Being In Management
Being a supervisor has its ups and downs. I hear stories at school all the time about these younger people in their early 20's being managers. It strikes me as strange, but then when you think about it. They are offered a little more money and a chance as they see it to boss people around. They think it is cool to be over people. The company puts them in an assistant manager position and they work their tails off for just a little more than minium wage. You have the authority to hire and fire people. So you hire your friends and fire people who you don't like. They could be good workers, but maybe their personality and yours just don't work well together. There maybe something about them that rubs you the wrong way. I had a supervisor tell me I needed to quit wearing that cheap perfume. The cheap perfume that I was wearing was my moms Chanel No 5. Anyway I just shook my head and went on doing whatever it was I was doing.
I was promoted to supervisor when I was about 23. I didn't hire my friends. I was trained by the person who gave me a start in radio, that was Dan Blaney. I could ask him anything . He gave me books to read and I found others to read because at that time I wanted to either own or manage a radio station. It was my responsibility to train people we hired. One of the things I did was to properly train people. Even if I wanted to get off of a shift I would train them. If they weren't catching on, we would meet and tell them maybe this wasn't for them, because what we did in radio was not glamorous. Sometimes we were just board operators, playing programs, siting there while a live program was on watching the volume, because some of those people could get kind of loud, we answered the phones, taking prayer requests, scores, school announcements, getting cussed out by drunks, ect. We ran ball games, did election coverages and were on the air live. My thing was that whatever you did you wanted to do a good job at it. Managers sometuimes have the idea that they can run over people and then demand they do you a favor. That doesn't work either.
When I started in management I promised myself and the Lord that I would never ask those who were under my authority anything I wasn't willing to do myself. I didn't. There were times I would work a night shift or a weekend shift, just to see what was going on and to see if there was anything I could do to tweak the shift, to either cut down on hours or something. It would always surprise people when they would bring programs in on Saturday and I would be working, I would just tell them that a person needs to see what's going on every once in a while. I did the schedules, I never had any problems getting anybody to work for me. I had some people like Charlie Marlow and others sometimes to work and they didn't mind.
Every once in a while my nieces will call and ask me what to do about a particular situation or a problem they are having and I share my experience with them. You can always tell someone new in management, because they tend to go overboard in being rude to the workers. If they are dealing with a college student, like both of my nieces, they get mad when it's time for them to go back to school. What the problem is, that they either didn't go to college and now life has gotten in the way and they a resentful of the kids going back to school. Now though, anybody can go back to school. It is hard, but if you don't like your life change it. Don't take it out on the workers.
I think the worst part of management is having to fire people. It is no pleasure at all , sometimes I let the person resign or I just never scheduled them to work again. I remember a few times trying to go to bat for a few people asking the upper management to give them another chance. Sometimes it worked, other times the offense was so bad until you had to fire them. I thought once I was going to get beat up. I wasn't nasty either, they just wanted to do what they wanted despite my requests. They wouldn't follow the format, they undermined my authority to others. It was awful. The management can make or break an organization. I have no patience for those people who want to play games with a person, plotting against them. The Bible says, he that digs a ditch shall fall therein. Basically saying if you dig one ditch, you had better dig two; the trap you set for someone else may be for you.
I have no regrets as how I did my job as a manager. I wished that I would have had more training. I did more than what was expected of me for a long time, but I did it as unto the Lord. I know that some people think that being a Christian and a manager contradict each other. it doesn't have to. be honest with people. I have heard too much lately a manager doing someone horribly wrong and their excuse is "Its just business." No it is not. It's not just business. If that is the way of business, I guess I am a dinosaur in my way of thinking. Treat people that way you wish to be treated.....
I was promoted to supervisor when I was about 23. I didn't hire my friends. I was trained by the person who gave me a start in radio, that was Dan Blaney. I could ask him anything . He gave me books to read and I found others to read because at that time I wanted to either own or manage a radio station. It was my responsibility to train people we hired. One of the things I did was to properly train people. Even if I wanted to get off of a shift I would train them. If they weren't catching on, we would meet and tell them maybe this wasn't for them, because what we did in radio was not glamorous. Sometimes we were just board operators, playing programs, siting there while a live program was on watching the volume, because some of those people could get kind of loud, we answered the phones, taking prayer requests, scores, school announcements, getting cussed out by drunks, ect. We ran ball games, did election coverages and were on the air live. My thing was that whatever you did you wanted to do a good job at it. Managers sometuimes have the idea that they can run over people and then demand they do you a favor. That doesn't work either.
When I started in management I promised myself and the Lord that I would never ask those who were under my authority anything I wasn't willing to do myself. I didn't. There were times I would work a night shift or a weekend shift, just to see what was going on and to see if there was anything I could do to tweak the shift, to either cut down on hours or something. It would always surprise people when they would bring programs in on Saturday and I would be working, I would just tell them that a person needs to see what's going on every once in a while. I did the schedules, I never had any problems getting anybody to work for me. I had some people like Charlie Marlow and others sometimes to work and they didn't mind.
Every once in a while my nieces will call and ask me what to do about a particular situation or a problem they are having and I share my experience with them. You can always tell someone new in management, because they tend to go overboard in being rude to the workers. If they are dealing with a college student, like both of my nieces, they get mad when it's time for them to go back to school. What the problem is, that they either didn't go to college and now life has gotten in the way and they a resentful of the kids going back to school. Now though, anybody can go back to school. It is hard, but if you don't like your life change it. Don't take it out on the workers.
I think the worst part of management is having to fire people. It is no pleasure at all , sometimes I let the person resign or I just never scheduled them to work again. I remember a few times trying to go to bat for a few people asking the upper management to give them another chance. Sometimes it worked, other times the offense was so bad until you had to fire them. I thought once I was going to get beat up. I wasn't nasty either, they just wanted to do what they wanted despite my requests. They wouldn't follow the format, they undermined my authority to others. It was awful. The management can make or break an organization. I have no patience for those people who want to play games with a person, plotting against them. The Bible says, he that digs a ditch shall fall therein. Basically saying if you dig one ditch, you had better dig two; the trap you set for someone else may be for you.
I have no regrets as how I did my job as a manager. I wished that I would have had more training. I did more than what was expected of me for a long time, but I did it as unto the Lord. I know that some people think that being a Christian and a manager contradict each other. it doesn't have to. be honest with people. I have heard too much lately a manager doing someone horribly wrong and their excuse is "Its just business." No it is not. It's not just business. If that is the way of business, I guess I am a dinosaur in my way of thinking. Treat people that way you wish to be treated.....
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