A Management Style

I hate politics/politicians and normally ignore anything about it, but lately with most articles politicizing the covid19 pandemic I am totally dumbstruck by some and the way they use the social platforms. It is not a place for a quick brainwave, tantrum or threat (sit down and think it through).

A fast brain get misunderstood, you will only damage yourself because every word you utters will in any case be turned to have a different meaning/context by opponents.

When I started out in life I had this highly intelligent manager believing in this type style where no subordinate must knew where they stand with him. To achieve this he did the following:

We worked over a large area in different towns. He would then sneak-up on someone without forewarning (like a thief).

Anyone caught while busy working was asked and drilled on the specific subject they were busy with until they could answer no more (he’s written knowledge was unequaled). You then get the standard degrading speech of not interested enough in your job to better yourself in life.

If caught doing something private he would start a friendly discussion, suggesting ideas without a hint of negativity.
Example: One Friday I was planning to leave early going home visiting my girlfriend. He caught me washing my car at around 11 am.
I was asked about the plus points of my car (Alfa Giulietta) and complimented on how I looked after it. After about a 15 min visit he said “Let me go, you probability are on your way home for the weekend and want to leave early – Bye, have a nice weekend”

The favorite story among the subordinates was: A worker that took a gap on a pay Friday and dived into a bar for a quick drink. In walked the manager buying a whiskey and talk about everything but the job. He even offered and bought the guy a drink.
That Monday the worker was phoned by the second in charge who got a head rub because he was drinking with the boss during working hours.

a reply to: ICycle2

This reminds me of my first boss.
He loved dangling peoples jobs over them.
One day he walks into the break room where there are about a dozen people sitting.
Within one minute everyone left the room and I was still sitting there....

He walks over and sits down as I eat my sandwich.
He looks me dead on and says.. “you’re not scared of me are you?”

I chuckle...and say..
“Who would be scared of losing this job?”

He was dumbfounded..

Then I told him that if he ran though the building with his head on fire not a single person in the place would even spit on him to help.

I quit the next week anyways with a better job offer so I have no idea what ever became of him or the company.

I had a job with the local county parks when a new park director came in and made some changes to the way the parks were being run at the time. It quickly became a hostile workplace. Right off you were made to feel that you weren't worth a cent no matter how good you were at the job, there was always some loser already in line to take your place.

The hierarchy was, park council, parks director, and then park manager. However the two senior maintenance guys pulled rank and acted like their authority was at or above the director's. They'd team up with the director and pull dirty tricks like put trash around the park to see if we were cleaning up (it was so clean they had to make some trash).

I begged the manager to do regular performance evaluations so I had something to prove I was doing my job. She did that one time and never again. I kept notes on everything I did in case they wanted to accuse me of poor performance. They micro managed everything. On top of those bosses there was at least one former park manager who ran the park like he owned it. That was five chiefs or more and just two or three Indians doing the real work.

After five seasons I "quit" (fired really, LOL) and a year later the parks director and my park's manager were busted embezzling money (I knew that was going on, among other things) and fired. Nothing on the local news, no court cases I'm aware of, just word from the grape vine. A council member, one who was likely the most corrupt, was also fired for other reasons.

That experience taught me much about management styles, I truly appreciate a good supervisor or manager when I deal with them now.

ETA: Now that I'm thinking about it, it seems that the upper management of the parks hired people who would do their dirty work and then have them take the fall for it. I've seen that happen in the township parks. Government at every level is corrupt it seems.

When I had a retail shop before I had to shut down for good, because of this covid BS my management style was strictly hands off besides I had union gigs as well. I knew to check the references of my potential employees before I hired them. I also looked at their FB and twitter accounts to get an idea of their personality and who they hung out with. I avoided a lot of problems and had loyal, competent, honest people on the floor and mgrs. That's what any competent HR person should do.