I hate being a supervisor some days

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well I just got off the phone with my next higher-up, reporting some incidents that will likely lead to one of my employees being terminated and one being suspended. I found out that one of them had been bringing a firearm to work when on the midnight shift for ‘protection’, and the other had been bringing his concealed carry weapon with him but leaving it in his locker. Both of these guys have been warned that these actions are strictly against policy, but I guess they thought it would be ok? I don’t know what they were thinking.

It is a fairly small department, with only around 14 employees. I’ve always been one of the ‘fun’ employees, and my co-workers have always shared things with me that they do, even the stuff against policy. It used to be fun, because I was on their level. What did I care? I wasn’t in charge then.

A few months ago I was promoted. I just can’t seem to get it through their heads that since then they can’t tell me this stuff anymore without me having to do something about it! Why can’t they just be lazy or something, instead of deliberately breaking policy? That I can at least understand, and probably just yell at them rather than having to get corporate involved.

I am totally going to lose some comradeship over reporting this, which is going to hurt because about 80% of my friends are those I have through work. I hate being a supervisor some days. This so isn’t worth the $.75/hr raise.

2

I hear ya. That really sucks. Don’t think of it as a .75 raise. Think of it as a 20,000 raise that will happen when your career gets off the ground and you can prove to your bosses that you have the skills to be a supervisor.

3

Sucks when “friends” think they can test you by throwing things at you that you should, in your new position of authority, do something about. If you do something about it, then they get all bent out of shape and threaten your friendship, because you’re no longer one of the guys. If you don’t do something about it, then not only are you putting yourself in a position to be fired for it, but you’ll never have their respect as their supervisor.

But guess what? When you became the supervisor, you stopped being “one of the guys”.

Start by immediately cutting off ANY conversation in which people are telling you things against policy. Because that makes you EXTREMELY vulnerable. When the day of crackdown comes, do you honestly want all of them lining up to tell your bosses “But Captain_C knew all about it!”? Because then you’re going to be escorted right out the door, fired for cause, inelligible for unemployment and not gaining any references for your next job.

4

It completely stinks and can typically result in changes in relationships, but it was entirely within their control.

I know - you know that. I recognize this doesn’t help with your emotions. Life sometimes intrudes and forces us to confront stuff that maybe wasn’t super-great, but was fine enough. Thanks for that, Life - because I just don’t think we get enough lessons. :mad:;):dubious:

5

I admire your work ethic. Dont hate yourself because of this, you are doing what you have to do. Chimera makes a good point. It sucks that your employees dont realize that they have to follow policy. Where do you work anyway, that requires guns for protection?

I am sure that it will be much better than feeling that you are supporting the break in policy.

Also, you will make more friends, so cheer up!

6

Non-armed security company. My opinion on that has always been if a situation requires a firearm, we aren’t being paid enough to handle it and it’s best to run like hell. No sense in upping the odds like that.

After sleeping on it I feel a little better, but it still sucks. I know it is the right thing to do, but it still sucks. Otherwise both of these guys are great employees. I’m off for the next two days, so hoping my boss will have it all sorted out by the time I get back. I expect to walk into a shit-storm on Thursday.

7

Yeah, it stinks to be in that position.

But in the end, you will end up with better relationships with “the guys” because of things like this. Yes, there will be some blowback for this incident because you’re all getting used to your new status. But keep your head up because this was a necessary step.

Ultimately, you will forge a new relationship with your reports that will be different from the old one, but can still be good. If they don’t respect you as a supervisor, then you’ll be between a rock and a hard place. You won’t be one of the guys, but you won’t have any authority either. They will resent every supervisor-ish thing that you do and will resent you personally as well.

If they do respect you as a supervisor, you can retain their friendship, but they will also accept your new role and act accordingly. Your difference in status means that your friendships will be changed, but they don’t have to end.

And you can parlay this incident into an opportunity to clarify your expectations and what actions you plan to take in the future if issues occur. This section of your post contains valuable information:

Of course you’d express it differently, but you could share the main points:
a. You won’t go to corporate for every little thing. You will deal with issues in-house where appropriate.
b. You will not hesitate to go to corporate in cases where someone is deliberately breaking policy.
c. If they tell you that they are breaking policy, you will go to b.
d. Just don’t deliberately break policy, and b. and c. will not be an issue.

(that last part was from me and not you, but you might as well tell them that, too.)

Whatever you do, don’t apologize for your actions or express sympathy for the gun-toting employees. Stand firm. Say “They deliberately broke the policy even after they had been warned.” Repeat as necessary.

8

You know, I have an easier time telling a patient they have a fatal disease than I do telling one of my staff that they’re being terminated.

9

Oh gawd, I hate wannabe tough guys like that. Not licensed to carry a gun, not authorized to have a gun, prohibited by policy to have a gun…but bringing one anyway. Dumbasses, no matter how much you like them. And SERIOUSLY liable for all kinds of legal (civil and criminal) shit if they ever pull them out.

I used to work with a guy (a security supervisor, of all things) who carried two large knives on his person at all times (in violation of policy) and kept a claymore (sword) in his truck. “just in case” Now there was a world class dumbass. Guy was ultimately fired because he refused to remove some “christian” jewelry - but still had the pagan stickers on his truck. Never did get the answer from him on how that worked.

When I worked Armored (armed), I worked with guys who would carry 4 spare clips of ammo “just in case”. In case of what? A zombie invasion? A sudden breakout of Bad Cop Movie Shootout Scenes? :rolleyes:

10

I once looked the other way on a rules violation for a friend that I was in a position of authority over. Then, when the friend was caught by someone else, he said “but Don’t Call Me Shirley knew about it, and he didn’t do anything!” I barely skated by with my job.

11

What happened with me is the reason why Current Employer now automatically transfers anyone who’s been promoted.

12

This isn’t you’ve got to many personal photos on your desk or your taking an extra 5 minute brake. This is carrying a lethal weapon they’re not authorized to carry and not trained to use. This is a danger to general public. You’ve done the right thing.

If your coworkers want to be armed security or police or soldiers there are plenty of openings. It says something about them that they’re not.

13

This seems to be more of a problem in blue collar jobs than professional jobs. In most blue collar jobs, there seems to be more of a firm separation between “workers” and “management”. When one of their own gets promoted, they often will take advantage of those relationships and try and get away with stuff they know is unacceptable. The so-called “you used to be cool” argument.

It’s less of an issue in professional jobs where your manager is typically on the same career track as you, just further ahead.

14

Whoa! Based on the OP:

#1 guy (carrying a firearm on the midnight shift) is in violation of company policy (non-armed security, remember?). No excuse, no justification there. And nowhere did Captrain_C say he was unlicensed, untrained, etc. What he was doing, was violating the company policy of placing unarmed security where it was needed by clients. He may well have been licensed, trained, and competent to use firearms – just not in violation of his terms of employment.

#2 is a different story. The Op implies he has a concealed carry permit. And he left his weapon in his locker during his shift. Here’s the kicker: he’s entitled to carry by state law, but expected not to on the job by company policy. And doesn’t – he leaves it in his locker. Unless there is a clear, explicit company policy that says, “No firearms on premises under any circumstances,” or “No employee may own firearms,” he has not broken any policy. He is legally entitled to carry on his own time, and does not carry on company time, when he’s subject to company policy.

(I would greatly hate to see this degenerate into yet another debate on gun control – I’m simply working from what the laws actually are, as opposed to your, my, or anyone else’s opinion of what they should be.)

If I’m missing something there, please correct. But employee #2 dies bit seem to be violating a policy mentioned up to this point.

15

(bracketed question, obviously, mine)

(bolding mine)

I think the snippet of the OP above explicitly notes that the expected treatment for the two violations is, in fact, quite different. As to whether any actual policy is actually being violated at all – well, probably, or it wouldn’t be an issue, but the OP will have to come back and clarify.

To the OP: As others have said, it’s not about the $0.75/h now. It’s about your career track. Which, judging by your plan for the matter as detailed, seems to be about to pass its first real test with flying colors :slight_smile: Good luck, and I hope this sends the message to your reports that while you’d like to remain on friendly terms with them, things have changed.

16

Guys willing to risk your job by covering for them are not really your friends. Hopefully, your other friends at work will understand that, though they may not be big picture enough to get it without someone explaining it - but once they understand - they should give you the break you deserve. If they aren’t, its time to meet people who aren’t selfish bastards.

17

Sure, laugh it up, buddy. We’ll see who’s laughing when the zombie terrorists from outer space come and try to hijack your armored cars as step one in their convoluted plan to take over the world. Those guys with the extra ammo will be saving the President with the help of their plucky sidekick and a couple of supermodels, while you’re in the corner with zombies snacking on your brain, wondering, “How could this have happened?”.

18

As a supervisory employee you have duties and obligations that go beyond being friends.

For instance, if you see an employee sexually harassed, even if it doesn’t involve you or it isn’t your department you must report it.

If you fail to do this, your company can be held liable. You most likely would also be sued, (though in all likelihood they’d not get anyware, you’d still have to pay to defend yourself in a lawsuit).

One of the biggest mistakes management makes is that they seem to think that if a person is good at his job they can manage people.

There is a thing called the “Peter Principle” which was popularized in the 60s and 70s.

Basically to oversimplify it, people take promotions so they can get money and titles and unless they somhow screw up horribly they are able to keep their jobs, but in the long run it hurts the company.

I’ve had to fire people and it’s no cakewalk but there are certain things I don’t tolerate, and fire arms, drunkenness, drug use and sexual harrassment are among those.

The easiest way to establish this is simply prepare a formal document of written rules and call a staff meeting in a friendly manner (always with Dunkin’ Donuts) explain each of the rules. Then have each employee sign off on this. Tell them this serves as their first notification of said rules and a copy of the rules they signed will be placed in their files.

Then for every memo get a memo book and require that each person inital every memo.

Have weekly or monthly meetings and bring up past memos and discuss, if anyone can’t feed you back the info, they inital’d but didn’t read the memo.

The key is documentation. Explain to your staff, for organization purposes you will document everything. And do it. Then after each meeting, formal or informal, you send a quick follow up email stating what you reviewed.

It’s easy to do once you get into the swing of things, and it makes it easier.

Guns at work are too dangerous to even dicuss. This should be a level one, you’re fired immediately policy. The fact is a gun that is unattended can be taken off someone and used.

I don’t have issues with guns, knives, pepper sprays or the like for protection. But most of the people I know that have them, don’t really know how to use them. So all that happens is when push comes to shove those “defense” things get taken off the person and used against them and others

19

I don’t think the OP is debating the policy. I think he just finds having to pull manager on his “friends” distasteful.

It’s like in my last job when one of my project leads kept trying to take advantage of my good nature. She would be like “um…can I leave now?” I’m like “are you sick or something, it’s only 3:00.” She would reply “no, I just can’t take any more work for today.”

“Um…as your manager, can you at least do me the common courtesy of faking an illness?”

Basically, I can’t be your “friend” at work if you are going to act like a horses ass.

20

While the specific incident the OP is referring to may not be related to this syndrome, it is one that you have to be aware of.

By being promoted to supervisor from within the ranks, the natural power dynamics have been shifted. The folks below the supervisor will invariably try to even the power dynamics back out, often by challenging authority (or at the least “testing” authority). As supervisor, you have to set boundries (just like raising kids). The trick is to do it without turning into a bossy jerk (unless you are OK with being a bossy jerk).

Don’t get sucked into the “you used to be cool” or “I thought we were friends” discussion. Just don’t even respond to those kind of statements - move on, change the subject, stay on message, etc. By getting sucked into these discussions you would be giving up your power position by letting them set the parameters of the argument. You don’t have anything to apologize for.

I know it sounds very Machiavellian, it’s not really. It just takes a little time to adjust.