He's Driving us Crazy

Crash

We have a plant manager who micromanages to the point where the supervisors working under him have no say in how they run their departments. He moves their employees around at his discretion and expects the supervisors to make the adjustments necessary to accommodate the changes. He is notorious for not opening positions; he promotes into a vacated position and then expects the employee to do the new as well as their old job. I have told him time after time that these people cannot handle two full time jobs. Makes no difference. He has no qualms about presenting the same situation differently to everyone he talks to depending on what they want to hear. Several times I've talked with my manager about the problems he's creating, but my manager is so wimpy he usually says he can't do anything. This manager's last action was to pull a degreed engineer off the job he's doing and have a technician who isn't close to being qualified take over the engineer's job. And while the engineer has NO experience in supervision, he's going to have him supervise a production line that is a total disaster. I AM going to do something about this, but if any of you Forumites have encountered a similar situation and found a good way to make your point, I sure would appreciate hearing what you did.

pork1

From where does his loyalities come? Are there owners or a Board of govern? I had the opportunity and he rid the company of me before I could nail down the answers. I was promoted out of his organization to the next level, where I did new and exciting things until 180 days had expired and then there was a need for a rift and I was gone. After the fact, I realized what went down and swore I would never fall into that trap again. Be careful of your next promotion within the company!

PORK

Balloonman1

Place an ad on careerbuilder and fire him.

My $0.02 worth,
The Balloonman

MS HR

IMHO:

iT'S not HR job to second guess line supervisor.
and that's all it would be is your "guess" that his choice(s) are incorrect.

lnelson

People have different ways of managing their departments. Maybe a meeting with plant mgr & sups to go over what he is trying to accomplish and maybe incorporate other supervisors into his plans.

Getting input from the supervisors regarding their ees and where they may be able to help in the plant mgrs scheme of things.

It would also give opportunity to the supervisors to voice not in a threatening way of course but their thoughts and ideas to get to the same results.

We have weekly meetings to discuss any problems or accomplishments it has help with communication between depts and eased the plant mgrs responsibilities by delegating certain jobs.

LivindonSouth

It all boils down to the structure of the organization, what its management philosophy and charge to managers are, and maybe most importantly for YOU, what the position of HR in the organization is. In my situation, I could get this person fired in 15 minutes. Your current dilemma, really, is to assess whether or not you have reached your maximum tolerance point and, if so, what style will your resume take. It really sounds like an intolerable position in which you find yourself and it ain't worth going home with your stomach knotted up every night. If you are not in a position to effect change in the philosophy of management there, you must go about a process of leaving.

System

That very first sentence from Livindon says it all; couldn't be more on target than that. What is the reason the supervisors come to you and share the dilema? Are you in a position to make recommendations or help correct the line of command, or are they coming to you to vent and complain? If you're not in a position to help change it, remove yourself from the frustration.

LarryC

I know this guy. He's an arsonist who thrives on starting fires and then sitting back and watching the confusion and destruction and considering it (in his own mind) a grand accomplishment.

In my situation, the firebug was the owner. I finally left the company. A year later it went bankrupt and the firebug lost the company to the bank.

Crash, not knowing what your governing "structure" is like, I can't give you any specifics on how to proceed. He will keep burning the place unless you or somebody else stops him. If you can't stop him, get out before he burns you.

WT

Crash,

This is really all about power. Does this manager have the power to do the things he is doing? Do you have the power to stop him? Who can discipline or discharge this individual? If his power and authority is superior to yours, you may well lose your job by taking on a battle you cannot win. Thus, if you have the power, step on this guy and make him change his ways. Make sure you are right and then go ahead. If you do not have the power, those who do need an education. They are not doing their job by letting all of this go on. Refer complaints up the line to those who do have the power to make changes. In the meantime, sit back and let this manager crash and burn. It could cost the company millions but education is sometimes bought dearly. On the other hand, the plant could make money with upper management in love with that bottom line. In that case, the style of the manager would be found to be "just right" and those who complain will be found to be trouble makers.