Just today I was contemplating the ineffectiveness of so many managers I’ve known. Not all, of course.
The old adage is:
Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, teach P.E.
(a funny but unfair thing to say about such an important overworked and underpaid profession)
So, I submit a new maxim:
Those that can, do.
Those that can’t, manage.
Isn’t that the Dilbert Principle?
I worked, briefly, at a bagel shop a few years ago. I don’t think the owner was inexperienced, just a jerk. He had many unreasonable habits, but the one I really couldn’t live with was, he didn’t think I should lift anything. Whenever there was a box to be lifted or equipment to be moved, he wanted me to get Mario, the cook, to lift or move it, regardless of what he was doing at the time. Well, I could (then) bench 110#, so there wasn’t much around a bagel shop I couldn’t lift. Furthermore, I didn’t want Mario to have to drop everything, and Mario didn’t want to have to drop everything, to lift something that I could handle myself. So I told Mario that since the owner wouldn’t listen to me, he should tell the owner that I could do my own job, and he was busy with his. He did, and the owner told him to do the lifting anyway because he could use the exercise. So I told the owner that if he didn’t think a girl could do the job, he should have hired a guy. I thought about pointing out that he wasn’t so skinny himself, but it’s always possible that those two had a rapport, if that’s possible, and Mario wasn’t insulted. But I can lift a Coke syrup carton, for cryin’ out loud.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
maybe you’ll get lucky and this guy will get promoted another level or two and he’ll be out of your hair. Of course, your whole department will go to hell in a cheap handbasket, but hey, what do you care, as long as they keep paying you. But then, the Peter Principle being what it is, it’s quite possible that this guy may have risen to his level of incompetence. Personally, I’d lay in a supply of Kahlua-filled chocolates.
I never could get the hang of Thursdays. - Arthur Dent
TennHippie, Mencken beat you to it by a few years:
"Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, administrate."
Tom~
I never claimed to have been the originator of the first quote or its ammendment. I did think of the second one on my own, though many others have as well, no doubt.
Those that can, declare.
Those that can, better, expound.
Wannabes like me quote.