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nirims · Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2008 Posts: 2 Career Advice: +0/-0

i am a superviisor of a training dept and i have 5 people reporting to me, my problem is my boss gives opportunity for people reporting under me to skip level in communication.

recently i caught one team member sending a direct email and i asked her to copy me in future. he has awarded her (we have online rewards) and i was not informed, he asks me to create goals for everyone and he makes changes.
he tells my team members to keep him informed and asks me why they call him for things always and then advices me to ask people to meet me first before they come to him.

there is so much of incosistency and contradictory commands and orders he gives everybody and we end up fighting with each other.

he realizes that he needs to communicate to me when decisions are being made and he does that at times and i have openly shown my thankful ness on that, but suddenly sometimes he does behave like this too.

so when my team members get an opportunity to interact with him , they tend to have the feeling that they do not have to do what i ask they wait for me to escalate things on mail and when he involves and shoots out a mail then everybody complete the task.

i feel i am loosing my respect as a supervisor because of my bosses intervention

any help on how to tackle this

Pauloz · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:13 am Post subject:

nirims

This is the famous "going over heads" approach, and it's fairly typical in small workplaces where access to management is easier. Your boss is however being more hands-on than required, or necessary. It's bad delegation technique, but can be inevitable where the boss knows the workers well enough to have well established relationships.

However, the level of inconsistency, and "rewards" for skipping a rung on the ladder don't look too promising. If you were looking for a series of ways of not managing things properly, you have two good examples, right there.

For which reasons, a bit of discretion is recommended in dealing with the situation.

His management style is apparently based on the situation at the time, and seems very impromptu. Telling him he's doing the wrong thing (which he is) can't help you much. People generally don't like having their glaring mistakes pointed out to them, and this guy's obviously not considering those issues.

A few options:

If you think he's deliberately undermining you, get out of there, fast. You've got a life to live, and it should be worth living.

If he's just "like that", you may be able to talk your way through it, but be careful, particularly if you sense any malice.

If he's totally non-receptive, and talking isn't a realistic way of handling the issues, go over his head, if you think it will achieve anything. The obvious downside is that it won't help the relationship.

Above all:

Do not do anything which jeopardizes your long term interests.

People like this can put some holes in your CV, and sabotage your career prospects with petty issues. Don't give this guy any opportunities to do that. Competent managers don't do what he's doing, and the incompetent ones can get pretty nasty.

My basic diagnosis would be move on, and put this behind you.

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