My boss told me off for not doing a task like I was a child. I was really shocked and stated the task was on my to do list however I got bogged down doing something else.
I have just started the job but she does not show me how to do things. When I say I don’t know how to do a task she says, ask other staff questions. I said, I do but they don’t show me, and I think she shares what she does with another manager, as when I walk into a room there is an atmosphere.
One good thing though: I really get on with the clients and they always ask for my help.
To read the answer, click here: Manager Belittles a New Employee, What Should She Do?
I had this manager. She was a nightmare. She thought it was perfectly acceptable to send me data (from Excel) as a 100+ page protected PDF, that I had to print, and then manually enter all of the data – into Excel. Why? She didn’t like how I used formulas to manipulate the data and perform the task quickly. I’m serious. Guess how this ended? Nope, I didn’t quit. I was fired. If your boss continues to expect you to do your job without guidance, run.
OMG my boss is just like this with my data entry/manipulation tasks. I’ll use formulas to quickly do something that this company has done by hand for years, and turn it in to her 30 minutes after she gave it to me. She looks it over, sees it’s correct, and asks how I did it. I explain without getting too technical. Then she asks to see me do an example, so I bring up Excel and show her. She gets frustrated that she can’t follow along with my clicking and typing, and isn’t familiar with Excel at all, and asks me to show her how I would do it by hand. Sigh. So I show her that method, which she had originally trained me. She says “good, now do the rest that way.” I’m doing the same task twice, taking WAY too much of my time, wasting paper, wasting her time too because she simply doesn’t trust me or the technology. If I explain it in technical terms she gets confused/frustrated. If I explain it in simple terms, like “I know a formula that will change all the numbers on the spreadsheet without having to retype them by hand,” she gets dubious and wants it done by hand. Then criticizes my typing errors if I do it by hand (usually with her standing over me watching, which increases my data entry errors a lot!)
Oh holy hell – are you in Huntsville, AL? There can’t be two of them… It’s scary really. When I interviewed, I was told they wanted someone to streamline processes. Every.Single.Thing that I fixed was poo-pooed. I put client info in Access so you could find customer, equipment, service plan, expiration dates by any of those criteria. Nope, they’d rather look through a paper-filled binder. That job was a lesson in futility.
Nope, but I must be in a parallel universe. I’m getting the same flak! I’ve developed or managed tons of data-heavy projects and streamlined a lot of various little tasks along the way. At this company they’re just so resistant to it. They’d rather type numbers off a report (in Excel format) by hand into another application. That application is designed to accept uploads from an Excel spreadsheet, if you tweak the format a little, it takes FIVE MINUTES. Nobody seems interested in learning how, and even though I do it my way and offer to train others.
Do it your way, but wait until you could have done it by hand to turn it in? If she doesn’t ask how you did it, I don’t see that you’re obligated to answer…and I’m guessing she doesn’t know enough about Excel to click in the relevant cells and look for formulas ;-).
I do that sometimes 🙂 It’s why I’m commenting on blogs during work hours :/
However she’s having me teach her the sum() formula… so oops. Now she knows.
You two are scaring me. I knew these people existed, but in some sort of alternate universe.
Bwa ha ha! I thought I was the only one with that manager that had the excel issues!
I have decided that I really like the line “What would you like me to do?”. It makes the other person have to stop their complaining and actually give a solid answer of how they think I can fix the problem. If it’s a person who is not giving clear instructions to begin with, or they are not giving me the correct tools to do the job, I can counter with this and ask for the things I need to get the job done.
Sometimes it’s like a ‘reverse psychology’ where the other person can’t come up with an answer of what they actually want me to do about the issue and they realize that they are the only one who can fix it. Or they realize that they need help and ask for some.
But sometimes, it’s really just a rant/vent and they end up saying “I don’t need you to do anything, I just needed to vent”.
It even works on my kids! It’s amazing:)
I use the “what would you like me to do” line all.the.time. It is magic. It stops people in their tracks. I use it with my kids. I use it with my husband. I use it with my clients. I use it with my letter writers. I use it with church people–I’m head of the children’s organization. (I had one mom complain that there weren’t enough girls her daughter’s age. I said, “what would you like me to do about that?” and she slunk off.)
Most of the time this “what would you like me to do” line will work. However, that assumes that the person is overworked, not realizing that they aren’t being clear, is sane, etc.
I currently have a couple of managers who will answer that question with a “you should know what I’m asking for” answer.
They will then be little you if you say that you really don’t know. Sometimes they will answer you; but, after you do the work just as they asked for it is still wrong – not because they didn’t explain it clearly but, because (in their mind, at least) you are too stupid to understand simple instructions.
The company has recently brought in a team (actually only 2 people) to help “train mangers to be managers.” It will be a long uphill struggle; but, at least it shows that someone higher up recognizes that there is a problem with managers not knowing how to manage.