By James D. Witschger
Middle management is a crucible. One has to balance
the demands of senior management with the needs of one’s subordinates.
Throughout my career as a middle manager, I was occasionally forced to
stretch the limits of propriety in an effort to maximize productivity
and employee sanity. And so, it is with an ever-clearing conscience and
tongue buried only slightly in the cheek that I make the following confessions.
I Fudged Time cards
Yes, I fudged time cards, but not for myself. My goal as a middle manager
was productivity. If I had an employee who continually worked hard and
desperately needed a break, I would send him home and fudge the time card.
The company I worked for gave me the responsibility and the accountability
to sign for the work performed by my people. I made sure the work got
done and that productivity was high. I made sure my people got paid.
I Spied on People
I was responsible for the copy center for my employer. The people running
the copy machines were trained to kick out an extra copy of most documents
that were produced for the senior staff. These copies were for me so that
I knew what was going on. I was not surprised very often. At one point,
my copy guy called to tell me that he was making copies of a proposed
organization chart that had him reporting to another manager. I was in
my manager’s office fighting the “battle for the copy center”
long before he even saw the organization chart.
I Submitted Myself for a Raise
I was working for a senior manager who was the epitome of the “retroactive
review” guy. All of his reviews were late and most raises were retroactive.
Having waited months for him to recognize that my review was late, I submitted
my own raise request. It worked, I got what I requested (about 9%). To
this day, I think he was more relieved than angry. Of course, that copy
to HR on the memo made it pretty hard to ignore.
I Used My Power to Abuse
When I was running the copy center, there were some particularly loathsome
managers who would ask for copies of copywritten documents in an attempt
to ”save money.” I had my copy guy bury the requests so deep
that they never got done. I never had to mention that their acts were
despicable. Of course, the ultimate act of abuse was allowing my copy
guy to bury the work of anyone who was not polite or considerate to him.
For five dollars an hour, I thought people should treat him well. Those
who didn’t understand this basic truth never saw a copy task completed
correctly.
I Sneaked into the Company for My Own Exit Interview
I worked for a company that deemed me a security risk and insisted that
I resign. (This is a long story for another day.) As a government contractor,
we used security cards to access buildings. HR demanded that I appear
for a 1:00 PM meeting in the building to conclude the transaction. When
I went to enter the building, I discovered that I was such a risk that
I had been locked out of the building; my card was completely disabled.
I did the right thing and sneaked into the building to "honor"
my appointment.
I Used Alcohol to Bribe People
At one company, it was particularly difficult to get the IT staff to perform
needed tasks. In order to make certain that my tasks had priority, I used
to keep a case of beer in my filing cabinet. I would send in IT requests
in an inter-office envelope with a beer attached. My tasks were usually
completed quite readily. (I did, however, stipulate that the beer be consumed
AFTER my task was completed.)
If you’d like to learn about managerial effectiveness, consider these
AMA seminars:
Author Bio: James Witschger has 23 years’
experience in software development and over 14 years’ in human resources
software development, sales and marketing. He is the co-founder of Technical
Difference, Inc., a privately held corporation that publishes People-Trak,
a PC-based Human Resource Information System. Contact info: www.people-trak.com
or call 1-800-809-5731.
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