The Considerate Manager

Recently when driving down to work I happened to enjoy the company of a Manager. Mind you a very busy manager at the same time one who is very considerate to his/her employees. For convenience sake let us assume it’s a ‘she’.

A few minutes down the road and she had to make a few calls. All Managers have to make phone calls when they are sitting idle. It’s a manager thing. If they don’t do that, then they are not true managers.

Its 9:00 am, and the call goes to a poor soul who I presume was a developer in a support team. The conversation went like ..Hello ! , a quick check on some status followed by some other instructions. Then she asked. Did you check you email? He said no , Some more instructions after which the call ended.

Subsequent to the call I came to know that this guy’s working hours are from 1pm to 9pm, since he works on a shift. Of course a person whose regular working hours are for 8 hours starting at 1pm, would check his mail at 9am. This is a fact that only managers know.

Going by the same yardstick it would imply that anyone who starts work at 9am would always check his or her email by 5am. If you are not doing this, you are lucky your Manager doesn't know it yet.

After the call the developer probably would have heaved a sigh of relief wondering what to do, now that his sleep was ruined. But not for long, because don’t forget, our Manager is a very concerned people oriented person. So she calls back to enquire about the health of the same guy.

Apparently from the conversation it appeared that this guy was slightly ill suffering from a minor ligament related ailment. In rolls the next words of advice..
How are you feeling? Oh.. ahem .. hmm Oh no .. if that’s the case you should take rest. Don’t bother to come to office. Long Pause .. You can work from home.

Work From Home !! Of course yes, we don’t want you to waste time getting to office with that injury.

I thought the call was done.. but apparently not. The conversation continues..
If you are not well, Then you should take care .. take the day off today, don’t bother about work. You know you can always finish the work on Saturday and Sunday.

Me thinking ..Saturday and Sunday!!!. Phew .. thank god I don’t have a considerate manager.

Now this is what I call having the knack of being all so considerate and yet getting all the work done at the same time. This does not mean that managers should not be considerate. Just try not to be over considerate by helping your employees plan their Saturdays and Sundays too.

Enough of flaming managers, because not too long ago I too was a manager for 5 years. But not anymore. Given this I know how difficult it can be as a manager. You have to deal with a wide flavor of employees. While some are excellent in their work, others believe they are gods gift to the Organization.

So a tip to all Managers ,When all else fails, Use the old "Mule rule"

i.e. Some you can stand in front of and coax them along with a carrot. Some you have to stand behind and kick them in the a**.

The key to management is knowing which mules are which.