If you don't ask questions, ohh you are not communicative, you have to be engaged. And when you ask questions, ohh you have been here for a while and you should know this, this is trivial question. Okay, if it's trivial then tell me but I don't know it either even I am a manager since many years. Your direct report takes an hour to teach you something steps by steps like a kid and when it comes to a direct report to ask you some question, your comments is like you should know this. And when you mention this, conversation gets shifted/twisted. Stupidity has also a limit but each day you have to bang my head with such people and the environment. Note: It does not apply to all manager
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Did a 5 year old write this?
There really hasn't been any esteem attributed to corporate management positions for quite some time. Everyone is impacted 100% by a trickle down effect starting at the executive level. It is possible for a CEO to set an example and then empower HR to promote a healthy working culture around communication, strategy and personal development.
At least at WF, executives focus only on their pay and a minimal viable product that pleases the board/shareholders. The work culture is an intangible optional thing apparently, difficult to quantify and thus, justify. Measuring happiness and related productivity is all subjective based on how you write up the reports. This is why most of us laugh at team member surveys, we know it's all a ploy to serve executive interests while at the same time making regular workers feel as though they are valued. And of course all of middle management is then left in some wasteland of interpretation, which is then passed down and infects all subordinates. HR, which could be a buffer for bad executives, sits in between as a surface level marketing tool instead of professionally managing the company's human resources (you and me).
Where before you could pinpoint bad managers, now there are so many that it is without a doubt an epidemic. Until the executive level is truly changed in all departments, until there is a willingness to acknowledge the benefits of improving a corporation's intangibles, we all end up trapped in this endless negative feedback loop of looking at each other and our leads/managers as toxic.
Think about it for a moment. There is zero ability for anyone who is a go-getter to impact the company postivitely at all. Zero. What does that say? It says a whole heck of a lot.
Now come back to work Monday morning and give it your best. We are all counting on you!
this is wells in a nutshell. they want a show instead of work getting done. i am almost out of this sh-t show, woohoo.
This turns the managers into professional babysitters. You can't really blame them. There is way too many layers at Wells. I approached one with make versus buy decision of an etl tool/project. the manager sent me to a meeting ... where I discovered that "they" had already decided on an inferior tool (IBM). This is the last time I approached them.
I know a manager exactly like this. Demands people ask questions or else this manager will threaten to start asking people random questions. Sign of a poor manager who is insecure and narcissistic. A confident and competent manager would not use these tactics.
The way this rant is written, I’m thinking the problem isn’t the manager here.
They are probably not pleased with your work and want to get rid of you. Start looking.
Management is a wholly different species. When I started working in the 90's, it was still common thought that success means you graduate from trench work to management. It assumed that you would and should want your boss's job.
Imagine that today, who would trade places with their manager?
I had one like that. He hated to be asked questions or bothered by his direct reports in any way, but he wanted people to APPEAR engaged.
The group I was in was meeting he-l. It was ALL about the meetings. And it was all about WHERE YOU SAT in the meetings. People who sat in the back and just listened were chopped liver.
So - if this is at all familiar to you, make sure you sit as close to the leader as possible, and make sure your voice is heard at least once in every meeting. Doesn’t have to be a question. You can just agree with something said by someone else. But make sure you say SOMETHING in every meeting, no matter how big or irrelevant the meeting is. Especially then.
I watched people play that game for years, changed where I sat in meetings, and got praise from my manager for my increased engagement.
ALL BECAUSE OF WHERE I SAT.
If your meetings are on zoom just make sure you throw in a comment or two.
When you meet with your manager one on one ask questions beginning with “What do you think about….”
NEVER ask a question that requires your manager to draw upon her knowledge or experience. She will take that as a test or a threat and answer with you should know that.
Because she’s afraid of being exposed.
Sounds like your manager needs what is commonly referred to as ‘some di-k.’ Hope this helps!
Soo true. I experienced this too. Gas lighting.