your desk" variety, is to efectively manage oneself. After all, it's the squeaky wheel that tends to get the most grease.

    "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

  • A colleague of mine had the same thing happen to him. He simply looked up at the manager and said "This is the part where you go get me some coffee".

  • Gary Varga (2/4/2013)


    I tend to find the biggest problem is when they do not accept the limitations of the situation. Particularly when you have highlighted the pertenant one(s) as issues before as there is sometimes the attitude of "you're only doing this so you can say 'I told you so'". As they never say this outright I cannot answer them with "No. I want to get the job done and would rather have done it by now and I raised it in the first place so I could NEVER say 'I told you so'".

    It seems the most paranoid are...the most paranoid!!! Problems tend to be grief all round. I do find it insulting when people assume that you are making jobs harder than they really are.

    Ugh, I've very recently come to know this whole problem far too well. Just two weeks back, I had to code up a new module for the inventory scanning process at my job. When it was finished, the whole thing ran rather slowly, unfortunately, because my predecessor here coded up a process that had to meld with mine, and that process used quite a bit of RBAR. I added on my functionality and determined that, while slow, it would be tolerable for a day or two while I puzzled out a solution to the RBAR.

    Sadly, however, my supervisor was less than thrilled with the speed of the operation. I was chewed out, accused of deliberately sabotaging the process, and, ultimately, assigned to do the physical warehouse labor that the process was developed for. The first two were acceptable, since I really should've fixed the RBAR too (but given that my deadline was "today!", I didn't have the liberty of time), but that last one was just too much. Petty as it may be, I did the physical labor and just walked out for the day. The next day, being more cool-headed, I figured out a solution to the RBAR and the process sped up to be faster than it was originally.

    The worst part was that my supervisor insisted throughout the entire thing that it wasn't the RBAR that was slowing everything down, but it was my code, which just did a simple SELECT for three columns for the item in question. Even though I explained that the process of sequentially looking through 27,000 records three times over for every item was going to be invariably slow, it didn't help my case. Oh well... I'm probably the type that can't stand being told that I'm doing something wrong when everything I've learned says otherwise, for better or worse :hehe:

    - 😀

  • Alex Gay (2/4/2013)


    I found an effective way was to ask "Don't you have coffee to drink?" knowing his mug was empty. "No" replied my boss, falling for my cunningly baited trap "I've drunk it all."

    "Well you'd better make some more, this might take some time. And while your at it I'll one." I replied handing him my mug.

    Result, I got rid of him for 5 minutes and get coffee! By the time he got back I knew what the problem was and so was a lot more relaxed and was able to tell him what the fix was and how long it would take.

    If they are hovering, it usually means that they don't have anything to do, make something for them to do.

    Good one. I've tried to be a gopher when I was a manager. Asking people what they need and getting it for them, including shoo-ing off other managers or directors.

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