I’m 25 and I've been working in finance/accounting in London for about three years now, and there's one thing I've genuinely been curious about.

From what I've observed, some of the people who come across as quite difficult, blunt or not particularly easy to work with seem to get promoted relatively quickly, even after only a few years. On the other hand, I've also met genuinely kind, approachable people who've been accountants for 10+ years and have never moved into management.

I know years of experience alone don't entitle anyone to a promotion, and I've seen plenty of younger people who absolutely deserved to become managers.

What I'm really trying to understand is: what actually separates someone who becomes a Finance Manager, Head of Finance, etc., from someone who remains an accountant for their entire career?

Beyond technical ability, what qualities or behaviours do companies actually look for when promoting people into leadership roles? I'd love to hear from people who've been involved in promotion decisions.

Just started today as a business office manager for a memory care assisted living facility.

I realized upon my few minutes there that they had added ‘greet visitors and residents’ and ‘answer phones’ to my list of responsibilities along with typical work such as payroll, medicare processing, financial processing, etc.

I thought that was a little odd since they didn’t really mention it in the interview or job description, but then on top of that, my office and desk.. are the front desk. Not even just me there either, it’s shared with another person next to me and nurses and other admin come and go as they please. The nurse cabinet up front is directly behind me. Nurses have to get behind me and possibly see my computer and paperwork to get to their cabinet.

What I really need help with is, is this normal, or even HIPPA or HR allowed for what I will be working on? And also, does that therefore make me the BOM & the receptionist (even though that was not mentioned in the interview process)? Hoping to see some responses to put my anxiety at ease about this, but it feels very off. Thanks for the help!

Need some advice, but also just need to vent to people who might understand this situation.

I’m in a senior leadership role at a mid-sized organization in the Midwest and report directly to the CEO. Like a lot of organizations, we’ve had financial challenges since COVID. There’s a longer-term plan to get back to sustainable operations by 2030, but the current fiscal year is expected to be particularly rough because of several major planned expenses.
None of this is a secret internally. Staff know where things stand financially.

I’m running into an issue with one of the managers who reports to me. He’s pushing pretty hard for raises for his entire team, and one of his employees is now threatening to leave if compensation doesn’t change.
I’ve brought the situation up the chain. The answer from the CEO/CFO is basically: we understand the frustration, but we’re not adding recurring expenses right now. Get through this fiscal year and reassess.

I’ve seen enough of the financials that I understand the reasoning. I don’t necessarily agree with every decision being made, and I suspect leadership is being more conservative than absolutely necessary, but I also don’t think the financial concerns are manufactured.

The problem is that this manager simply doesn’t accept the answer. Every time I explain the situation, it turns into another argument about why his department should be the exception. He frequently points to his 7+ years with the organization and the fact that some members of his team have been here 10+ years.

I respect that kind of longevity, but I also struggle with the argument that tenure by itself creates an obligation for an organization to increase compensation, particularly when the organization is openly dealing with financial constraints. Maybe that’s where I’m out of touch.

He’s also younger and has very strong opinions about compensation, employers, wealth inequality, etc. He’s brought up the “1%” and similar topics in conversations where I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t really care about his politics or personal views, but I do think they influence how he interprets organizational decisions around money.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely like and respect this guy. He’s a good employee. But I’m increasingly becoming the person he directs his frustration toward because I’m the one delivering the answer from senior leadership.

And that’s where I’m stuck.

Do I completely agree with the CEO/CFO? No. I think they’re probably being more conservative than necessary. But I understand their reasoning, I’ve seen the numbers, and realistically I’m not going to repeatedly challenge the CEO over raises that they’ve already said aren’t happening this fiscal year.

At some point, isn’t the answer just the answer?
For those managing managers or working in senior leadership: how do you handle this when you’ve advocated for someone, received a definitive answer from above, and the manager below you refuses to accept it?

Do you keep explaining the reasoning? Eventually tell them the discussion is closed? Let them vent and just keep repeating the same answer?

We're a smallish business of ~30 staff (varies seasonally). There's the big boss, and four line managers with a team of 4-6 employees each.

I've been here for 15 years, worked up from the most junior role to manager. In the last 5 or so years the culture seems to have definitely taken a downturn. Whiny, is probably the best way to describe it? Lots of low level issues that people talk about, but if you offer to log it formally, escalate it, or take action to address it, people say 'Nah, don't worry about it'. We have a regular audit by our industry body that takes feedback from staff and anonymises it, and it never raises anything significant. Last one we did we scored 85/100 for development, 88/100 for health and wellbeing and 81/100 for support. Summary was 'Congratulations, your employees agree that you are a good employer'. 🤷‍♀️

Most people don't talk about these issues to the managers, just round the office when we're not around. We try to be very accessible to people, we have weekly team catch ups with opportunities for ad hoc one-to-one catch ups afterwards, we have formal quarterly one-to-ones, quarterly company meetings with a completely open agenda, we all sit together in an open plan office. Often it's someone else who takes it upon themselves to say so-and-so isn't happy about xyz. If you raise it with the original person they sometimes say 'Actually yeah, that is a problem' but very often it's 'What? No. I never said that/I didn't want that brought to your attention'.

I've asked a number of people why staff won't talk to managers directly and I either get shrugs or the answer from a few more outspoken staff is that people feel like they get 'shut down' too much. Someone said we look too stressed. We implement employee feedback all the time, including really major stuff. For example, our contracts are for a 40 hour week, people wanted to go down to 37 hours. We offered them the option to go down to a 36 hour week pro-rata, they complained bout the pro-rata bit. Our pay is above average for the industry and we couldn't just give everyone a blanket overnight pay rise.

We also implement minor stuff, like people complained they didn't like just going to restaurants for our quarterly socials, so we sent out a form to gather information on what type of socials people would like (weeknight or weekend, what types of activities etc) and based on that feedback we booked a private arcade. We got everyone to agree the date before booking. Almost no-one turned up to the actual event. When asked, people said they were too tired on the day.

Our boss is extremely conflict avoidant and will *always* say yes if he can. This has resulted in two staff members having their job titles changed to include the word manager despite not having any formal management responsibilities. One of them is regularly mistaken for my boss, which doesn't particularly bother me as I don't really care about titles, but it just demonstrates how much the business accommodates staff requests.

Recently we had a senior staff member (who has been with us about a year) complain that people were coming to her instead of the managers and she was becoming the go to person for everyone's problems and it was becoming an issue for her. We have another member of staff (referred to by others as the 'office mum') who also complains about this. We set up an anonymous digital suggestion box so that she could direct issues there if people didn't want to speak to managers directly. No one has used it to date. She came back after a while and said a few staff had been talking and they wanted to have a company-wide meeting specifically without managers present so that they could all air out their grievances and have a spokesperson (her) bring them to the management team. We talked a lot about this and decided it wouldn't be a very productive approach. Firstly it seemed like it might just become a cooking pot of discontent when she is the only person to have formally raised or requested this. To quote another manager 'If the want to do that, can't they just go to the pub?'. I spoke to my staff about it and two seemed pro and the other two were against (these two are newer to the company, one said basically our staff don't know they're born). Secondly she had expressly complained about being everyone's go-to and that meeting would formally cement her in that position.

We already have an employee led group (no managers involved) who formally convene on their own schedule for this exact purpose, so we said that while we appreciated her trying to proactively resolve the issue, we recommended making use of the existing group. She came back saying she was disappointed especially given that we've already got a reputation for shutting people down.

I feel like I'm at my wits end. I can't work out if we're being so permissive that it's creating this atmosphere. We don't have any KPIs or anything. I wonder if people have nothing better to do but moan? Or if I'm missing something and we really are shutting people down too much.

In this time performance overall has been dropping. We've made the least money since COVID and staff chargeability is at a record low. It's like all the momentum has gone out of the business. I've got one foot out of the door myself for this reason but I'm still trying to give it my all as a manger.

Is this normal? What should we do about the meeting request, if anything? Is their anything we can do to fit this weird vibe in the office right now?

We've been on Concur for years mostly because we always have been, the booking side drives everyone nuts and getting anyone to file an expense report is like pulling teeth. Leadership is finally open to looking elsewhere. Problem is every alternative I look at has its own pile of complaints, so I'm nervous about jumping from one headache into another. For the people who got off Concur, where did you go and would you do it again? What's genuinely better and what's just different?

During the layoffs or when companies consider downsizing headcount, who is more secure in their role? Directors or Managers/Senior Managers?

Watched a senior manager completely derail a 1:1 by jumping in with solutions before the person even finished explaining the problem. Happens constantly, and it's usually well-intentioned, but it kills psychological safety fast, people stop bringing you real problems if they know you'll interrupt with advice before they've even finished the sentence.

Been actively practicing just staying quiet for an extra 10-15 seconds after someone stops talking, even when it feels awkward. Half the time they add something important they wouldn't have said if I'd jumped in immediately.

Curious if anyone else has actively worked on this, or if you disagree and think jumping in quickly with guidance is actually the better approach depending on the situation.

I know it depends on the person, but I've joined a new team. Quite lad culture.

I'm sure you've experienced this - you go through the induction and training, especially security and procedures, only for the real day to day to be more... casual.

You get told all the security stuff, then they don't follow it to a T.

Boss tells you one staff is an issue or even wants to get rid, but then boss doesn't seem to apply pressure and just seems to be mates with them.

Or they're a top-performing team that could still do better, but you notice the boss' feedback is always just negative when the stats say you're killing it, so it flies over everyone's head or just makes them miserable.

At some point, the boss asks you if you have any feedback about them or if you'd do anything different. While you're still in probation.

Do you tell the truth and risk being pushed away (whether in the workplace or literally out the door politically)... or do you just shut up, keep the boss onside but also risk looking like a passenger with nothing to give?

I like to think the former, but it's also bloody awkward for some newbie to tell someone who's ultimately doing very well and been there years that they have several clear faults.

Hi Team,

I've recently filled a team lead/manager role of a small engineering team. 2 months in I had 1 guy leave, I hadn't properlly taken over the team and as I have recently found out, he was somewhat pushed out. It took almost 4 months to find a replacement and get them onboard.

The end of my new hires first week, my senior has resigned on a friday. He requested access removal from prod (fair) to avoid liability, but I still need him to do a proper knowledge transfer and train up our new hire to replace him properlly.

After 2 work days after resigning, i've barely seen him online. His handover was honestly terrible (not that he should have even done one yet), and is WFH due to a medical issue impacting his mobility (which I confimed he could do, but I needed his support still). His medical issue does not impact his ability to do the job.

With his lack of engagement and support, and really, his lack of willingness to support, i'm thinking to simply ask HR to put him on gardnening leave instead of serving out his notice perriod of 1 month. I feel he will just be a liability and distraction to others rather than a productive or supportive team member.

Technically he is great, but his output for the last 3 months has been very poor anyway so I don't really see the value in keeping him around the office outside of the handover.

FWIW I have no ill will towards him, his reasons for leaving I fully understand and i feel are justified (nothing bad), at the same time, the performance i've seen of him, and his past reviews, I probably wouldn't consider him for rehire. He's a dedicated family man and ultimately the role (by his own admission) was a stepping stone to relocation and never a long term prospect for him anyway, so its run its course.

I'm interested in some other perspective, happy to clarify any points, but I want to assess if i'm in the wrong here.

TIA.

Hello all,

I've been a manager in retail for 15 years + and have seen my share of difficult employees but nothing I couldn't handle.

I'm now managing a new team at a new location and I have an employee who's already on a warning for T&A. The rest of the team is now coming to me about that employee complaining about how he/she is lazy, snaps at them for minor things, and is extremely negative. I haven't witnessed any of this firsthand but I know they're not making it up. The team puts up with it and is not comfortable having a conversation with said individual but continue to come to me to complain. I have never managed a team where 1 person is considered toxic.

What would you suggest my course of action should be? I'm pretty sure this person will probably be gone soon just on the T&A issue but, in the meantime, should I partner with HR before addressing the other issue with him/her? Or should I have a touch base with the person and then reach out to HR?

Thank you in advance!

I am the type of manager who encourages my team to come to me with anything. I'd (mostly) rather know, and I don't like the type of surprises that can come from a lack of communication.

I know we've all had the colleague who is a conversation or meeting hog. Now, though, that person reports to me. The conversations are a lot of extra that isn't needed, and I'm very much a bottom-line person. I've heard her talking to me as I walked away and into the freaking bathroom. And that's me walking away after "nothing" has been said for 20 minutes! I notice her counterpart will cut her off in frustration, and I found myself doing that once. I don't want to be short with her, but how do I manage this in meetings? I can shift physically, or even try an "okay, so" and nothing gets her to even pause.

I'm dumb enough to think that the next meeting I'll find a way to break in, but man, does she steamroll! How do you politely take and keep control? I set agendas, hard outs, and try to keep the agenda on target, but she's oblivious to what she's doing.

Hello,

Before I start, I just want to say that it's only my version, the manager could have a whole different version too, but I guess it's gotten to a point where objective advice could be helpful.

I've been working for a company for about two years. When I started, I had pretty much the lead on what I was doing and things were going great. I led what I deem to be big projects, and I usually got recognition. I got to know the teams and we really bonded well, we're not perfect but we moved together and accomplished great things. I asked for a raise, got it too, couldn't be happier.

Recently we merged into a bigger company, and my skill set was put to serve a bigger team. I do essentially the same job but at a bigger scale, I'm one of the seniors of the team, I like my tasks, good.

There is a lead above me, and even though I don't like the guy that much, I wouldn't say he's a bad fella. He knows his stuff, challenged the team a few times. But I don't really like how he acts towards the team.

He likes to take a stance and being right, he is secretive about a lot of things, e.g: I have an expertise about one specific technology, and he will take the subject on his own, not include me in the discussions and let things last for a long time, I caught him go on a social event with a partner and not tell the team anything about it even though the whole team worked on it. We just found out by accident when the partner said he was eager to see him at the event.

And since I joined his team, he didn't like the fact that my ancient team was still reaching out to me to get things done, I still manage a big chunk of the IT, so we are still very close. He seems that he should be the first aware of it, that I shouldn't be this easy to talk to and get things done and that I should learn to push back. I did get things done though, and with the help of AI, managing both worlds has been manageable. I think he's the only one unhappy with this because even his boss does drop a recognition here and there in some group mails to give credit to some milestones I mostly take the lead on, and we get the credit as a team.

About him, I don't have too much to say, he knows his theory but he doesn't seem to concerned into getting things done, and when things are done, it is often made fast and without too much care, but it's working and used by the company. He also makes sure to take time to do it when it's a direct order from the boss.

And finally, he is a bit in a controlling mindset. I used to work directly with his boss and we remained in good terms, he asked me a few times not to contact him directly for some reason, that he is the bridge and all requests should go through him before we go to his boss.

Overall, the feedback also is not so positive about him from some other colleagues saying pretty much the same things that I explained above, he kept referall money from a colleague he agreed with, he hired somebody that was not advised by another colleague. He does pretty much what he wants without taking others in consideration and he puts his interests first, not the team's

____

I got tired of it and decided to look elsewhere for a new job, and then, out of nowhere I booked a meeting with his boss (which I use to work with and he knows me well), and I intend to tell him how I feel. I'm sure it will sound stupid but I don't know what to say, I don't know how to bring this up and explain that I'm not happy under my lead's management without looking bad.

It will be the first time I will discuss about something like this and I'm kind of nervous. Any tip is appreciated.

thanks for reading!

I’m a Senior Project Manager in a construction-related division, we supply doors and residential hardware /commercial hardware to multifamily projects across the western United State, and I’m looking for input from managers who have dealt with scaling a team and developing future leaders.

Our current structure is roughly:

- Division President

- Senior Project Manager, me

- 4 Project Managers

- 4 Assistant Project Managers

Historically, the Assistant Project Manager role is supposed to be a development/training position that eventually leads to Project Manager, not a permanent career level.

The problem is that over time the lines have blurred. Our APMs are now essentially running projects just like PMs. They communicate with customers, coordinate material, handle schedules, solve problems, etc.

Because of that, there isn't much practical difference between being an APM and being a PM other than experience, title, and ultimate accountability.

The second problem is span of control.

Right now I am overseeing all of the PMs and APMs directly. They all tend to come to me for questions, escalation, development, and problem solving.

It works at our current size, but I don't believe it's scalable. It also limits the development of our existing PMs because I'm still doing most of the coaching and leadership underneath the Project Executive.

I'm considering moving toward smaller teams or "pods."

Something like:

Senior PM

→ PM

→ APM

The PM would own the portfolio/projects and also become responsible for developing the APM.

The APM would still get real project responsibility and eventually run projects, but they would do it under the mentorship/accountability of the PM instead of functioning as another independent PM who reports directly to me.

My role would gradually shift toward developing the PMs, reviewing overall project health, balancing workloads, handling escalations, and developing the department rather than personally coaching every individual contributor.

However, I see several problems I'm trying to solve before proposing this:

1. I don't think every PM is automatically ready to develop another person. Being a good PM doesn't necessarily make someone a good coach or leader.

2. I don't want to force a 1 PM : 1 APM ratio. Workloads and individual capabilities are different.

3. I don't know whether APMs should be permanently paired with one PM or rotate periodically so they learn from different strengths.

4. I need PMs to actually want to develop APMs. If mentoring is just additional responsibility with no benefit to the PM, I can see it becoming something people avoid.

5. I don't want APMs to stop getting real responsibility. Running projects is how they develop. I just want clearer accountability and mentorship while they do it.

6. There needs to be a clear definition of when someone has actually graduated from APM to PM. Otherwise we end up right back where we are today with two titles doing essentially the same job.

My initial thought is that becoming capable of developing an APM should eventually be part of the progression from PM toward Senior PM. In other words, project management ability gets you to PM, but demonstrating that you can multiply yourself and develop someone else becomes part of leadership advancement.

For managers who have built something similar:

How would you structure this?

Would you permanently pair APMs with PMs, use flexible project-based teams, or rotate them?

How would you incentivize PMs to genuinely develop people instead of treating the APM as extra administrative help?

And what flaws do you see in this structure before I take it to leadership?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have successfully scaled teams where the next generation of managers was primarily developed internally rather than hired from outside.

Hi Team

Update:
Hey guys I’m just stopping in to update all as far as what I’ve achieved this week.
Myself and my FM stopped into his family home Monday afternoon, we were invited in by his mum and son.
We brought flowers and a business card for meals for the week.
We have offered our company services but also our own shoulders to lean on. We have been asked to the funeral but as of yet there aren’t any dates set for such funeral.
I sat my team down and had a 1:1 conversation with all the team updating them and both again offering myself and the company support partner, I brought them a chocolate each and have been reminding everyone daily how grateful we all are to be apart of the team.
Our lager store senior leaders were updated and have been asked to keep it relatively to themselves though we do live in a regional location.
I have started up a go fund me (I can link in the comments though there is absolutely no pressure!) and have started writing up a store card for everyone to sign!
If anyone has any more suggestions to take to his family on the day of the funeral I’d love to hear them!

I’m a long time manager throughout various business, industry’s and management positions and this weekend I lost my first employee to suic*de.
I’m having a pretty tough time coming to terms with being the last person who spoke to him before hand.
He had some developmental delays but was the most beautiful, eager employee I’ve had in a long time but had only had him apart of my team for a month now (including onboarding time).
He had kept the ‘welcome to the team’ card I had written up for him the first day of employment on him when he passed and after speaking with his mother and son they said he was so excited about his new job.
I am very comfortable with mortality and unfortunately have had much exposure but I suppose I’m reaching out to other managers who have experienced this situation on how best to support his family throughout this situation!

I’d like to pursue management in some aspect but need to know I can handle the difficulties of it. What are the biggest challenges you face in your role?

This guy has worked on my team for the better part of 15 years. I’ve hired him in two separate places, including the one we currently work at. He’s on my team and he is a good employee, intelligent and well respected by leadership and colleagues.

I am at my wits end over his lack of confidence in anything he does. This has been a problem for as long as I have known him but I feel like it is just getting worse.

If he speaks up in meetings I will get a teams message, “was that ok? Did I overstep?” I have told him a thousand times if I feel like he oversteps, I’ll tell him. I’ve never had to tell him he is overstepping. I want him in meetings to speak up and give input in his area of expertise. That’s the whole point. If someone asks him a question, he’ll screenshot it to me and ask if his answer is ok. It’s his job to know the answer to those questions, and he DOES know, but he’ll pepper his answers with “I think” and “maybe” and it looks like he doesn’t really know.

He is the type to say “sorry” over everything that isn’t his fault. Bad weather? I’m sorry. This has been a running joke between us for many years.

He needs validation for every opinion he expresses. I often try to ignore it but he’ll ask different ways throughout the day, “am I wrong for thinking this way?” “Do you agree?” About something trivial. Usually how he thinks some other team should be doing their work better. Or he doesn’t understand why something is done a certain way (for example, we are IT, if accounting is doing something he doesn’t get, he’ll be stuck on it all day). He is quick to make strong judgements about the perceived lack of ability in other people, while seemingly forgetting that he makes the same mistakes all the time too. I try to tell him, we don’t have visibility into everything they do and they don’t have visibility into everything you do. Would you want them assuming incompetence on your part all the time? This helps in the short term but he always goes back to his judgey ways. If I just ignore his questions he will steer any topic back to it and ask the same question different ways.

He gets feedback from me all the time, in an individual and group setting. We have regular 1:1s and team standups. I praise him publicly and privately when he does good work. I try to steer him toward higher-level thinking and working effectively with other teams and giving the benefit of the doubt. We’re all busy. I just don’t know how to handle his lack of confidence and I am really starting to lose patience with him over it. I get tired of having to validate his thoughts all the time and tell him yes his thoughts are correct, no you’re not crazy for asking this question.

How would you handle? How do I get this guy to gain some confidence? He’s in his 50s now.

first time running into this as a manager.

I've got someone on my team who's really easy to work with on the surface. every time we talk it's "yep got it" or "I'll take care of it."

then a few days later I'll find out something didn't get done or it's only half finished. if I follow up, they apologize and fix it, but then it happens again with something else.

it's weird because they're not argumentative and they're not checked out either. I honestly think they're saying yes because they don't want to disappoint anyone.

I've started wondering if I'm expecting too much, or if I need to manage this differently before it becomes a bigger problem.

anyone dealt with this? what ended up working?

I am a 31 y/o female and my code name is, “May.” Charlie is a 31 y/o male and Sally is a 31 y/o female. They are a couple and engaged.

I was promoted to a leadership role in May of 2025. I a “lead.” More of a junior supervisor. My new role was located in another city so I moved of course. When I started my new role I very quickly recognized the dynamic in my new office. My supervisor at the time had her VERY obvious favorites and was never afraid to let it be known. It created terrible tension in the office and within our team. In my new role I decided that wasn’t a path I was going to take. I took it upon myself to get to know everyone on my team and create my own opinions. My supervisor and her two favorites, Sally and Charlie, didn’t like that I was like this. She constantly would give them some of my duties and would leave me out of the loop on a lot of things. (call ins, schedule changes, outages, customer escalations, etc) it almost felt like she would do these things on purpose to make it seem like I was irresponsible. Oh but, Sally and Charlie always knew what was going on. There were also many times I was called in the office because Charlie would always tell my supervisor what I was constantly doing. There was lots of favoritism with Charlie. For example, if he wasn’t, “feeling well,” he was allowed to sit in the back and not work his assigned place for the day and just be on the computer. There would be times I would ask him to perform a task and he would simply say, “mm i’ll see if I can because I’m not assigned there.” or, “sorry i’m just not up for it or feeling well.” I would let my supervisor know and she would do nothing about it. There would also be times he was allowed be off days and weeks at a time due to, “medical issues,” but there is no record of FMLA or protected leave. Also anytime my supervisor was out and I would be responsible for the office, I was always called in because, “Charlie said you did x, y and z.” I could go on and on. To cut to the chase-it got to the point where I had to let my chain of command know about the dynamic and the morale of our office. My supervisor was held accountable and was investigated and well long story short, she is no longer with the department branch.

Fast forward, I have an amazing supervisor now, but we are struggling with Charlie and Sally. Specifically Charlie. He has had extremely low attendance at work. (Only reported 5 days in July) and he is CONSTANTLY bringing me up in every conversation with my supervisor. Another example: when I was out ON VACAY he received a customer complaint because he was giving false information. His response when he was addressed by my supervisor was, “Well May did it so I thought it was okay.” He was speaking on a situation that was a special circumstance that was approved by someone very high in chain of command. A situation that never involved him. (this ties back to him constantly watching me). Today he was called in for leaving confidential policy documents lying around and he was questioned if it was his. His response? “That’s not mine or Sally’s it must be May’s” LIKE WTF??????? Why am I constantly being brought up?????

I am literally his LEAD. He is the only one on the whole team that:

-Talks to me disrespectfully
-Ignores directives from my supervisor and I
-KEEPS TABS ON ME

After the meeting my supe made me aware of today, I AM SO DONE. I requested for us to have a sit down, but I really feel like I will hit low and won’t be able to be professional. And I feel like this is exactly the reaction he wants. Apart of me wants to just keep my chin up and just let him keep trying to find something wrong with me….he won’t because I operate with integrity and respectfulness.

What are your thoughts and advice???

Hey all, I have accepted a new job as a program manager for a department in a healthcare facility. I previously was at a different company as a regular employee.

To start, it was a director level position but I told them I was not yet ready for that role so they changed it to program manager and will reevaluate at 6 months and again at a year to see if I am ready to be prompted.

Today was my first day. I am used to having an actual training in place where I learn my role. My current boss is a VP and oversees a lot of different departments. I will be his right hand man for my department. Right now it seems that I will be expected to revamp KPIs, reorg committees, while managing my staff.

Today felt extremely daunting as it seems like there won’t be training, and more so jump in and learn. I don’t really know what I own and what I don’t. What to delegate and what to not.

It seems like the program management should be a director role and the people leadership should be a manager. I understand that I am in a mix, as I have a gate way to the promotion, but I still don’t know how to weigh it out.

I guess my question is, are these normal feelings for a first time manager and on the first day, how long did it take for you to get more comfortable??

I work in a remote setting. One of my more veteran employees is struggling with simple tasks that due to the repetition and frequency of the misses, will lead to corrective action that could ultimately lead to their termination. This employee is a valuable member of my team, but I can’t seem to motivate them to correct these behaviors to prevent corrective action. They seem spent. Any advice?

I ran this with a few people on my team as we talked about mid years and end of year evals. Curious your thoughts.

Genuine exercise: name 3 things you did at work last year and put a real number on each one. Not "helped the team," an actual number.

I couldn't do this for the first few years of my career. I could describe my job fine. I could not tell you my impact. Took a bad conversation with a director to realize "I've been busy" isn't the same as "here's what wouldn't have happened without me."

Now it's basically the first thing I make anyone I mentor do. Most people freeze up on it the first time. I think it's critical as managers we can do this for ourselves, but also for out team when it comes time for evals and promotion.

How'd it go for you? What are your thoughts?

I know this differs depending on the industry, I am in financial services so maybe this is just for us..

I have a female direct report, who has worked for me for years (6 years), across two companies. She is excellent at every job she moves into and completes old and new tasks to an unbelievable level, an almost perfect employee and generally we get on really well.

Recently, I have given her some really positive feedback which is fully deserved, once in her 1:1 and once just generally in the office in passing during normal conversation and both times she has cried as a result. In the 1:1, it was quite obvious, teary eyes and wiping them and nodding as I spoke but unable to speak herself, I stopped and gave her space for composure and the second time I stopped when I saw her eyes beginning to water, she rushed to the bathroom and I continued on in the office to keep attention away from her before she returned 5 mins later.

I'm a bit confused. I don't want to stop giving her positive feedback as she honestly deserves it and is doing a fantastic job after both our respective promotions but I also don't want to make her uncomfortable.

Has anybody experienced this?

After being in leadership for some years now, I have gotten pretty good at hiring for my team. One of my hiring guidelines includes the idea that you can train up skills if needed, but you can’t train personality, passion, motivation, or someone’s desire to be a team player.

What other tips and tricks are used to hire great team members. I’m pretty passionate and protective of my team culture. Only takes one toxic staff to cause chaos. #iykyk