Flibbertigibbet

Something I Hate

Listen up, Managers of the World!

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT attempt to solve your employees problems for them. Your job is not to think for your lackeys and peons. Your job is simply to tell them what the goals are and what the limits are to their authority. Beyond that, you let them work it out.

Since I am not a CEO and therefore someone's lackey I want to tell you all that I take umbrage at having someone who asked me to tell them what problems I'm facing attempt to solve said problems for me.

If I needed help from my boss, I would ask for it. I would probably use terms like, "I'm not sure how to solve this problem." or "How do you think I should solve this problem?" I'm wild and unpredictable like that.

If you are a manager who is two degrees of hierarchy removed from your direct reports, do not pretend to know anything about the issues confronting them. Not only should you not suggest a solution, but you should not pretend that you even understand the issues in question.

It is perfectly acceptable for you to be and remain ignorant of the gory details of your employees' work lives. Pretenses at understanding will only come off as patronizing and the solutions that you force upon them will be taken as micromanagement.