You are the manager ..... work decision. (1 Viewer)

[belljr]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

 

[ChiefD]

I wouldn’t ask for volunteers. If all the people on the team were qualified they would be on a rotation basis.

 

[themeanmachine]

As a manager, I have a similar situation sometimes - not to support customers, but for other travel where just one or two people from my team are needed. If I’m looking for volunteers and who is interested, I’ll say that in the email, and I would not expect people not interested to respond. If I wanted everyone to respond one way or the other, I would be explicit about that, and would not otherwise expect those not interested to reply.

 

[3C's]

I would send out said email and hope for a volunteer and expect replies only from those who volunteer. If no volunteers, the next email "volunteers" someone and states that person will not be volunteered for the following trip.

We currently have a similar scenario at work, though it's not really a needed trip, more an opportunity to shadow/assist at a site. I'm the only one who has responded (can't go). Seems the others think by ignoring it it will go away. It won't.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

I'd be explicit about whether I expected a reply from each person or not.

"Please indicate whether or not you are available by the end of the day on Thursday" vs. "Please let me know if you're interested."

 

[belljr]

I wouldn’t ask for volunteers. If all the people on the team were qualified they would be on a rotation basis.

Fair - but we have people that love it and others that don't. Finding volunteers isn't the issue, usually - its a couple times a year.

People that go get per diem, OT and travel time.....

And to add, requests are last minute sometimes

 

[gianmarco]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

If this is an undesirable assignment, then, I would do what @ChiefD suggested. If it can usually be filled with volunteers, then it's fine to ask, but I wouldn't expect responses from those not interested in going. It's unnecessary.

If I expected that, I would ask for it in my email (please respond one way or the other).

If the original email doesn't get any takers, then I might resend and ask for all to respond just to make sure it's seen by all.

 

[gianmarco]

I wouldn’t ask for volunteers. If all the people on the team were qualified they would be on a rotation basis.

At least we know who the mean managers are around here.

 

[belljr]

All good responses so far. I think my disdain just makes me extra angry when he sends this email and then complains only 4 people replied and yet all 4 of them wanted to go. We only need 1


"I just got the request for on-site support from X for their cutover. Please let me know who can support this.

Given it is next week, so turnaround time is short."


Its like this all the time. And we collectively shake our heads when he complains. I also believe part of it is not many respect our manager.

ETA: We have about 50 people who can actually travel and support well enough. THey all used to travel but my manger thinks only our group should which is another contentious issue

 

[3C's]

I wouldn’t ask for volunteers. If all the people on the team were qualified they would be on a rotation basis.

At least we know who the mean managers are around here.

Yeah, no need for that really. As bell said, some people like doing those trips and other don't. Trips can be a hardship for those with family responsibilities like young kids or aging parents.

 

[Joe Bryant]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

Clear communication for expectations is of course a big thing. That seems to be the key here. Best thing would have been for the manager to clearly state what they were expecting.

On the flip side, many managers are dealing with a zillion things and sometimes aren't crystal clear.

On the bigger scale of things, this seems minor.

 

[SWC]

everyone needs to learn the lesson that email is incapable of showing inflection so you if you want everyone to respond you should say that and probably even put it in bold this is not just a manager thing this is an anyone who leads anything thing take that to the bank bromigos

 

[massraider]

All good responses so far. I think my disdain just makes me extra angry when he sends this email and then complains only 4 people replied and yet all 4 of them wanted to go. We only need 1

If my nudgy boss was peeved that not everyone responded, then what I would do is wait until enough volunteers have responded, then replied that I was unavailable.

Easier to shoot a reply, than try and change personality quirks in my boss, that's the way I look at it.

 

[Wildcat]

Not a lot to go off here, but I would first ask for volunteers. As you mentioned, there are those that love it and those that don't. Let the ones that love it go if they want to. If there are multiple people that want to go, it should be done in a rotational basis as to not favor someone. If nobody wants to go, it should be done in a rotational basis. Either way, the process and expectations need to be clearly defined and understood by all so there is nobody that can say "I didn't know". Ask for their input in the process too so they feel like they had input.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

All good responses so far. I think my disdain just makes me extra angry when he sends this email and then complains only 4 people replied and yet all 4 of them wanted to go. We only need 1


"I just got the request for on-site support from X for their cutover. Please let me know who can support this.

Given it is next week, so turnaround time is short."


Its like this all the time. And we collectively shake our heads when he complains. I also believe part of it is not many respect our manager.

ETA: We have about 50 people who can actually travel and support well enough. THey all used to travel but my manger thinks only our group should which is another contentious issue

if he really wants an answer from everyone, seems like he should explicitly state that. Or use the poll feature in Outlook. Seems like he maybe really wants everyone's answers for some reason, but is unable/unwilling to be clear. Maybe someone can give him this feedback?

 

[Chemical X]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

interested only in that format.

 

[Gally]

I would have a "forced rotation list". Meaning, I would have a rotational list that would be used if there are not volunteers and I would rotate it based on when I had to choose someone with no volunteers. That way if there are not volunteers then it would rotate who gets the mandate to go.

I would always start with volunteers first. If there is someone that wants to go by all means it is better for everyone if they go over someone that isn't too happy about going. The problem you can get into though is if traveling is a money maker you may get a lot of volunteers. If that is the case I would also rotate that list so it's not the same guy going all the time if more than one person wants to go.

There are a lot of ways this can go wrong with the workforce so clear communication and a set way of doing things that is known to everyone is the only way this works smoothly. It sounds like this happens every so often so there should already be a procedure in place for assigning this type of thing. It should be clear to everyone going in.

ETA: To answer your question about the request email: If I didn't have a list already in place then I would have been clear in the email whether I wanted a response only from those interested or from everyone on their availability. Usually the biggest issue with managers is that their communication skills are less than ideal. Sounds like this is the case here.

 

[strykerpks]

You are the manager. Delegate as you see fit IMO

 

[falguy]

I have a "hypothetical" . I want to see if my disdain for my manager is clouding my judgement.

You are the manager of 15 people, on occasion, people on the team may need to travel to provide on-site support for a few days.

You send out an email to the group. Place X is requesting support for the following 3 days.

Would you as the manager expect a reply from everyone whether they want to go or not OR would you expect only people interested in going to reply?

I'd be explicit about whether I expected a reply from each person or not.

"Please indicate whether or not you are available by the end of the day on Thursday" vs. "Please let me know if you're interested."