Supervising People

[susans]

Do you supervise people?  If no, do you think you could and be good at it? If you do, what are the challenges?

[gee4]

Yes I have done this before supervising one other member of staff.

However, this "junior" did not want to be supervised and whilst we had 2 different roles (she was Secretary to the head of dept whilst I was Office Manager), it did prove difficult if I delegated work or even when it came to booking annual leave so one provided cover when the other was off.

I think in taking on a role of this nature, strict guidelines must be put in place so the supervisor and their staff are aware of who reports to who and what that relationship entails.

[raindance]

I supervise one person right now, and have supervised six people at the same time in a job I had some years ago.

I'm fairly good at it, but how successful one is depends on the circumstances.  Being able to build a strong team spirit is important, along with company loyalty and work ethics.  

Clear communication and lines of reporting are key.

The challenges are if a person is merely "supervising" as opposed to having managerial responsibility.  Sometimes the manager can create conflict by accepting work of a lower standard than is required or changing established procedures.  Another challenge is lack of truthfulness.  It's amazing what some people think they can get away with in the work place.  In the case of one person I supervised,  she had innumerable days off sick and I began to lose count of the relatives whose funerals she had to attend.  Needless to say, we had an interesting conversation at some point!

[Cathy S]

I have been in a supervisory position in a previous company - I had responsibility for 20 support staff but in practice had 4 direct reports who in turn shared the supervision of the team.

I can supervise effectively, BUT this turned out to be a poison chalice with my Manager being too directive and when the team I supervised reacted against her directly I got the flack.

I would have to have very good reason for putting myself through this again since I didn't feel the rewards were sufficent for having the responsibility.

Cathy

[spitfire78]

I have never supervised other employees, and I would not want to.  I believe it takes a certain personality to be a good supervisor, and I don't think I have that type of a personality.  I really don't want to be responsible for anybody's job but my own.

[misslynn]

In my previous role I wasn't exactly a supervisor, but I was responsible for the training and development for 10 administrative assistants.  I tried to treat the role as more mentor-like and not like a supervisor.

[peaches2160]

I have supervised and prefer not to have that responsibility at this stage in my career.

[lucie33]

I've never been in the position of supervising staff, and it is not something I would seek out.  I've worked under a variety of managers, some were great at managing people, others were not - and I think I've seen enough to know that I would fall into the latter category!

[laurafmcdermott]

I have never supervised anyone and don't feel I would be good at it.  This is a challenge as my current manager wants me to move into management and it's just not one of my goals.

[spitfire78]

Laura, I have the same difficulty.  My boss talks openly about hoping to retire in 4 years.  She has many times told me that I would be perfect for her job, and I think she fully expects me to step up to it.  I have told her time and time again that I do not want her job.  I am very happy being support staff and am really not at all interested in management.  Every time I tell her that she appears shocked, and then the next time the subject comes up, she again says about me taking over her job.  And worse than that... she has even told upper management that she is teaching me everything she knows.  So, I suspect I will get pressure from them also when the time comes.  And I just don't want it. They don't seem to get that.