Trying to be...
2003-09-24 - 6:53 p.m.
Much like parenting, there are two basic philosophies regarding supervisory styles.
1. "Because I said so" - The philosophy being that "I" being the authority figure know the answers and you are not to even question it, just do it.
2. Cause / effect - The philosophy being that if a person understands why they are being asked to do something, they are more likely to follow through with the request.
I was brought up in a primarily cause/effect parenting household. Sure, there were those moments of exasperation that my parents would scream "because I said so and that's that!" but more often it was explained that I had to do something because of whatever or to prevent such-and-such from happening (ie you have to brush your teeth so you make sure that your teeth stay nice and strong).
Anyway, I have grown into a "cause/effect" person myself. I tend to explain the process to my staff, rather than bark commands. I try to never just assign a task without giving the big picture (but also trying to not overwhelm with the minutae of the big picture). My direct supervisor is similar with me, and we work really well together.
However, we have one staff member in our agency who is the biggest BECAUSE I SAID SO person ever. He is nasty. He is hot-headed. He is demanding. And nothing is ever explained, just barked. He is our finance guy, and only thinks in the concrete numbers way - it is either black or white, there is no such thing as grey.
I am a social worker. A feelings person. A process person. There are more shades of grey than I can count, and there is rarely truly black or white.
This guy will call me, demanding to be put through to me as if the building is on fire. I could be in a therapy session, facilitating a support group, in the ladies room, whatever. When he calls everything must be dropped. He then launches into a conversation as if I already know what he's talking about. He'll say "explain to me why such and such is so and so". Um, hey, why don't you start at the beginning, fuckface...maybe then I'll know what the hell you are talking about!
He does this repeatedly. He'll ask for statistics on something. Now, if he would explain what he is trying to use the stats for, I may have a better way of pulling them up, or maybe he calls "unit of service" something different than I do (because he has billable hours, and I have therapeutic hours, or whatever). But nope. He barks. He demands. I provide information.
Then more likely than not, its not correct and it all comes down to a miscommunication that if he had bothered to take another 30 seconds to say "I'm pulling together an audit for whatever, can you give me these numbers". That would be a hell of a lot easier for me than "what are the blahblahblah numbers"
Oh, and god forbid I have to look them up and get back to him. He will call every 15 minutes until I get back to him. And worse. He will call me and leave a voicemail. He will then call back and leave a message with the receptionist. He will then call my office manager and ask him to physically come find me and relay the message. Um, thanks. I got all three fucking messages, and I'm still in a private counseling session with a suicidal schizophrenic. Honest, I will call you the fuck back.
so now, I'm pissed at this guy for several reasons....the first is that rather than say "are you sure that everyone's timesheets are being monitored properly" (answer being: yes), he goes to my supervisor and says "so what kind of magic does C have that her staff don't get sick? Is she really trying to tell me that two of her staff didn't take a single sick day all year?" (answer still being: yes, but that is a passive aggressive way of asking the fucking question, asshole)
Last week he called me and barked "I need (office manager) to come to the downtown office and bring something back up to your office". Had to be THAT MINUTE, had to be only the office manager. I tried to explain that I couldn't spare him THAT MINUTE, I could spare an intern, but not him. Or, if it could wait until the following morning, it could be the office manager.
Please note, dear readers....the downtown office has a staff of 35 mostly administrative staff, including a "mailroom assistant" and an "office assistant". They are not a direct service site, and do not see clients at their location.
My office has a staff of 5 (yes, five) and is the direct service center for 750 clients. On any given day we work with 150 clients, plus volunteers, parttime consultants, and our receptionist desk is staffed completely with volunteers. So when I am asked to spare one staff member, it affects the ENTIRE office dynamic (This, dear reader, is why many of my staff don't take sick days. When you realize that your absence will be a big burden on your coworkers, you tend to rethink how bad is my headache? yeah, I should go in, its not that bad).
So this whiney mother fucking cocksucker (how many times can I curse in one post?) goes RUNNING to the executive director about how I'm not flexible, and I don't value his time, and why is my staff's time more important blahablhaalbhala. Mind you, the 973 other times he's barked that my office manager has had to do this for him, it hasn't been a problem, but the one day I try to explain to him that I'm short staffed and unable to spare him, suddenly I am the one who is not flexible.
Hello pot? Kettle calling....
Let's not even mention the part that the real reason he needed it done that minute was becuase it is HIS job to do it, and he needed to leave early that day.
but whatever, he gets his way. whatever. I get chastised for not being flexible. For not understanding the value of HIS time. My time, apparently, not an issue. My office manager's time, definitely not an issue.
so tsk tsk for me. Apparently my only answer to him should be "how high, sir!"
