Based on what you described in the additional post (that it was a high-priority job for a key customer), it wouldn’t surprise me if your supervisor was under pressure, from above him, to make sure it was done absolutely perfectly. And, thus, he was covering his own ass (and, maybe by extension, yours) by having a second set of eyes there, even if the babysitter wasn’t doing anything “productive” other than watching you.
I don’t know, I’ve never worked in a position like that. But I think I’d be 1) I’ll do the task, 2) ignore the observer, and 3) who gives a shit? They want to pay someone to watch me work? That’s their issue, not mine
You might have found some stupid task that the assistant could do to assist in completing the project. The messier the better.
It’d piss me right the hell off. The next time we had a 1:1 meeting it’s something I’d definitely bring up. I’d want to hear my boss’s reasoning for sending his assistant to watch me, but I’d definitely let him know I wasn’t happy about it.
yeah, I’d be absolutely offended. It basically means the manager does not trust me to do it. A confirmation email of “It’s done!” when completed could have sufficed.
Perhaps the supervisor was asked “what are you doing to make sure task in done?” And this was his way of answering that?
Can you be sure he didn’t actually send his assistant to “help you do said task
to make sure it gets done.”
That’d be slightly less offensive…
Yeah, it’s plenty bizarre.
It’s slightly possible boss sent child-boss for the benefit of educating child-boss.
I’d be annoyed, but would use the opportunity to extend my repertoire of passive-aggressive jokes at the child’s expense. Likely explain what I was doing at each moment, as though instructing a pupil.
It would amuse me, and likely anger the underling, as a bonus.
This is how I interpret it. At my prior job that was very top-heavy with managers/business analysts/financial engineers. Since they couldn’t actually do anything, there was a bunch of one-up-manship about being performatively panicked about anything important, and hanging around the real movers was part of that.
Likely OP’s job performance isn’t even part of their thought process. It’s all about being “close to the action”.
Very much so, it would annoy the heck out of me.
That’s nearly as bad as one place I worked, where they told us that they exceeding expectations was their expectation.
Honestly, I’d be angriest with the fact that he sent a lackey. If it’s so damn important, take half an hour off your own schedule and show me the respect of supervising me yourself. If you want to be hands-on then use your own hands.
There are 2 ways you could take this:
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You’re not the business owner, you don’t set priorities, the business doesn’t exist to satisfy your sense of autonomy, mastery, or purpose. Management exists to supervise, and sometimes tasks have enough business importance that they need to be directly supervised and observed. Perform the task you’re assigned, accept your wage, don’t gripe unless you’re being cheated or abused.
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OTOH, if the task is THAT goddamned important to the supervisor, then he should, I dunno, perform the duty of supervision that he’s paid to do? There are few things that stick in my craw harder than a manager delegating their supervisory duties to an office assistant (if that’s the type of assistant we’re talking about, as opposed to an actual assistant manager, which is also annoying).
Yes, that’s the part that would bother me. My manager being anxious about it getting done, and hovering with the vague intention of being helpful, or keeping me on track, would be acceptable. Especially if i got along with the manager. But sending an assistant to do that is just weird, and makes me wonder what the agenda actually is.
Did your supervisor know you were the one on the floor, or was it more like “go down there and find someone to do it, and dont leave till its done!”?
This ^^^^
If it’s so dang important, and boss person is ready to go defcon 17 the minute the deadline looks dicey, then the boss ought to be fetching and stepping (although of dubious value). Or da boss should have said “No offense, but I’ve got to send Jane to CYA.”
Just having lackey show up with no explanation is a dick move. But I personally wouldn’t read too much into it.
I figure the boss was getting pressure to make sure this very important task gets done. Even though he knows (or suspects) you will get this done without incident, he has to report up to his superiors that he’s doing something extra. Sending a flunky to hover without interfering might be the easiest and least intrusive thing he can do.
People higher up in the organization or possibly the customer are asking for something extra, and this is what he came up with. Life’s too short to take offense at that.
Years ago, I was in the kick-off meeting of a multi-million dollar/multi-year “mission-critical” IT project. The head of the Agency came to the kick-off meeting and admonished all of us that “this is the most important thing this Agency is working on and everything else is secondary. Now, I have another meeting right now, but I wanted you to know that and that I expect this to get done on-time and on-budget.”^
After he left, the oldest employee (who was actually only a month or so from retirement) said “Most important thing…except for that other meeting he has - at least we know where we stand folks”.
^The project failed spectacularly, not just once, but again when they tried it again a few years later. I left the first project after a couple of months because I could see where it was going. I stuck with the second failure even though we could all see it coming because they were paying me ridiculously well and it made for good stories. Third try is the charm and it seems like this one may work. I’m only tangentially involved (I had a chance to be directly involved, but, been there, got the coffee mug). It does actually appear that they learned their lessons from the second failure. We’ll see.
You work for the Agency? Should you be so cavalier about revealing that you work for the CIA?
“This Agency”, not “the Agency”.
I enjoy being able to say that nothing at my job is life or death. Or at least, they can’t pin any deaths on me. 
Funnily enough though, we were actually a Department (or Office, it’s been a while and the name has changed, can’t remember when) and people calling it an Agency is actually a pet peeve).