Reply to: Examples of Management idiocy, part 1

[billybiro]

DutchNews.nl - Alpha, bravo makes Dutch railways unsafe

Feel free to add your own examples.

I may someday collate them in a book called 'Why the world would be better off without managers'.

Are there too many managers?

Yes. Yes there are.

[Mich the Tester]

You claim to have management experience but you don't sound like it.

Good! Maybe that's why I got things done!

[suityou01]

I'm sure the slaves building the colosseum thought they could do better job if they were in charge.

Nothing to do with being in charge. I'll wage the person in charge didn't design the thing, just did the whip cracking. No skill in that at all.

[suityou01]

I could easily reverse the question: why life would be easier without non-managers trying to second guess management.

Go do the job, then criticise. Meanwhile, do what you're paid to do. It's much easier.

Quite right. I'd never dream of criticising anyone in management.

[minestrone]

The train at one of my local stations continually departs before the tables time, ******* annoying as you will agree.

I decided to complain every time this happened and each time they would write a reply back "sorry, we will bring this up and the next monthly managerial meeting"

Could they not just line the culprits up ( I provided the times and dates ) and tell them to pull the finger out?

It is what I see all the time in all manner of clients, managers rarely add that much value, they just talk tulipe amongst themselves.

[MyUserName]

When I managed a team I considered my job to be do what I needed to do so that they could do their job well and keep them as happy as I could whilst doing it.

Sometimes I had to step in and make an unpopular decision but that was my job too because I was monitoring things to make sure that everything was helping with the big picture.
Every week or so I had a meeting with the powers to keep them up to date.

I was able to do it whilst also doing the techie bits, I am not sure what full time managers do all day.

[malvolio]

Do you somehow think a manager could have prevented that crash?

Of course there are other factors but a good manager wouldn't be discussing routing queries on the phone with a working train driver. So was the root cause the driver turning off the speed alarm (allegedly), the fact that he could, the fact that he was distracted by an irrelevant activity at a key time or the fact that he didn't tell his manager to bugger off until he could talk safely?

[proggy]

BBC News - Netherlands train crash: Scores injured in Amsterdam

[Mich the Tester]

So do the Spanish...

Do you somehow think a manager could have prevented that crash?

[malvolio]

In many cases, that's right. In this case however, they already have trains, built for them by engineers and driven by highly trained drivers.

So do the Spanish...

[Mich the Tester]

Yes, all people need is a faster horse.

In many cases, that's right. In this case however, they already have trains, built for them by engineers and driven by highly trained drivers.

[Ticktock]

Don't fix what isn't broken.

Yes, all people need is a faster horse.

[Mich the Tester]

Takes some time to transition. Got me thinking I wonder what communication method Scotrail use, going by their success I would guess telepathy.

I don't know, but here in the Netherlands there is an approach to communication that works very very well indeed. It's called 'Dutch' and when you speak it, you notice that quite remarkably, people understand you. Of course, the railways employ some really clever people who can speak to the German and French drivers, using the languages known as 'German' or 'French' as appropriate, and as they are trained to do.

Don't fix what isn't broken.

[mos]

What you're describing is leadership; I think we've all seen so many piss poor managers that we should actually look at the concepts of 'leadership' and 'management' as two separate concepts, one of which is highly valuable.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Mich the Tester again.

[Mich the Tester]

You claim to have management experience but you don't sound like it.
The craftspeople would probably not be able to deal with the politics of appeasing the Senate and the Caesars, the budgeting of pilfered treasure from the Brittani tribes, the bringing together of diverse talents to create a cohesive whole.

It's not management that's the problem, it's poor management.
Good management can be inspirational and provide leadership. And sometimes all a manager has to do is to let people get on with it while protecting them from crap from above. That was my main role as a manager.

What you're describing is leadership; I think we've all seen so many piss poor managers that we shoud actually look at the concepts of 'leadership' and 'management' as two seperate concepts, one of which is highly valuable.