Management Question

[rexthedestroyer]

I need some advice for those of you who are in management. A few months ago, I started a new position as a mid-level supervisor for a government agency that deals with the public. It has taken me some time to get the hang of the operations of the agency, but I think I am doing okay now. What I am having difficulties with is the management of people. Upper management has instructed me to take a more proactive role in monitoring and supervising the staff. They want me to walk around more, stand behind them at times while they are interviewing to insure that they are giving the public the correct information, encourage them to deal with the public in a quick, but efficient manner and a whole host of other things. I am former military, so I take these type of instructions literally, and I have no issues with confrontation.....

A couple of days ago, an employee that I do not supervise, informed me that the staff does not like me. Apparently, many of them complain about my style of management. They are saying that I "rule with an iron fist". They say I am unapproachable and I am getting on their nerves. A couple have even gone to the union to complain about me. I want to be clear; I have not had any confrontations or incidents with the staff. I just think that they do not like that I make them do their jobs. It doesn't help that I really don't smile much, but that is just my personality. The employee has advised me to relax my ways a bit. That whole conversation really bothered me.

The next day, I went to speak to my manager. I did not get in to the whole discussion I had with the employee, but we did get to talking about my job performance. He said that he was very impressed with me and that he thinks I am doing a great job. He said that some of the things that I do (that he instructed me to do) might not make me a fan favorite of the staff, but it needs to be done. He said that he has had other supervisors who are good with the programmatic aspect of the job, but are resistant to do the hard task of managing people. I told him that I heard some grumbling about me and he said that as far as he is concerned, I am doing great.

My question to you all is that is there any middle ground in middle management? Is it one side vs the other at all times? I will point out that we have a strong union presence in the office that gives people false senses of entitlements. And if you want to know one example of the things I have to deal with. Yesterday, I had to tell an employee to turn his radio off while interviewing the public.

 

[randallr]

I don't have any experience in management as I am still in college but I have a couple of questions. What is the pay grade of the employees working for you? How often are you asking them to do things differently?

 

[globetrotter]

I have had similar situaitons. I have been managing small teams for about 20 years. I am not that warm and cuddly, and I can be very demanding. here is what I would suggest

1. make sure that you perform - the important thing is that you give the company, your boss, and your boss's boss what they want

2. you need to keep your team relativly happy, as well. you don't want to keep firing/hiring people, you don't want a lot of complaints. as a manager, part of your job is getting the most out of your team, and that includes keeping them more or less happy

3. you need for your team to understand what you are trying to do - this is what your mandate is, this is how you mean to achieve it, these are the steps you are taking

4. you need to understand, and make your people know that you understand, what your teams goals and ambitions are. what makes them tick.

5. you don't have to be friends with your team

6. try to make your team understand how working to reach your goals will help them reach their goals.

good luck

 

[rexthedestroyer]

Originally Posted by randallr

I don't have any experience in management as I am still in college but I have a couple of questions. What is the pay grade of the employees working for you? How often are you asking them to do things differently?

It is a range. Pay grade ranges from GS 5-8 for one set of employees. My other employees, who I do not have many issues with are GS 11's. With the lower grade employees, I ask a lot out of them because they deal with front end operations and I do not like having people waiting in the lobby for extended periods of times. For my higher grade employees, I let them do their jobs without much interuption, but I do ask for status on completion of their projects on a daily basis. The nature of my jog requires me to be proactive. Everything we do is time sensitive.

 

[rexthedestroyer]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I have had similar situaitons. I have been managing small teams for about 20 years. I am not that warm and cuddly, and I can be very demanding. here is what I would suggest

1. make sure that you perform - the important thing is that you give the company, your boss, and your boss's boss what they want

2. you need to keep your team relativly happy, as well. you don't want to keep firing/hiring people, you don't want a lot of complaints. as a manager, part of your job is getting the most out of your team, and that includes keeping them more or less happy

3. you need for your team to understand what you are trying to do - this is what your mandate is, this is how you mean to achieve it, these are the steps you are taking

4. you need to understand, and make your people know that you understand, what your teams goals and ambitions are. what makes them tick.

5. you don't have to be friends with your team

6. try to make your team understand how working to reach your goals will help them reach their goals.

good luck

Thank you.

I will need to work to communicate my goals to the team. It is very tough doing this in a government agency, because many of my employees feel entitled to be left a lone. It does not help that their last supervisor was very old and let them do whatever they want. I think my biggest issue is that I am the new guy (who is younger than many of them) and they are testing me out.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by rexthedestroyer

Thank you.

I will need to work to communicate my goals to the team. It is very tough doing this in a government agency, because many of my employees feel entitled to be left a lone. It does not help that their last supervisor was very old and let them do whatever they want. I think my biggest issue is that I am the new guy (who is younger than many of them) and they are testing me out.

I was in almost identical situaiton, but in the private sector. in the end, I was able to fire one guy and another quit, which was good for me. but my present team seems to like me and perform very well.

good luck.

 

[Concordia]

Some feedback from someone who hates managing and being managed:

It appears that you don't have incredibly senior employees (i.e., high pay, high status) working under you. Depending on who was running the department before you, it's probable that many have come to see part of the pay-off for accepting low pay and high stress is a certain amount of job security and hands-off attitude from managers. If possible, you need to find a substitute for that, or at least, re-cast it. Your main job, of course, is doing what your boss wants. But preventing unnecessary discontent has its value also.

Certainly, getting everyone on a team to have their eye on the same objective is helpful. After all, they're not working to make you rich, they're working for taxpayers to do something essential for the public. At some level, you're in the same boat that they are.

Another thing would be to consider what happens to these people when they leave their jobs. Are they all lifers who need someone to die before they're promoted? Are they all 24 and hoping to go to grad school? Job-hoppers waiting for their next gig? College grads trying to figure out what they want to do in real life? Housewives trying to get a few nickels to scrape through their kids' college bills? Anyway, if there's something that you can implicitly do for them-- school recommendations for the good ones, referrals up or out, some way to shine on the job now-- you will increase motivation. Otherwise, you're just holding a lash over people with dead-end jobs.

 

[cross22]

Middle management is hell already, when it is for the fed it is even worse.

My advice is don't be too blunt when dealing with people. They are not soldiers under your command, you can't just order them around and expect obedience the way it is in military. Try to have some concrete goals, such as acceptable waiting times, that you can collect and discuss with them as a team.

Also, you need to work on your interpersonal skills generally so you can get what you want without offending people all the time. The truth of the matter is that there isn't jack **** you can do to them. If it was only one of them, you could maybe win, but if it is you against a whole bunch of them you are going to lose (unions suck and they breed laziness and mediocrity). If you try to fight that fight you will likely find yourself humiliated and will likely have to transfer to another position.

If you were at a non-unionized commercial company things would have been different. Lots more accountability and ability to take action.

 

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I have had similar situaitons. I have been managing small teams for about 20 years. I am not that warm and cuddly, and I can be very demanding. here is what I would suggest

1. make sure that you perform - the important thing is that you give the company, your boss, and your boss's boss what they want

2. you need to keep your team relativly happy, as well. you don't want to keep firing/hiring people, you don't want a lot of complaints. as a manager, part of your job is getting the most out of your team, and that includes keeping them more or less happy

3. you need for your team to understand what you are trying to do - this is what your mandate is, this is how you mean to achieve it, these are the steps you are taking

4. you need to understand, and make your people know that you understand, what your teams goals and ambitions are. what makes them tick.

5. you don't have to be friends with your team

6. try to make your team understand how working to reach your goals will help them reach their goals.

good luck

This is valid and should help you.

I will relate this anecdote, as well. A former customer of ours had a relaxed, folksy-style of managing their stores. Everyone was like family, and trusted. They hired a new GM who put down some rules and made people accountable. The stores rebelled - they hated having to account for stock and the like. The new GM got sacked. Within a year, the chain went into chapter 7; their employees were robbing them blind, and had been for several years.

I realize it's not quite the same situation, but it's a warning sign when things have been run fast-and-loose, and people resist added controls placed on them. That's when you've got to start digging around for shrinkage and other issues, and from there you either start firing people or jump ship yourself.

 

[Threak]

I'm not in management, but I worked at a government agency dealing with the public for a few years (until recently returning to school). It was a county agency, but fell in that GS 5-8 range, so here are some tips from the employees' perspective.

It is always one side vs. another at all times. What one of my supervisors did really well, though, was be on our side. At one point, when a few of the higher-ups were shuffled around, she was also asked to take a more proactive role in supervising the staff, so what she did was let us all know what had been asked of her and what she'd be doing as a result. That way we never felt she was being to too harsh, it was her supervisors who were being strict and she was just doing her job. By giving us notice when she'd be supervising our work or keeping track of how much got done, the whole staff would put in a little more effort, knowing they were being watched, but didn't feel as bothered as we would be if she had just started looking over our shoulders.

A little after I started there she was also told to be more approachable and was advised to walk through our area of the office instead of using her back door, keep her door open, etc. (she also told us she'd be making an effort to do all that). I didn't realize how much difference that made until another supervisor was assigned to my office. Her replacement did the opposite, and not only was she despised but the office's work suffered too. With the new supervisor shut away in her office, people didn't feel they had to be as discreet about going online, making personal phone calls, turning the radio up and so on, since she would rarely come out of her office. She'd only call us into the office if she wanted to see us, and we weren't as comfortable having her around because of that.

Also, employees at that level like like praise. Show recognition for little things, like putting up with a difficult client, unjamming the copier, showing initiative, etc., during a meeting or in front of others. They'll joke about it and tease each other about it, but they'll feel proud about it just the same.

They also like donuts.

 

[rexthedestroyer]

Thanks guys.

Well to get a little specific about things, I am on a developmental assignment for 4 months at this location. After these 4 months, I will return to my non-management job and begin to apply for positions at the next grade pay (GS 13). I want to do a good job and impress my developmental manager, but I don't want to do it at the cost of making a bad name for myself amongst the staff. To be honest, I could easily take the easy way out and not actively supervise the staff and no one would blame me. It is just not in me to do a half-hearted job at things.

Also, I remember when I was in the employees shoes. I had a manager that I completly hated. In fact, most of the staff hated him. That guy would go out of his way to screw people over. I hate to think that I am another version of him. With that said, he has gotten promoted to GS 14 despite the majority of people hating him.

I also want to point out that I really enjoy my job. I enjoy leading and teaching. I also love dealing with the difficult customers that we face. You know, the ones who demand to speak to the supervisor when their ridiculous request cannot be met by my staff.

 

[Piobaire]

So you have one more month left until being reassigned? If so, just do what your boss says to do, as it seems to be making him happy. If your direct reports were going to get you canned, they would have done so by now. As it is, you have four weeks left and they are just counting that down. Impress your current boss, transfer back, and go for that next promotion.

 

[rexthedestroyer]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

So you have one more month left until being reassigned? If so, just do what your boss says to do, as it seems to be making him happy. If your direct reports were going to get you canned, they would have done so by now. As it is, you have four weeks left and they are just counting that down. Impress your current boss, transfer back, and go for that next promotion.


I have 2 months to go.

I can keep doing what I am doing and be fine, but I am worried about the future. The next position will certainly be another management position, so I am going to have to get the hang of this thing. Better I smooth out the rough edges now (while it is only practice) rather than later.

I really appreciate everyones advice.

 

[GQgeek]

FWIW, even when you don't intend to follow your employees' suggestions, it's rarely a bad idea to hear them out. When you just shut them down without seeming to give any consideration to their thoughts because you think your way of doing something is better, it will just breed resentment in the long term. Try to be sensitive about these things because you're not in the military anymore. And figure out who the smart people are and give their opinions more weight. I just left a job where the boss was arrogant and thought his way was always best. Frankly, I was smarter than he was and he ignored my advice more than once to the detriment of the company's performance. Obviously you can pick and choose when to do this because doing it all the time would be inefficient.

Even as a very smart guy, I am cognisant of the fact that a there are still people out there that are smarter than I am, and that good ideas can in fact come from those that are less intelligent, if even just once in a while. Arrogance rarely makes you better at anything.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

Even as a very smart guy, I am cognisant of the fact that a there are still people out there that are smarter than I am, and that good ideas can in fact come from those that are less intelligent, if even just once in a while. Arrogance rarely makes you better at anything.