It would be one thing if this happened way back when and did not recur, but the fact that I?ve come into many different circumstances where I the underling was placed into a position where I was in charge, only to train someone to replace me and then feel as if the person replacing me is micromanaging me or I have a feeling of superiority where they shouldn?t be one? this prompted me to write of my experience with a look back (and forward) of some bits of advice that I could offer someone going through a similar circumstance, with the hopes that we?ll get it right the next time it happens.

1. You Are Not Indispensable

One of the things that has always stuck with me from my leadership training was that you were not supposed to ever make yourself indispensable.? This is actually much more difficult than it sounds.

There is a great deal of comfort in being the-only-one-who-knows-how-to-do-X for the simple reason that you can believe that they cannot lay you off if you?re the sole source of that knowledge.? This, of course, assumes that your knowledge is important, and that keeping you for that knowledge is better than laying? you off and working around it.

And it?s also a fallacy to some degree.? Most things can be learned by a person at or above your skill level, and the fact that you aren?t sharing with your team means that you aren?t helping to train others.? Being a good teammate and a source of information?being approachable?is much more valuable to the company than the-skill-that-no-one-else-has.

2. Know Your Place

This is the one I really struggled with in the story I just recounted.? It wouldn?t have occurred to me that I was being rebellious when I tried to make our days more tolerable fun simply because I was trying to make the best of a good situation.? However, I wasn?t thinking of others first.? I was concerned about myself and my crew, but I wasn?t thinking about how to reach the manager, I was thinking about how to work around him.

This isn?t good.

The manager is there to help provide a sense of order to the chaos.? However, there are many times that you are going to have a manager or leader above you that may not be as competent a leader as you are.

That does not give you the right to go around them or condescend to them.? This will only create more hardship.? What you need to do instead is spend time helping to get better at what they are doing.

Are they new to your group?s process? Help them to work in the process and show them the advantages of doing so.

Are they having trouble putting together specs? Offer them the view that you have, but be prepared if they decide to go in an entirely different direction.

The point is, let them have access to your skills and abilities, but keep in mind that they have the final say, even though you disagree.

3. Get Everything In Writing

If you really think that you disagree with a decision made by management?make sure that you get what they requested in writing.? If you could get it signed off that would be even better.? Use something that keeps track of things permanently, and document what you?re doing well.

In the end, if your comments and theirs are documented (e-mails can get lost!) in your process the odds are that you can refer back to them or use them to explain your decisions.

4. Document What You Do

If you?re going to deviate from what they?ve required, make sure that you accurately detail why.? It may save both you and them frustration if you carry out the work that you are assigned to the best of your ability, noting in documentation where you deviated instead of confronting at design?if you have not been invited to design meetings.

The point is, it?s best to be the worker that carries something to completion, and has to have something corrected at some point than to be the one that seems contrarian and never complies.? Best to be the person that gets the job done.

5. Be Aware of Your Testimony

Make sure that, in all of your dealings with coworkers and your managers, that you have a good testimony.? Make sure that you don?t gossip to tear down your manager behind their backs.? My father says that he never says anything about a person behind their back that he wouldn?t say in their presence.? I think this is a pretty smart goal.

Make sure that your actions in front of your manager do not convey condescension, but have the best of the team in mind.? Present ideas, and if they don?t go anywhere, document them.? There will always be things that someone who is actually carrying out the task will understand better than someone that is seeing it from a higher level.

Conclusion

To boil all this down, the point is that this is something you can?t hide from.? Changing jobs will only delay it, and unless you become your own boss, you will probably always have someone over you.? And even if you do become your own boss, your clients become your boss?I?m sure that also can make things difficult.

Dealing with people with a sin nature is difficult, because we have a sin nature as well.? The important thing to realize is our position before God, where He has placed us, and to make sure that we do not sin in our reactions to what is happening around us.

So what do you do if you have a boss that?s making girls cry, that?s making your life frustrating, and is micromanaging your time together?

If you?re this creative guy you try to make it fun.

So, one day a friend of mine and I?on the same crew?are talking about what?s going on and we ask ourselves:

What would happen if we told our boss that tonight was our last night?

A Series of Gags

So, we decided to find out, casually dropping in conversation that we thought about having tonight be our last night.? And it had him shocked?the expression was priceless.

I was also being a bit rebellious under the guise of having a good time.

And that was only the first.

1. We gave him the silent treatment all one night.
2. We took him literally.
3. We had another manager show up saying that he believed that he was supposed to sub that night.
4. We had the girls and the guys shift locations during the night.
5. We told everyone to come through and wish him a happy birthday?and it wasn?t his birthday.
6. He had people come through calling us by funny names.
7. We brought in an entirely old crew while having the current crew come through with visitor badges.

It went on for weeks.? It helped our moral, and he generally played along?waiting to see what we?d do next.

But it didn?t totally change the environment.

I Pulled Back on Hours With Him

I liked my job.? I liked interacting.? I liked talking with the crew, and the challenge of the job.? But whereas before I?d clock-in when they were down a person and help out, I would avoid this manager.

At the same time, my hours at the computer lab were climbing.? At any time I could have left the Dining Common, but I chose not to.? I worked there into my senior year?though my hours were really reduced.

So, why am I telling you this long story?

It?s always difficult to train someone new.? First of all, they may or may not be aware of your culture.? The nomenclature is different, and sometimes you have a propensity to use big words or jargon that you have to define for the new person.

And then there?s training your future manager.

You see, as you probably cannot imagine, I?m a creative guy that sees things in the big picture and can organize activities to come to a logical end.? I like to think I?m a vision guy.

Micromanaging

So, part of the new boss? training is to become a part of every team to see how work is carried out during that function.? That means that he?s with me and my crew a few times during the week, and that I must make sure he?s involved not just as a team member, but actually seeing the mechanics behind how I operate.

Fair enough.

The problem is that I?m constantly tweaking the formula.? I?m always looking for a way to get an edge, some way that I see time is wasted, and then improving it to make it better.

When my new boss takes charge, he starts implementing as required procedure some of my enhancements that may not be the right way of doing things.? And he tightens the clamps on some of the leeway I used to enjoy by actively directing the crew to do as he desires, rather than leaving it to us to figure out.

While that might work for a new team, it makes my experienced team chafe?or at least me.

Competition

And now the competition begins.? Since I?m not on every evening crew, the boss (with more authority than this student worker) begins to take advantage of his connections.? He?s able to direct the female workers (traditionally line servers) to do some of the things the male workers (traditionally line runners) and he starts mandating some things that I saw no reason to be mandated.

He started coming up with charts that had to be followed, and taking some of my shortcuts (which I believed were the equivalent of ?trade secrets?) and making them mainstream.

I was losing my edge.

No One Was Happy

I wasn?t the only one that was having trouble with the new boss.? Many were.? It wasn?t that we had problems with him personally?it was his management style.? He was more intense than I was, if you can believe it, and he was not a team player, but a dictator.

And I had it worst because I felt I was part of the team that trained him.

Looking back, I?m probably part to blame, because watching the way that I worked probably gave him some inspiration on how he could do things as well.? Except I was part of the crew doing the work, I wasn?t sitting on the sidelines.

It was pretty nerve wracking.? I only worked a part time job in my final year of high school, so when I went to college and knew that I would have to work to help pay my college bill, I was hoping to get a position doing Database entry.? The night that they announced the positions, I found that I was going to be placed in the Dining Common at BJU, and I was not looking forward to it.

Fortunately, I was placed in the serving area?as one of the guys that brought the food out of the warmers and placed it in the area to be served.? A job that gave me access to people as well as a chance to demonstrate my ability to get things done.

Robo-Linerunner

From day 1 I decided that I wanted to spend as little time as possible completing my job.? I wanted to get back to the dorm to do my homework?or anything but working.? I know, it goes against the idea of making money for your work, and some would say that I should have taken as long as possible to make the most money? it just isn?t how I?m wired.

So, from the first few days that I was trained, I was determined to look for ways to increase time.? I figured out the optimal pattern of bringing beverage carts to pick up and deliver to the beverage walls.? I constructed elaborate plans of when people would take breaks, what we?d do during slow times, and who was the most competent at each position.? I ran a quick line, and I even jumped in when I saw that someone didn?t show up.

I was told by one coworker at the end of the year that he and my other crew mate hated me at first because I was constantly telling them what to do, but they realized quickly that I knew what I was doing, and the whole team was being more efficient.? They liked that.

We were the fastest crew, and I was up for a manager spot, without knowing it.

Passed Over

But there was a hitch.

In the course of my freshman year, a manager in another part of the Dining Common asked me to do something, and I brushed him off.? I obviously had something that I deemed more important to do, and the hierarchical structure of the DC was not clear to me.? I thought that my manager was at a higher level than he was, when in reality he reported to the man that made the request.

When it came time to vote for student managers, I was high up in the list, but it had to be unanimous, and this manager voted no.

I was, however, given a premier job?working the Red Room and another job I really didn?t like?cleaning warmers?was removed.

I was also added to the Leadership Training class that was for campus student managers and spiritual leaders, even though I was neither an APC or a campus student manager.

The New Manager

However, this would have been fine, if it wasn?t for the fact that my next year was going to bring on a new manager above me?for my current manager that I really liked was going to take a lesser role in order to concentrate more on his life after the Dining Common?the life as a missionary.

So, a new manager was brought in to run the line runners/line servers, and guess whose job it was to train him.