Do you prefer being an individual contributor, manager, or higher? (work, salaries)
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Of my 45 years in the workforce so far, I spent about 20 as a manager of others. At first exciting to be "in charge", soon I came to realize that I was always pinched between pressure from above and pressure from below. I think the single aspect I disliked the most was the mandate to make grown men and women into different people than who they were.
I am now back in the IC role. I am far happier here. It's like being a Chief Warrant Officer; I have lots of autonomy because the management (some of whom I hired and managed; most of whom are significantly younger and less experienced) know they can toss me a difficult problem and I'll get it done without a lot of whining about it. If I don't know how I don't throw up my hands and say "I don't know how to do this"; I figure it out. I'm a leader in the organization but with implicit, not explicit authority, so all the daily babysitting falls on other people. So and so got into an argument with whatshisname and now they need to be taken into a conference room and talk it out to settle it down and get the work done? Not my circus, not my monkeys.
The position I like most is a true Subject Matter Expert. One who serves as a strategic advisor to senior management. It's the closest you can get to being an individual contributor but at a strategic level.
I was a manager several times during my career. I don't like it but I'm good at it. Being a manager, a good one, is not for most people, and frankly many who are managers aren't really suited to it. Management is a full-time job and not an additional duty, though it's often handled that way. Coordinating across multiple teams and dealing with people issues take a lot of time, skill, tact, and effort. Those can be thankless tasks.
To me the worst of all jobs are those we called "Team Leaders." Those are the folks who are good individual contributors that get tasked with the additional duty of "management" without having the authority to manage or the pay increase that comes with the added responsibility. It's a lose/lose proposition. The management duties take up so much time that you start failing in your IC role. But without the authority that management requires, you end up flailing around in that one as well. To make matters worse, poor employees know how to take advantage of your lack of authority and make things even harder.
*shrug* Worked my way through the ranks and through various companies. I saw many who were happy with what they got because they got to stay in the same place, raise a family, have a routine. More power to them, happy if it worked for them.
For me it was work low level, promoted, promoted, promoted and managerial, promoted, promoted and district managerial, side shift to different company, and similar until moving on with my own company.
There is no "right" way. There is no "right" job. Do what works for you.
I prefer not working at all. LOL. Seeing how the modern workplace in America seems to be now . Truth is, most people in management positions have no business in them. It's not just about managing the operation but people as well. I can't tell you how many "managers" I have came across over the years that couldn't even manage their own personal life at home much less a business and all the personalities.
I miss working at a small company, where things tend to be much less hierarchical and anyone can contribute without fear of being viewed as "stepping out of one's place". The manager/IC distinction, IMO, is simply a bureaucracy management tool that is only necessary because the "team" is simply too big for everyone to just sit down in a room and solve a problem when it is necessary to do so.
Individual contributor. If I wanted to babysit I would have had kids long ago. I dont want to be held responsible for a bunch of lazy, inept, drug addled idiots that basically show up for a check today either
Bingo.
I have no faith in the modern day American worker. I've seen far too many lazy, inept, rude, inconsiderate, obnoxious, and delusional ones to ever want to manage them.
We had a recent firing. Why? Because whenever you asked him to do his job, his reply was "that's not fair." He lasted about 4 months.
Of my 45 years in the workforce so far, I spent about 20 as a manager of others. At first exciting to be "in charge", soon I came to realize that I was always pinched between pressure from above and pressure from below. I think the single aspect I disliked the most was the mandate to make grown men and women into different people than who they were.
I am now back in the IC role. I am far happier here. It's like being a Chief Warrant Officer; I have lots of autonomy because the management (some of whom I hired and managed; most of whom are significantly younger and less experienced) know they can toss me a difficult problem and I'll get it done without a lot of whining about it. If I don't know how I don't throw up my hands and say "I don't know how to do this"; I figure it out. I'm a leader in the organization but with implicit, not explicit authority, so all the daily babysitting falls on other people. So and so got into an argument with whatshisname and now they need to be taken into a conference room and talk it out to settle it down and get the work done? Not my circus, not my monkeys.
This is pretty much the ideal employee. Does not need much "management", probably only goes to his/her manager for support and escalation where needed. Is mature and not affected by drama.
The reason why there are so many managers is because the world lacks people like this. We would need a lot less managers if others were the same.
I have one person like this on my team. I consider her more as a colleague than a staff member. I give her the best raises available and I fight with HR to do that. I also allow her maximum flexibility for when she needs time off during the day. These type of people are too often not given what they deserve. They require little resources from the company but contribute a lot. And what's more is that many of these people just go about their workday as if it normal, not recognizing that simply doing their job without needing attention and management makes them a superstar. The world needs more!
Crew manager of 8, (Not mickey Ds), Floor manager of 64, plant manager of 200 give or take for close to 20 years. Then back down to minion, then floor manager back to supervisor of 6 - 8 depending on the time of year in a medical products research and development raw material warehouse and love every second of it. I hated holding the lives of all those people in my hands, just felt weird. I like the small group Im work WITH now, we cooperate and get along great, I almost dont ever have to tell any of them what needs to be done.
This is pretty much the ideal employee. Does not need much "management", probably only goes to his/her manager for support and escalation where needed. Is mature and not affected by drama.
The reason why there are so many managers is because the world lacks people like this. We would need a lot less managers if others were the same.
I have one person like this on my team. I consider her more as a colleague than a staff member. I give her the best raises available and I fight with HR to do that. I also allow her maximum flexibility for when she needs time off during the day. These type of people are too often not given what they deserve. They require little resources from the company but contribute a lot. And what's more is that many of these people just go about their workday as if it normal, not recognizing that simply doing their job without needing attention and management makes them a superstar. The world needs more!
I agree. One reason I think there aren't more like that is management doesn't give them any attention. Most managers don't even recognize the things you do. They don't get recognized for their contribution. They don't get raises that match their contribution. Instead, it seems for most managers, the attention, the raises, pretty much everything goes toward the least contributors who put on the biggest show of how much they contribute.
Example, I came into an organization where everyone let me know that P was a top performer. But not to worry, she let me know on every occasion how much work she did, how overworked she was, how late she stayed each night. Didn't take me long to figure out she was all show and no go. She may have put in lots of hours, but her actual production was almost nonexistent. Task that would take her a couple of weeks to get a poor result, I could give to someone else, and they'd have done in a couple of days. Yet so many continued to believe her constant complaints of how hard she was working. I got constant pressure from above to move her up.
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