Management Rant...
- Thread starter slinxy
- Start date
The logs in the management system may have been captured for a different purpose or not be very accessible. What some might describe as 'lazy', others might call 'sensible delegation'. I would much rather my manager be focusing on people leadership, strategic planning, fighting our corner etc than wasting his time hunting around trying to find out what we have been up to, how things are progressing, what risks he needs to be aware of etc. By the OPs own admission, he is "doing something out of scope" so the outstanding jobs may not accurately outline what he is going to be working on. It really depends on what MI is readily available in any case - an outstanding jobs list is not a plan for the next week; it is an outstanding jobs list, unless it is accompanied by a plan of some description.
I think your working environment and procures my be different from mine. I/We tend to have everything documented in one from or another either in documention, within the job system or in emails anyway. Doing the reports just decentralise the infomation or replicates work when it's not required. The main point is that there's no responsible reason for the weekly reports as he won't say what the purpose of them are. We are busy enough as is; the whole point of his position is to have someone to 'run the show' on a daily bases, he sits in the same office as us and can general just ask what's happening if he requires to know. The fact that the given purpose and reason behind them keeps changing depending on person questioning them.
Like said; I see the vaule and the reason why reports are required, just not in this case.
Sounds like someone wants reports to look like they are doing something.
Rather than looking at the existing historical data, and presenting some metrics on what the objectives are and how they will be measured and how you will know if you achieved them.
Scrum is always given as the solution to poor project management. The irony it requires a discipline, that people with poor management skills don't have.
As for the OP I would just script some stats and reports from existing systems. Keeps them out of your hair, and gives them something to play with.
You can always make them more useful if it turns out they have a purpose.
We have a new senior manager that, now requires weekly reports from each project team to be circulated.
Unfortunately, as internal communication is so bad, no one knows anything about each others projects, so the reports are meaningless to everyone else.
HR used to include some questions in interviews, about business plans, and even the individual departments business plan.
They had to stop because they'd stopped distributing them. So no one had ever read them.
Rather than looking at the existing historical data, and presenting some metrics on what the objectives are and how they will be measured and how you will know if you achieved them.
Scrum is always given as the solution to poor project management. The irony it requires a discipline, that people with poor management skills don't have.
As for the OP I would just script some stats and reports from existing systems. Keeps them out of your hair, and gives them something to play with.
You can always make them more useful if it turns out they have a purpose.
We have a new senior manager that, now requires weekly reports from each project team to be circulated.
Unfortunately, as internal communication is so bad, no one knows anything about each others projects, so the reports are meaningless to everyone else.
HR used to include some questions in interviews, about business plans, and even the individual departments business plan.
They had to stop because they'd stopped distributing them. So no one had ever read them.
Instead of working against him I would try to work with him.
You keep insisting on everything being in the job management system, alright, cool beans. So ask him, what ISN'T in the job management system that he cannot extract which he needs for his report. Take away his excuses and reasons, especially when the information is already there for him to access. Work with the guy, not against him. You're all one team, right?
From management perspectives, depending on the company its often that a regular progress report is required, not from a "checking up" perspective. But its so when OTHER managers question "oh whats going on with your guys" in financially fuelled meetings they have the justification to keep you. If he sits there and goes "Slinxy? Yeah he's always busy but honestly I can't really tell you much about his Day to day" it could be a reason to cut you. Managers/pen pushers...whatever you want to call them, often look at people as names and figures on a spreadsheet, and simply put, resisting over what is likely a fraction of your working week could cause you more problems in the long run. Ultimately, it comes down to YOUR visibility within the company. Alright the guy knows how it works, but does everyone outside of your department? are you recognised for all of that effort you put in? This is where you can be clever and whilst your work does your talking, the report then backs it up. If you choose to.
What if you go to another firm with a dream job but they want (as mentioned) daily reporting? what will you do? just walk from that? that will start a trend on your CV then...
I hate micro-management more than anyone. In fact, I had to bring something up with my mentor today to get a micro-managing incident manager off my case who was just causing problems. I respond to it TERRIBLY. But at the same time, if I am asked for a summary on something I've done, I don't sit there and say "well its logged in the case so you crack on and find that" - I'll give that summary, because I already know the work, and ultimately can explain in a few minutes typing what would take hours of sifting through information for the same result.
It sounds like you've had a free for all for ages and now you've got someone trying to actively manage you and you don't like it. Whether or not the guy is going about it in the right way. You will be seen in a MUCH better light within the company if you are adaptive and receptive to that change rather than throw a strop over it. You can also lead by example to the rest of the team. This could actually be an opportunity for you.
You keep insisting on everything being in the job management system, alright, cool beans. So ask him, what ISN'T in the job management system that he cannot extract which he needs for his report. Take away his excuses and reasons, especially when the information is already there for him to access. Work with the guy, not against him. You're all one team, right?
From management perspectives, depending on the company its often that a regular progress report is required, not from a "checking up" perspective. But its so when OTHER managers question "oh whats going on with your guys" in financially fuelled meetings they have the justification to keep you. If he sits there and goes "Slinxy? Yeah he's always busy but honestly I can't really tell you much about his Day to day" it could be a reason to cut you. Managers/pen pushers...whatever you want to call them, often look at people as names and figures on a spreadsheet, and simply put, resisting over what is likely a fraction of your working week could cause you more problems in the long run. Ultimately, it comes down to YOUR visibility within the company. Alright the guy knows how it works, but does everyone outside of your department? are you recognised for all of that effort you put in? This is where you can be clever and whilst your work does your talking, the report then backs it up. If you choose to.
What if you go to another firm with a dream job but they want (as mentioned) daily reporting? what will you do? just walk from that? that will start a trend on your CV then...
I hate micro-management more than anyone. In fact, I had to bring something up with my mentor today to get a micro-managing incident manager off my case who was just causing problems. I respond to it TERRIBLY. But at the same time, if I am asked for a summary on something I've done, I don't sit there and say "well its logged in the case so you crack on and find that" - I'll give that summary, because I already know the work, and ultimately can explain in a few minutes typing what would take hours of sifting through information for the same result.
It sounds like you've had a free for all for ages and now you've got someone trying to actively manage you and you don't like it. Whether or not the guy is going about it in the right way. You will be seen in a MUCH better light within the company if you are adaptive and receptive to that change rather than throw a strop over it. You can also lead by example to the rest of the team. This could actually be an opportunity for you.
Associate
- Joined
- 6 May 2016
- Posts
- 693
If you're already documenting and logging everything, just copy and paste into the report.
Are you sure this isn't partly due to bitterness OP? I mean it isn't really up to you to decide what this manager needs or doesn't need and it would seem to be rather silly/petty to quit a job simply because you were asked to produce a weekly report.
That the information is logged elsewhere isn't necessarily a reason not to produce a report. I mean for example at one place I worked the tech support guys would write a shift report, it was expected for every shift and would go out to the support managers, all the other client services people, senior management, account managers etc.. It essentially contained an overview of each issue they'd worked on that evening, name of the client, the issue, what they did to fix it, whether it was ongoing/handed over to the next shift etc.. this e-mail report could in theory be constructed by just copying and pasting the some of the relevant notes they made on each support ticket.
Of course the senior management, CS manager, account managers etc.. could also log onto the support ticket/CRM system and look at each item on their individually too and then read though the notes... but a summary that is sent to people and pops up on their blackberry is still a useful thing to have.
Likewise a developer could state "oh I don't need to contribute to any documentation, anyone can just look at my code and the comments!"...
Frankly, it is a weekly report and you don't even know what it is going to be used for, just do it as complaining about it (and certainly wanting to quit your job over it) seems a bit ridiculous. It can work in your favour too, you get to highlight all the stuff you do that might otherwise get unnoticed. At one job I used to write a weekly e-mail to my boss without being required to do so for this very reason, I wanted to make sure that stuff I'd done was highlighted... this is especially useful if you're going beyond your job requirements - then when it comes to to pay reviews/performance reviews you've been giving them weekly updates all year advertising your performance, they've not got much wriggle room to claim you're doing anything other than exceeding expectations - which of course warrants a decent pay rise too.
That the information is logged elsewhere isn't necessarily a reason not to produce a report. I mean for example at one place I worked the tech support guys would write a shift report, it was expected for every shift and would go out to the support managers, all the other client services people, senior management, account managers etc.. It essentially contained an overview of each issue they'd worked on that evening, name of the client, the issue, what they did to fix it, whether it was ongoing/handed over to the next shift etc.. this e-mail report could in theory be constructed by just copying and pasting the some of the relevant notes they made on each support ticket.
Of course the senior management, CS manager, account managers etc.. could also log onto the support ticket/CRM system and look at each item on their individually too and then read though the notes... but a summary that is sent to people and pops up on their blackberry is still a useful thing to have.
Likewise a developer could state "oh I don't need to contribute to any documentation, anyone can just look at my code and the comments!"...
Frankly, it is a weekly report and you don't even know what it is going to be used for, just do it as complaining about it (and certainly wanting to quit your job over it) seems a bit ridiculous. It can work in your favour too, you get to highlight all the stuff you do that might otherwise get unnoticed. At one job I used to write a weekly e-mail to my boss without being required to do so for this very reason, I wanted to make sure that stuff I'd done was highlighted... this is especially useful if you're going beyond your job requirements - then when it comes to to pay reviews/performance reviews you've been giving them weekly updates all year advertising your performance, they've not got much wriggle room to claim you're doing anything other than exceeding expectations - which of course warrants a decent pay rise too.
Soldato
- Joined
- 16 May 2007
- Posts
- 3,221
Asking for relevant brief weekly reports is useful as a manager because you get an insight persons view on their actual workload at the same time. It can highlight things the manager may not be aware of that they can help deal with etc. Also having an easily accessible view of what people have actually worked on and plan to work on helps as well with organising things and priorities.
Where it can fall down is when it is not relevant and does not add anything for the effort taken. I have for example seen people spend a couple of hours a day compiling a report no one uses. When questioned they could not explain why they were doing it. After further investigation I found it was of no use so stopped it which freed up more of their time.
Where it can fall down is when it is not relevant and does not add anything for the effort taken. I have for example seen people spend a couple of hours a day compiling a report no one uses. When questioned they could not explain why they were doing it. After further investigation I found it was of no use so stopped it which freed up more of their time.
I guess if it is an overview then it shouldn't take much longer than a few mins on a Friday before going to the pub... in fact he could always just have a draft e-mail saved and make a quick note/update to it at the end of each day.
I mean I used to have to fill out an hourly timesheet complete with client billing codes etc... a weekly report is practically nothing in terms of extra admin.
The weekly report is also useful to include things that don't otherwise get logged - for example if you had to help another team member or another team then that probably isn't going to be reflected in any service request/change management system under your name and it probably isn't billable (at least not be you) to any client either, yet if it takes up your time and you do it regularly then it is worth noting that in addition to working on X, Y Z etc.. you also assisted account management or support with A, B, C and spent time with the pre-sales guys etc..etc..
If you're quite a pro-active person/don't slack off at work then these sorts of reports will tend to just work in your favour, frankly any opportunity to highlight what you do/the value you add to management isn't exactly a bad thing.
I mean I used to have to fill out an hourly timesheet complete with client billing codes etc... a weekly report is practically nothing in terms of extra admin.
The weekly report is also useful to include things that don't otherwise get logged - for example if you had to help another team member or another team then that probably isn't going to be reflected in any service request/change management system under your name and it probably isn't billable (at least not be you) to any client either, yet if it takes up your time and you do it regularly then it is worth noting that in addition to working on X, Y Z etc.. you also assisted account management or support with A, B, C and spent time with the pre-sales guys etc..etc..
If you're quite a pro-active person/don't slack off at work then these sorts of reports will tend to just work in your favour, frankly any opportunity to highlight what you do/the value you add to management isn't exactly a bad thing.
