Bosses can really suck

The BBQ Pit
#1

In my job, we prepare reports for filing with the SEC. Last night we got a job from a new client, very specialized, and with an incredibly short turn around town (actually, an impossible one)

I’m the third shift supervisor. The job came in during second shift and the supervisor there tried to figure out the best way to do the job. She decided to create templates for the pages our usualy way and then fill in the actual numbers using the templates.

The job was split up between 5 of our offices around the country.

Through the night, the other sites were amazed at how fast we were getting pages done. I got a call from our Phoenix office so I could explain to them what we were doing. We were the only site to finish our share on time and started taking pages from other sites when it was clear they wouldn’t.

Overnight, we got 3 E-mails praising what we were doing. Our VP got a call from corporate headquarters commending us on our fine performance. The new, big bucks customer was very happy.

Our manager…

She came down on the second shift supervisor for “not sticking to established procedure”.

Follow the rules even if it means losing the client…:smack:

#2

Need a bit more information. Would failing to follow the rules in this case result in any sort of SEC infraction or violation? I mean, government is a very “stick to established procedure” entity.

#3

Nope, the product was fine. The only rule broken was the procedure in getting the product out.

The set procedures are faster most of the time. The problem is, the manager can’t see that sometimes it’s not and it’s up to us, the supervisors who are actually on the shift to determine when it will or will not be effective.

Essentially the work is in HTML. Not exactly web page design, but using the same coding.

#4

Okay. Yeah, I agree with you. The manager was a dick. A good manager applies interpretation to the rules; a bad manager does the reverse.

#5

You need to organize a union…

#6

:rolleyes: The person who got chewed out was the supervisor. Probably would have been management even if the place was unionized. Anyways, unionizing usually results in places being even more code-bound, not less.

#7

That’s the kind of shit I really can’t stand. The supervisor who got chewed out is obviously an innovator and creative thinker, and her boss obviously is not (and is probably threatened by her, to boot). The chewed-out supervisor is the kinda gal I want to work for - her manager is the kind of manager I can’t work for.

On the plus side, the supervisor got noticed in a good way by the higher-ups. On the minus side, she threatened her manager even more by doing that. She needs to watch her backside very carefully around this manager.

#8

To be fair to the manager, she might be thinking this: “Oh, wonderful, we just broke all kinds of speed records and raised expectations sky-high. Monday morning I’m going to be explaining to the VP why we didn’t do it this way before, and why we shouldn’t do all of them this way.”

There is, in some cases, a reasonable management posture that emergency saves shouldn’t be done. Cut corners once, and it sets a precedent that, in the long term, damages everything. Businesses don’t run on emergency management, they run on effective procedures. When someone pulls a miraculous save out of their ass, there’s a strong tempation to depend on that.