Does your boss put you in position to succeed?

[neo_mao]

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.

I do have a good boss and consider myself very lucky. It absolutely stems from our corporate culture. This may sound weird, but our company basically forces volunteer work with a variety of organizations. I was skeptical about this when I joined the firm 10 years ago, but it goes along way towards building relationships - and no, it’s not about kissing ass, it’s about learning about people and developing a mutual respect for each other.

I think the other key that maybe Yagamikun touched upon is that although we have a relatively flat organization and there are large gaps in experience levels between my employees and me and me and my boss. For example, my boss has like 40 years of experience, whereas I like 20, and there are folks on my team who are just a few years out of school...so no one really feels like they are eating each others lunch.

Having said that...I worked my ass off for the company. Now some people may interpret that as kissing ass but I don’t.

I feel bad for people that have a tense relationship with their bosses and coworkers. We all spend so much time at work, it such a big part of our lives that I think that negativity would cross over into my personal life (and vice versus), I can’t just unplug one from the other if that makes sense?

 

[famicommander]

They fired my boss today for not making other people do their jobs.

 

[norton9478]

All I know is that my boss is the only one I've ever had in my life that I thought was smarter than me.

Having a boss that is smarter than you is awesome.

 

[Arcademan]

I'm in a position where I can't really advance up the chain because of its uniqueness (game tech). I answer only to the company supervisor and head game tech and them, along with the owners I may see 3 or 4 times a year since I work in Phoenix and they along with the company and stores are all in Tucson (they have the one franchise operated store in Phx). Sometimes when it comes to getting parts and other items from the company, we seemed to be the bastard stepchild of the company. As far as the bosses putting me in a good position to succeed? I think so but only because I put myself in the position to succeed. They've taken pretty good care of me and despite this COVID-19 crap which included a month and a half of furlough, the powers-to-be looked out for me during the time and even upped my pay to compensate for cutting my hours slightly. They've all have told me on numerous occasions that I'm doing a fantastic job and continue the great work. My response? "I'm only doing what is expected of me because my parents taught me the value of being a hard worker and a model employee...unlike the spoiled $12 a hour grunts that complain about everything."

 

[Taiso]

Yep.

And she trusts every decision I make in the workplace. Never questions a single dollar I spend on inventory or materials for office use

It's the best job I've ever had.

 

[theMot]

Yep.

And she trusts every decision I make in the workplace. Never questions a single dollar I spend on inventory or materials for office use

It's the best job I've ever had.

Is she hot?

 

[smokehouse]

My boss is such a great guy that during a company imposed "work from home" period, he'll call you into the office, make you sit in his office, and he'll read your emails to him one at a time...while you sit there. After the meeting is over, he'll give you the "I need you here as much as possible" response. Out of the entire company, we're the only department with a boss who is passively forcing us to come in.....and most days he shows up at 10am or better.

 

[Heinz]

My bosses are great people, they pick you up when you fall and push you to be better instead of punishing you. They don't pressure you, there's no us and them, we're friends. I've been here 8 years now and I really can't imagine working anywhere else and I know how dangerous an outlook like that can be but I can't see it any other way.

 

[smokehouse]

My bosses are great people, they pick you up when you fall and push you to be better instead of punishing you. They don't pressure you, there's no us and them, we're friends. I've been here 8 years now and I really can't imagine working anywhere else and I know how dangerous an outlook like that can be but I can't see it any other way.

I had one good manager in my 20 years here. He was my manager for 7 months before he quit the company, I was sad to see him go.

 

[evil wasabi]

there really aren't any good managers in law. Partners are just the guys with their hand on the grinder, and associates and staff are the meat getting ground. managers have pressure to get the most out of the meat, and are usually surprised when they get their walking papers, because of budget or whatever bottom line measures to increase profits for the partners. But don't feel bad for anyone with a law license. We enable each other.

 

[neo_mao]

You guys know what I think of whenever I hear the phrase “pro bono”?

 

[Heinz]

You guys know what I think of whenever I hear the phrase “pro bono”?

?

 

[StevenK]

You guys know what I think of whenever I hear the phrase “pro bono”?

Either a penis or that Irish singing fellow. So either way, a prick.

 

[neo_mao]

No you pervs! I think of a lawyer who provides services to the public for free.

What is wrong with you guys, bunch of sexual deviants!

 

[@M]

The only way I could advance is to take my boss' position, which I don't want, and it's not open anyway. There are no other tiers in my department, she's the director, the rest of us are the coordinators. We have different levels of seniority/pay, but that's purely a reflection of the years that we've each put in, and is dictated by the union contract, not her, none of us is above the others and we're all below her.

 

[fake]

I had a boss who was an absolute buffoon. I was complaining about it to a friend who told me about this theory that a lot of people suck at their job because they get as far as their skills allow them to.♥In other words, somewhere along the line, they got a promotion that they actually weren't suited for, but people rarely get demoted, and on the other side of the coin, they aren't able to get promoted internally or get a higher position elsewhere. So they're just entrenched in this position they're ill-suited for but don't want to take a pay cut, so they just do a shitty job.

That book, published in 1969, attempted to explain why that might be. In Peter’s view, most people were promoted based on their current performance, with no real consideration of their capacity to take on greater responsibility. The result is that we may be less good at our current job than the one before. As we climb one, two or three rungs up the ladder, our performance may be so bad that we no longer warrant a further promotion. By this point we’ve reached our limits and fail to improve any more, and so we end-up irritating our colleagues and clients with our inability to do the job.

Eventually, “every employee tends to rise to his [or her] level of incompetence”, he wrote – a law he termed the ‘Peter Principle’.

Granted, this was satirical at the time, but I think it has a lot of weight to it.

Funnily enough, this boss did get demoted, from VP of the services team to an operations coordinator.

 

[jro]

there really aren't any good managers in law. Partners are just the guys with their hand on the grinder, and associates and staff are the meat getting ground. managers have pressure to get the most out of the meat, and are usually surprised when they get their walking papers, because of budget or whatever bottom line measures to increase profits for the partners. But don't feel bad for anyone with a law license. We enable each other.

How much do partners and/or managers micro-manage their subordinate attorneys?

 

[evil wasabi]

How much do partners and/or managers micro-manage their subordinate attorneys?

it depends. The main thing is that the barriers to growth in a law firm are usually super political. Even if you can hit your numbers, where will it get you? A higher quota next year?

 

[smokehouse]

it depends. The main thing is that the barriers to growth in a law firm are usually super political. Even if you can hit your numbers, where will it get you? A higher quota next year?

We have non-physical service techs where I work and they are on billable hours (seemingly, much like you attorneys often are). They don't get paid a ton, but they bring in a fortune with their billable hours being upward of $200/hr. The drive on them to bring in insane billable hrs a day is, in my opinion, absurd. A guy making $15-18/hr will be able to do 10-15hrs of "billable" work in a day, yet the push on them to do more is always there. As you'd expect, the turnover in that dept is large.