My boss and mentor used to chastise me. “Pile work on your staff until they cry ‘uncle’ ” she would say. Is that really a valid management technique? Sounds a bit draconian. “Not at all,” she would counter. “You don’t really know if they are working at full capacity until you give them too much
“Dog Person” Gets Cat: Surprised by Level of Dissastifaction
I am working on a proposal to present at a professional conference next April. The topic I have chosen is career development. Thus, my blogging volume is both: 1) Temporarily reduced, and 2) HR related Why the topic of career development? Well, frankly, it is on the list of proposals they are seeking. And also,
Taking a Position
The director and manager of school construction sat down in my office. They had made it clear that they needed to see me NOW. “What’s up?” “Well, you hired a supervisor. For the construction department.” “An accounting supervisor. Yes.” “We should have been consulted. After all, she works in our department.” “Yes, she’s physically located
Stepping into a Pile of Management
My boss told me that the only difference between management and non-management is that managers get to hire and fire (so you’d better get good at it). Truth be told, she said this during a somewhat negative performance review. That’s a blunt way of saying non-managers are responsible for tasks while managers are responsible for people.
When to Say No
I recently overheard two employees chatting with their supervisor. “We want to learn Excel” they said. “Can you teach us?” They do not need to know Excel for the work they do currently. Much of the time they are doing data entry. However the next position up the pay scale uses Excel extensively. The supervisor
Boxes, In and Out
When the old boss first arrived she reviewed a particular process and said, “Just tell me one thing. Tell me the reason you aren’t following the accounting manual.” She elaborated that it is OK to break the rules if you have a well-reasoned argument. It is not OK if you don’t even know what the
Silos, at School and Work
When my son was in the 6th grade I met with his math teacher, because he had said he “hated math”. I said, your students are learning about ancient Egypt in Social Studies, which he really enjoys. Couldn’t the students learn about Egyptian mathematics and how the ancient Egyptians may have discovered these concepts? This suggestion fell
What’s my Job, Really
Those of us in the business of education usually have no classroom experience. When first entering into this field we generally defer to the instructional experts and function in support roles. You want me to crunch the numbers on that proposal? Sure! You need us to report your program expenditures to the state? Done! But