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What I Have Learned About Supervision (Mostly the Hard Way): Part III

What I Have Learned About Supervision (Mostly the

Retired SPVR
OSHA
Wed Aug 6, 2008 6:34 PM

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I feel that my agency did a poor job of providing supervisors with support necessary to maintain a good work environment. Over the years I noticed an increasing disrespect by subordinates for their supervisors, management and agency mission. Necessary counseling and discipline of workers for disrespectful and, at times, outright contemptful behavior did not occur because the HR and upper management chain of command did not have the spine to put it into action. So it went unchecked. Such workers realized there was no consequence to their poor conduct and performance and as a result, the good workers got more work. A perfect recipe for turning good workers into bad ones and perpetuating a bad workplace ethic/environment.
You can provide excellent training to supervisors, and I did recieve very good training by consultants, but you must back them up from the top down. Management is a team game, and all too often upper management is not playing their position.

Re: What I Have Learned About Supervision (Mostly the

Revenue Agent
IRS
Fri Aug 8, 2008 1:06 PM
I too, have noticed that over the years, employees are becoming more openly disrespectful to management. While this should not be condoned, it is the managers themselves who are primarily responsible, as the professionalism of managers certainly isn't what it was 10 or more years ago. How many managers have you seen who come to work in jeans and tee-shirts? How many think that khakis and polo shirts are professional attire? Whatever happened to suits? How about managers who allow employees to have mini-televisions and radios on their desks? Even though it disturbs other workers, managers won't enforce the rules for a professional workplace. So as managers have become increasingly lazy and slothful, employees naturally lose respect for them. And since upper management won't tell front-line managers to shape-up or get out of management, the employees lose respect for upper management as well.

Re: What I Have Learned About Supervision (Mostly the

examiner
irs
Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:55 AM
This is in response to the Revenue Agent and not the other person.
I agree with you about the radios and tv's without the ear plugs. Get real about the jeans and suits. I agree that jeans are not appropriate, but you go to an extreme by saying suits. How about dress pants and button down shirts except for Friday when more casual
attire is appropriate.
Respect is not based on a suit. I know a manager who dresses in suits who does not have my respect because he is impossible to work for. He assigns work that is not possible to do. He hears one's answers, but ignores them. He tells one to do something that is illegal. It violates the IRS Restructuring Act of 1998. I could get fired if I do this. He has no people skills. He says one thing and then denies saying it. I could go on.
A good manager has good people and technical skills. There are not many of them here. It takes time to develop a good manager.

Leadership training

Gen Supply Spec
DoD
Fri Aug 8, 2008 8:44 AM

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The article points out that many supervisors begin their supervisory roles with no leadership/supervisor training. I have noticed over many years of Federal service that in order to apply for many leadership training courses, you have to be a supervisor. If not, you don't get to go. It seems to me kind of "duh!" that leadership training needs to start before you're a supervisor.

Management Reviews and Negativity

Revenue Agent
IRS
Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:42 PM

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I've noticed that management continues to only point out the negative in reviews, meetings and conversations. They do not seem to review from a "whole package or product" but rather from a "how many things can I find wrong" mentality. This constant negativity with the increased workload contributes greatly to employee's low moral. Also, my manager has no "people skills" and employees feel he contributes to a non "team" group. He hinders employees talking and sharing skills with each other with glares and sighs if co-workers even speak in passing. The office has an atmosphere of death and doom. Agents are wanting to leave the group at every opportunity. He never stands up for his agents and even will hang them out to dry if it makes him look better. It would be nice for manager's were required to take annual management skill courses.

supervisors

Claims Technical Examiner
SSA
Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:09 AM

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You can add to your list of
Perceived Environment and Current Skill Base:

. manages numbers but does not manage people.

Workloads are so high at this agency that the managers must browbeat and threaten employees who are not meeting a self imposed quota of cases. This is a bit unfair since numeric standards were abolished in the 1990's.

I feel as if I am being blamed personally for the downsizing of SSA. This goes back to Ronald Reagen, I have nothing to do with this workload problem. Why must I do the work of three people?

If we are an ageing workforce why not try to make our last few years stress free?

managers

Claims Technical Examiner
SSA
Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:17 AM

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An observation I made years ago.

The only way to get promoted at SSA is to produce a huge amount of cases. Quality was never an issue at SSA. It is all about numbers.

Considering what I have just said, a large amount of managers were high producers and do not push for accuracy. What we are left with is an inferior work product and managers who pushed their way into management by producing a lot of work and not processing the work correctly.

Once they become managers it is: Push! Push! Push!

Poor Selection of Federal Managers

Chief, Human Resources Development
DoD
Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:44 PM

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'First-line supervisors are not chosen for their "people skills"' When, oh when, will upper management learn that being a good engineer doesn't mean you'll be a good manager or leader? It's a completely different skill set.

Supervisory skills

examiner
irs
Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:43 AM

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Managers need to be able to organize and to move logically instead of by rote.
Manager's managers (territory managers and area managers) must hire AND RETAIN managers with people skills. It is often that I see managers with people skills leave management because they are treated poorly. Of course higher level management must have people skills. That is sorely lacking.

Total Comments: 20
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