Does your boss put you in position to succeed?

[jro]

SSIA (h/t 'Sage). Interpret as you will, I'm genuinely curious to hear thoughts/opinions.

 

[fake]

In my experience - first hand and watching others in the office - a boss only helps you succeed if you get along with them on a personal / friendship level, suck their dick, and win at the office politics game. Offices are like middle school all over again. I've seen so many hard-working and talented people get thrown aside or thrown under the bus because they didn't do one or any of those three things.

 

[Digmac]

The last couple of places I worked at, no. My direct boss at both places didn’t care enough to let people succeed. He was solely there to crack the whip. At my last job, there was a position I would have been better at and I would have excelled if I got the position, but they refused to consider moving me even though coworkers brought it up for me and backed me up. At the job previous to that one, my boss didn’t care enough about us as employees to do anything. It was just a check up if word got around that our work wasn’t “satisfactory”. Didn’t matter how hard we worked.

fakeXsound is 100% right on. It’s not just in office jobs either. I worked in assembly/manufacturing and at a high end car dealer in my two experiences.

 

[StevenK]

I think being nice in the workplace is underrated, I think you can get a surprisingly long way being competent and amiable. Hell, you can get a long way being incompetent and amiable. But... to get to the top there's no doubt you're going to need to be a dick and step on a few people at times. When I got to that level I quit and started my own company instead.

To answer the OP's question directly - bottom to middle rung, yes. Around the top, no.

 

[LoneSage]

Good thread jro but deserves to be War Room'd (War Room has the best threads).

I am my own boss but people in senior positions have nominated me for awards.

In my experience - first hand and watching others in the office - a boss only helps you succeed if you get along with them on a personal / friendship level, suck their dick, and win at the office politics game. Offices are like middle school all over again. I've seen so many hard-working and talented people get thrown aside or thrown under the bus because they didn't do one or any of those three things.

This pretty much nails it. No one is looking out for anyone other than #1. Middle managers especially will feel threatened by go-getters.

 

[famicommander]

I work in logistics/inventory in a company full of confused stoners trying to implement a brand new inventory management system nobody bothered to learn how to use before it went live.

So instead of moving things around and tracking everything with 10 seconds worth of paperwork, I spend most of my day trying to figure out who fucked up earlier in the chain and made it so the system doesn't show the right quantities in the right locations. That way I can get those quantities fixed so I can transfer the correct amounts of products to the correct locations within the system, because now nobody can move anything unless it's accurately reflected in the system. There are like 10 potential points of failure and like 5 people who have to do everything right in the chain before it gets to me, and someone fucked something up about 80% of the time.

It used to be that they'd tell me what they wanted, then I'd go get it, then I'd write it down and someone else would sign off to verify it.

Now they tell me what they want and I discover that what they want doesn't exist at all in the system so I spend 45 minutes fixing it, then I deliver it. And then still do the paperwork anyway.

 

[Massive Urethra Chode]

I work in logistics/inventory in a company full of confused stoners trying to implement a brand new inventory management system nobody bothered to learn how to use before it went live.

So instead of moving things around and tracking everything with 10 seconds worth of paperwork, I spend most of my day trying to figure out who fucked up earlier in the chain and made it so the system doesn't show the right quantities in the right locations. That way I can get those quantities fixed so I can transfer the correct amounts of products to the correct locations within the system, because now nobody can move anything unless it's accurately reflected in the system. There are like 10 potential points of failure and like 5 people who have to do everything right in the chain before it gets to me, and someone fucked something up about 80% of the time.

It used to be that they'd tell me what they wanted, then I'd go get it, then I'd write it down and someone else would sign off to verify it.

Now they tell me what they want and I discover that what they want doesn't exist at all in the system so I spend 45 minutes fixing it, then I deliver it. And then still do the paperwork anyway.

Oh god... this sounds like a pain in the ass nightmare... i’m legitimately sorry you have to deal with this headache every day. In general, computerized inventory systems are all a pain in the ass. I think the old fashioned way of doing business sans computers is sometimes better in many ways.

 

[jro]

Gonna have to post something more substantial tomorrow when I'm not 3/4 in the proverbial bag, definitely appreciating all answers so far.

Also having a really hard time typing the word definitely correctly, WTF is the point of autocorrect jeebbus donkeyballs.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I don't put my boss in a position to succeed, so it's even.

 

[Cousin_Itt]

Factory worker here. Long story short, come to work on time, do your job, don’t fuck up, then all is peachy. My direct supervisor is pretty chill and I actually like most of the higher ups in my department. I do not envy all the bull shit they have to deal with.

 

[Massive Urethra Chode]

Does your boss put you in position to succeed?

Let me preface my answer with saying that i am self employed.

No.

 

[LoneSage]

Let me preface my answer with saying that i am self employed.

No.

No offense but you need to stop posting here.

 

[Massive Urethra Chode]

No offense but you need to stop posting here.

I am a CONTRIBUTING member to this SITE.

 

[theMot]

I don’t have a job. I just watch teh Netflix, play vidya games and pull my dick all day.

 

[Massive Urethra Chode]

I don’t have a job. I just watch teh Netflix, play vidya games and pull my dick all day.

Only since covid-19 though. I swear!!!

 

[neo_mao]

I manage a team of 5 people and they all love me. I got stories to tell, boy howdy.

My kind of work can get pretty stressful but we have a lot of fun at work. I mean, I just expect folks to be engaged, thoughtful, respectful, motivated and competent. I have to put my team in a position to succeed because I need them - there is no way I can do everything myself so I depend on them and they depend on me. I could write a book on all this stuff, but that’s really the core. Maintaining a successful and happy team isn’t easy though...takes a lot of time, energy and patience.

It’s the same way with my boss.

 

[Gamefan]

In my experience - first hand and watching others in the office - a boss only helps you succeed if you get along with them on a personal / friendship level, suck their dick, and win at the office politics game. Offices are like middle school all over again. I've seen so many hard-working and talented people get thrown aside or thrown under the bus because they didn't do one or any of those three things.

^ This right here. As others have stated, everyone is out for themselves and to get ahead, you have to play ball.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

If I make it to the end of a work week without murdering anyone, I have succeeded.

 

[Knud]

If I make it to the end of a work week without murdering anyone, I have succeeded.

I agree, there are a couple who at that place and none of it is my fault!

My boss needs the team i am in, and we need him to take all the shit and the heat.

 

[norton9478]

And here's something else, Bob... I have eight different bosses right now.
So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

 

[smokehouse]

I work in a very frustrating environment.

When I was in the field, there were plenty of times when the issue was lack of quality components or training. We'd have old/broken tools that made things extremely frustrating. Later on, as I grew in rank, it was lack of training on systems were were expected to install. So much time spent guessing, looking stuff up online, or calling tech support again and again. I was once given a fiber optic fusion splicer and everything on it was in Japanese...the only tech support was calling Japan, it was awful.

When I went into the office, it's the same "trial by fire" routine. My first week in the office, I was expected to quote a $300K nurse call system and make state compliant prints for the site in AutoCad. I didn't know a thing about the system, knew nothing about state compliance with skilled care facilities, and had never used AutoCad in my life. It was awful...

We have a reactionary approach to issues here. Someone quits, boss walks in on Mon and tells you that you're now expected to do their job...and yours. The problem is, you may not know a thing about their job yet you're expected to do it. On that note, I haven't been to factory training on any systems I engineer in well over 3 years now...not once.

You make do best you can but sometimes the lack of resources and proper training is maddening.

 

[jro]

I don't put my boss in a position to succeed, so it's even.

That's something poignant there. I've always tried to make my boss look good (i.e. with his bosses, other staff, vendors, etc), with the hope that he'll recognize that and the value that it brings. I think it's there on some level, but not sure how much.

It’s the same way with my boss.

You mean your boss is also a good boss, correct? Sounds like there's a good culture at your place that starts at the top and is carried throughout. Doesn't seem all that common, unfortunately.

And here's something else, Bob... I have eight different bosses right now.
So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

 

[yagamikun]

I'm in a weird position - I love what I do and I enjoy where I work. My boss is a VP in my organization (fortune 500), but I'm not a manager or supervisor so there isn't a middle man between us. He is super supportive, always wants to make sure my workload is balanced, and that I'm enjoying what I do/find my work appropriately challenging.

Because I like my job, it isn't a stretch to "try hard and succeed." My whole team has great synergy, actually, and nobody feels threatened by anyone else. It's a crazy supportive environment. That said, I work in HR and I'm well aware that my situation is the anomaly and not the norm - even in my company. But, our job is to help managers and executives in my organization reach that level of support and communication (while providing the tools and concepts to do so), so it's nice my boss and my team practices what they preach/teach.

I put my time in the service industry as a retail manager for 12 years prior to a career change (read: lucky break), and in that world you don't get any support, training, or encouragement. I can't think of one boss I had during that time that I'm fond of or I felt support me in any meaningful way.

 

[NeoSneth]

I think mine gives me the freedom to succeed, but also equally to fail.

 

[fake]

I put my time in the service industry as a retail manager for 12 years prior to a career change (read: lucky break), and in that world you don't get any support, training, or encouragement. I can't think of one boss I had during that time that I'm fond of or I felt support me in any meaningful way.

Retail is particularly fucked up. "Oh, you didn't hit your sales goals? OK, we're reducing the number of hours your part-timers can work." How the fuck is that supposed to help?