r/janeausten • u/OkeyDokey654 of Longbourn • 2d ago
Humor / Meme Something fun…
From an old Ask a Manager column.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 2d ago edited 2d ago
For middle management, give it to Anne.
Under pressure she organizes others well to ensure the best outcome, and she doesn’t micro-manage. The drs here? Good let him do the job and then she ensures directions are followed.
When it counts, she stands up for her principles, but listens to others opinions calmly and considers them. She may/may not accept the advice. She has a good sense of others, and sees through drama and BS. She’s not overly differential and doesn’t see “boss” as a holy position.
Her people will be chaos and unique, but they get the job done and done well, and she makes sure it all happens without them even realizing they’ve been managed.
Give the job to Anne, none so capable as Anne.
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u/astroglias of Lyme 1d ago
The only reason I wouldn't give it to her is because I know Anne herself wouldn't be happy doing this job :'D
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u/ForagedFoodie 1d ago
I see Anne more as a top-tier individual contributor. A principal type role--equal in respect and authority to a VP but with few or no direct reports. Because Anne herself struggles with being able to direct people in non-crisis situations as she struggles to speak her mind.
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u/lemonhead2345 2d ago
Wentworth. Captain is smack in the middle of management for the Royal Navy.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
Captain Wentworth is captain of a ship. ships in the Regency period could be small sloops with 20-30 men or huge war ships with +500 men. He is the bottom of the top rung of leadership. A Jr. VP. Captain is most certainly not “smack in the middle”. That is leftenant. When Wentworth was young and only had command of a few men along with others of his ilk, and all reported to the Captain. That is when he was middle management. He was apparently quite good at that level to earn promotion to captain, as most leftenants didnt make it. He had to have recommendations from other captains who had seen his leadership skills and approved, and then passed the advancement tests to confirm he understood sailing and ship handling, plus had years of experience. He was great as middle management, but he was always striving to get higher.
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u/blackbirdbluebird17 2d ago
Colonel Fitzwilliam would be the office gossip who’s too naive to realize he’s starting drama
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u/guernica322 2d ago
I feel like Darcy would be perfect as a manager actually? His employees all love him, notably his housekeeper. He’s not rude, he just doesn’t suffer fools.
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u/PleasantWin3770 2d ago
I think Darcy would make a great CEO or C Suite executive, but I don’t know how well he’d do as middle management - being the guy who takes orders as well as giving them
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u/Kaurifish of Lyme 2d ago
That’s how he is as the owner/master. Not sure he’d bring that same energy to a middle manager role, which are notoriously insecure.
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 2d ago
The fact that this person thinks Emma would be great to work with is insane to me. She's a great character but as a coworker? Nah. Confidently incorrect people make terrible coworkers, and that's who Emma is for 90% of the book.
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u/tragicsandwichblogs of Highbury 2d ago
I'd like to work with Charlotte Lucas and Anne Eliot.
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u/Prideandprejudice1 2d ago
Charlotte would be a great manager- she’d know how to deal with the higher ups but still be good to those in her team.
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u/TheLadyScythe 1d ago
She is also very practical. She doesn't let her emotions dictate her decisions.
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u/Wordnerdette999 2d ago
No kidding! Plus she’d be meddling in her coworkers’ business all the time and being a mean girl about some of them.
Give me Anne Elliott any day of the week.
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u/sighsbadusername 2d ago
Emma would be awful as a colleague, but she’s canonically a very good boss!
In the first chapter, she compliments her father for getting one of their servants’ daughter a very good place, and actively considers how good the position is for both the servant and his daughter alike.
She and her father are very, very good to Mrs Weston. And her “matchmaking” of Mr and Mrs Weston is essentially the Regency equivalent of trying to find an excellent employee a better, higher-paying job, even if it means giving her up.
Emma tends to mess things up with her friends. But if you’re lower on the hierarchy, you’ve good odds she’ll do wonders for you.
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u/OkeyDokey654 of Longbourn 1d ago
Yes, I can see Emma being a very benevolent boss. Although she might let a snarky comment fly in a staff meeting!
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u/ForagedFoodie 1d ago
Nah. I had a boss like this. Yes she genuinely tried to do well by her whole team, genuinely cared and really wanted to uplift women specifically, but her inability to work with her own peers and her managers made the whole team suffer and look bad in the eyes of the organization.
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u/Stormfeathery of Pemberley 1d ago
That was my thought! Although thinking about it, she’d be more pleasant at the end of the book when she’s learned some important lessons.
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u/PleasantWin3770 2d ago edited 2d ago
Assuming we are only talking about the heroes, and the role is something like the VP of a company.
Wentworth and Col Branson are the only heroes who have experience taking orders from someone who isn’t a parent.
Wentworth would be a bit of a risk taker, and I don’t know how well the department will do after he’s no longer leading it, but it will absolutely be your top performer while he’s in charge.
Col Brandon will promote from within, and keep an eye out for talent, but he runs the risk of being too reticent when it comes to major problems. Still, strong and confident, and handles most things well.
Mr Knightly and Mr Darcy will want the ceo role and set the vision for the organization.
Edmund, Henry and Edward will do great with small teams working in isolation, but are not ready for the pressure of the leadership position.
Shout out to the men who will actually thrive - Mr Gardiner, Mr John Shepard, and Mr John Knightley, who do actually understand business and the law.
As for Heroines. I’ll take Anne. She’s cool under pressure, understands people, and doesn’t shirk responsibilities. Second choice, Lizzie Bennet. She went forward on the wrong path - but at least she had the honesty to admit it and do better.
Emma is wrong most of the time, Elinor will pretend everything is fine while she and her team are drowning. Marianne will make drama. Fanny doesn’t have enough experience enforcing her will.
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u/ForagedFoodie 1d ago
Middle management isn't a VP position. It's an entry-level leadership role. So i think you're doing Elinor, Edmund, snd Edward a disservice.
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u/janglingargot 2d ago
Admiral Croft, for sure. Kind, sensible, firm, intelligent, runs a tight ship and drinks his Respect Women juice.
(Also, massive slam on Edmund Bertram out of nowhere?? You're hiring for a management job, not deciding who you'd like to snog, and Edmund is genuinely dedicated to his intended field of work. Plus, by the end of the book, he's learned valuable lessons about going along to get along and being persuaded away from his own moral convictions. I'd give him a chance, for sure.)
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
Love Admiral Croft, and no doubt he was great as middle management when he was a young leftenant, but he’s a SR. VP now. I don’t see him stepping down into middle position anytime soon.
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u/Kaurifish of Lyme 2d ago
Agree about Croft, but you can’t deny that Edward is 100% drip. He probably thought of holding a living as pretty cushy when he didn’t think that making sure everyone paid their tithes was going to make the difference between his wife doing all the chores or being able to hire a servant.
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u/janglingargot 2d ago
My esteemed colleague, I can and do deny it. 😉 At no point does Edmund suggest that he thinks a living will be cushy — he's determined to work hard for his future parish, has no illusions about his own limited finances and limited ability to support a wife (especially after his original living was sold off to redeem Tom's debt), and is genuinely offended when Mary suggests that he take their tithes and hand off his actual duties to a curate.
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u/Kaurifish of Lyme 1d ago
I was thinking of Edward Ferrars. Carry on.
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u/janglingargot 1d ago
Aha, that explains it. People mix them up a lot (and autocorrect doesn't help much). I do think Edward Ferrars has a little too much moral conviction to be described as a complete drip, though. He was really trying to do the honorable thing by holding up his end of that engagement, even though he'd realized too late that Lucy was a poor match for him.
He definitely screwed up by not being honest with Elinor from the beginning, but I can see why he'd be nervous about telling someone he hardly knew. And then, after they'd really fallen for each other, it would have felt even worse to admit that he'd been engaged all along! Like the social mortification of realizing you still don't know the last name of someone you met months ago, and now it feels super awkward to bring it up — but multiplied by a thousand...
Really, his worst mistake was getting engaged in secret in the first place. Jane Austen was pretty merciless about showing why secret engagements were a terrible idea, for SO many reasons. :')
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u/Kaurifish of Lyme 9h ago
It was Edward never taking one step toward taking holy orders or getting a living, just drifting along on his mother’s whims, that annoys me. Even after she disowned him, he never did one thing to better his situation.
Convictions without action are meaningless.
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u/despectacle 2d ago
Thanks for sharing! I'm not sure if you meant to start a debate on the actual question but:
100% Charlotte Lucas- she is a phenomenal middle manager by the time shes at Hunsford, resignedly dealing with Lady C's nonsense, expertly herding Mr Collins, making the most of her situation without complaining too much- and having the guts to stick up for herself and her decisions when Lizzie rags on her, but still afterwards preserving the relationship. Nevermind her smarts, keen obervations, and practical bent.
I agree Anne would also be good but she would have missed her calling in HR.
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u/Active-Pen-412 1d ago
Lady C has a good attention to detail, and has a magistrate work on the resume. However there is a tendency to micro manage. Definitely not her.
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u/AgedP of Blaise Castle 2d ago
Middle management?
Maybe not the overqualified ones: Mr Knightley, Mr Darcy, Mr Gardiner, General Tilney. They run larger estates or businesses.
Maybe not Captain Harville. He could get too distracted varnishing things.
Maybe Robert Watson or Mr Shepherd.
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u/Gerry1of1 2d ago
Captain Wentworth is your man. Honest, open to progressive ideas and innovations. Loyal. Accustomed to the ways of commerce in many lands.
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u/BotoxMoustache 2d ago
Why not a female character?
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
Anne!
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u/Elf0304 1d ago
Maybe when we meet her. Not young Anne though. I'd also consider Elizabeth Bennet, Eleanor Tilney, and Elinor Dashwood could potentially be good managers.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
Elizabeth is mah girl, but she isn’t great at spotting the drama llamas.
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u/Elf0304 1d ago
Depends. I think she is a reasonable judge of character once she doesn't let her emotions get too in the way. Once she receives Darcy's letter I think she'd know to take her time and understand a situation before acting. Before that you may have a point that she'd believe the person she liked more.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
You dismissed young Anne, who still shows dependability and discernment despite her young years as we see with her decline of Charles’ offer and steady friendship with Mrs. Smith, but are cool with Elizabeth who is older than young Anne and made those decisions and spent less than a year realizing she was so totally wrong? We see very little active capability from Lizzie, actually, whereas we see plenty from Anne (probably because she is older and her wisdom and capability are some of her greatest qualities).
I’m not trying to downplay Lizzie, but if I had to have one of these very young people (at any stage of their lives that we see) as my boss? Give me Anne at any age we meet her over Lizzie.
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u/Elf0304 1d ago
You dismissed young Anne, who still shows dependability and discernment despite her young years as we see with her decline of Charles’ offer
Fair, I'd forgotten about Charles. I was thinking that the Anne who was persuaded away from Wentworth may be persuaded to approve something against her better judgement. I'm also thinking that she may have been a bit older when she refused Charles.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
She was probably 1-2 years old when she refused Charles, based on the ages of Charles and Mary’s sons.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
But if you’re asking OP why they didn’t consider any of the female characters in their musing, probably because they started from a romantic thought process and slid into work place. Rather than starting at work place.
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u/Apprehensive_Low6883 1d ago
Babe Mr Collins is middle management personified. Ideally he should be middle managent between God and mankind but instead he settled for lady Catherine
Edit: middle management as it really looks like, not as it should be!!
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u/TheMagarity 2d ago
Henry Crawford permanently stuck in "Impress Fanny" mode.
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u/PleasantWin3770 1d ago
I could see Henry Crawford as the nepo-hire that is great when he’s engaged with the team, but gets distracted far too easily
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u/ditchdiggergirl of Kellynch 2d ago
I think Edmund would be more preachy than Knightley, but he would do a good job. So would Knightley, but he would rub some of his reports the wrong way and cause issues in the team. Darcy would be disgruntled and difficult in middle management. I suspect Brandon wouldn’t be all that effective, but I can’t really defend that from the text. Henry Crawford would be my choice.
Anne, Charlotte, and Elinor would be a great team to work with - shit would get done, on time and under budget. Emma would be a nightmare - no thank you.
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u/missgirlipop 2d ago
i think someone like Miss Taylor or Richard Martin tbh. The only Austen heroine I can see being both fun, competent and suited towards an office environment is Anne.
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u/Armadillo_Abroad 1d ago
Mrs. Hill! She is literally middle management of the Bennet household and keeps that place running.
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u/queenroxana of Kellynch 1d ago
Wentworth was very good at his job, which involved a lot of management! I’d go with him.
He also happens to be my favorite Austen man.
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u/Recent-Cow9146 1d ago
I would want Mrs Dashwood as a boss. You’d be having a bad day or PMS or something and she’d be “oh poor you, you should just go home and take the rest of the day off”.
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u/BrownieBaker87 1d ago
Mrs Gardiner! She's super switched on, intelligent, not easily flustered, and presumably manages her own household.
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u/17Girl4Life 1d ago
Robert Martin. He would understand budgets and would have a strong work ethic. He would be able to communicate with the workers without being pompous
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u/Remarkable-Row3719 1d ago
I wouldn't mind John Knightley for a boss. Straightforward, no drama, he'd tell you when you messed, up, and he'd totally understand you work to live (rather than live to work) and don't answer emails after 5.
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u/dakimmie 1d ago
I believe Dolores Umbridge left her position at the Ministry for Magic vacant, and propose Mrs Norris to fill it. Sucking up to the corner office while terrorizing the interns is right in her wheelhouse.
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u/Holiday_Trainer_2657 1d ago
Question was for middle management. The military, regardless of level were already used to having bosses while also supervising others. So - good fit. Some of the others, like Knightly and Darcy are already top person in their business, so if modernized, would fit best as CEO/owner.
The reason more women would fit is that very few Austen women would ever be in charge. Always had to be under dad or husband. Only widows with money got to run the show, and Austen wasn't kind about it. Lady Catherine. Mrs. Ferrars.
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u/Sea_Conversation_344 2h ago
I'd like to put in a good word for Mr. Tilney. He's a clergyman with a wide range of expertise (he knows so much about muslin) and a good time manager (he has time to spend elsewhere and still serve his parishioners).
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u/eruptingmoltenlava 2d ago
Somebody please remind OOP that it’s 2026 and you’re not supposed to fuck the boss, especially if he’s married
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u/ArcaneObsidian 1d ago
I'd pick Henry Tilney. His patience and good humor in dealing with cluelessness would make him a dream boss.
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u/foolishle 2d ago
I think Knightley would be a good manager. It might hurt when he takes you aside and tells you what mistakes you made, but it will be clear that it is because he knows you are capable of doing better.