Recently I gave an employee a new job description. A 50% change in job duties as I needed half a body in other areas. She did not like it. Went to the union. You can't do that. Yes I can. No you can't. Ok, the alternative is being made redundant. You wouldn't do that. But I did. She was walked out. Ain't no cure for stupid.
Adult Daycare: Dealing with Employees
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I just had a people manager confess to me that he doesn't manage people well. He had always delegated performance management to his boss. He doesn't believe he needs to manage budget. He doesn't believe he needs to talk to customers because he's in the back office and it's someone else's job. Moreover, he told me he's not good at managing the people so he does the bare minimum on those things.
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Back office, he's an accountant? No special qualities needed other than get the invoices out right first time, follow-up on payments and get the accounts done on time. If you need a creative accountant get some shady dodgy geezer in. All positions don't need a people manager. After all, number crunching is as boring as working on the line in a factory.
Meanwhile, my young protégé has turned up at a new competitor of ours. Some Middle Eastern/Pakistani outfit now with an office in London. As often with these enterprises they'll soon relocate to Luton and then vanish back into the desert sands. But not before they've got their very western daughter/niece/son UK residency.
Meanwhile, my young protégé has turned up at a new competitor of ours. Some Middle Eastern/Pakistani outfit now with an office in London. As often with these enterprises they'll soon relocate to Luton and then vanish back into the desert sands. But not before they've got their very western daughter/niece/son UK residency.
There needs to be a people manager for every team. That's like saying an army doesn't require officers.
He has customers. Even if he is in Finance his customers are the other departments in the company.
Is he still your protege after the betrayal?
He has customers. Even if he is in Finance his customers are the other departments in the company.
Is he still your protege after the betrayal?
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No betrayal, he left for love, after his girlfriend gave him the ultimatum to move back to Germany with her, or end the relationship. Now he's back in Blighty with all his dreams of a career in the space industry over. I did warn him, but he didn't listen. Such is life.
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Was at a symposium this week in Milan and sadly the sartorial discipline of wearing decent shoes looks like becoming a dead art form. Even key speakers sporting Ecco type crap with their suits. The homage Rolex was also much on display with the younger crowd. You can gesticulate all you want so we can't zero in on the logo on the face, it's the brutal forged thickness out of radioactive stainless steel from India or China that gives it away.
I also noticed that many speakers thought nothing of running over their allotted 20 minutes and so extended the day well beyond the scheduled finish which dented my participation in the cocktail hours.
I also noticed that many speakers thought nothing of running over their allotted 20 minutes and so extended the day well beyond the scheduled finish which dented my participation in the cocktail hours.
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Depends, you've got the Steinhart made homages from Germany.
Last week I had to terminate my executive admin as part of a company wide reduction exercise. This week she e-mailed my work e-mail address from her personal one to remind me that she had finished something and left it at her desk for me to pick up.
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Making someone redundant over here is a long drawn out process and you have get permission from a judge and prove that you are not making money in your audited accounts. A nightmare. The more they tinker with the system to ensure a larger portion of the work force are employed as permanent staff the worse it becomes and less and less people are employed as staff than ever before. In the time the politicians started to try and improve things, an additional 10% of the work force are working temporary or as freelancers.
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Just had an email from an ex-colleague after 7 years and had to reply, names have been changed to protect the guilty:
QUOTE
Hi
Sorry for not keeping in touch. Miss your emails, always interesting.
Hope you and your family are all well.
Response
Fri 4/19/2019 6:27 PM
You mistake me for somebody else. Someone with the same name got done over and at the decisive moment all his so called friends deserted him. Over the years some have come back to ask for favours. One even asked for a fake contract to support a mortgage application. This is a prick who didn't have the balls to invite me to his wedding. He also said that you had deals going on with the now 25 stone Fat Bastard that is XXXX XXXXX. Which explains everything.
You couldn't even sign your email off with your name. So I will do the same.
UNQUOTE
Is it me, or is this shit normal once you get to a certain age and career experience?
QUOTE
Hi
Sorry for not keeping in touch. Miss your emails, always interesting.
Hope you and your family are all well.
Response
Fri 4/19/2019 6:27 PM
You mistake me for somebody else. Someone with the same name got done over and at the decisive moment all his so called friends deserted him. Over the years some have come back to ask for favours. One even asked for a fake contract to support a mortgage application. This is a prick who didn't have the balls to invite me to his wedding. He also said that you had deals going on with the now 25 stone Fat Bastard that is XXXX XXXXX. Which explains everything.
You couldn't even sign your email off with your name. So I will do the same.
UNQUOTE
Is it me, or is this shit normal once you get to a certain age and career experience?
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Perhaps, I was little harsh on my old mucca. I may yet apologise, or not. But I would have expected he would have given me an update of his life, rather than expect me to instantly come up with some wit and tales of daring do.
I wasn't invited to an ex-colleague's wedding as he thought I was a little bit toxic at the time. Last year he asked me to make a phoney contract with him to support a mortgage application, but he of course would resign the next day.
I need to keep myself a little bit rare with these people.
I wasn't invited to an ex-colleague's wedding as he thought I was a little bit toxic at the time. Last year he asked me to make a phoney contract with him to support a mortgage application, but he of course would resign the next day.
I need to keep myself a little bit rare with these people.
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Decided not to apologise to my old mucca. I mean, you haven't contacted someone since 2012 and the only thing you ask them is to entertain you with all the gossip and not giving an update of your own circumstances. Such is life, the older you get the less tolerance you are of less than impeccable behaviour amongst ex-work colleagues and so called friends.
Had an update about an ex-colleague of mine today. This was someone who was being groomed and one day was considered directorship material. He left the company to work for a completely different business involved with cars, but turned out he didn't fit in there after a very short time. He is now working as a carpet fitter with his brother and is ''enjoying it''. No disrespect to carpet fitters, but I would have thought such a career move not the career path of a graduate engineer. Back in the day, it would have been next to impossible to believe that someone in the top 8-5% education wise with a university degree in a hard science would have ended up as a carpet fitter. Strange days indeed.
Had an update about an ex-colleague of mine today. This was someone who was being groomed and one day was considered directorship material. He left the company to work for a completely different business involved with cars, but turned out he didn't fit in there after a very short time. He is now working as a carpet fitter with his brother and is ''enjoying it''. No disrespect to carpet fitters, but I would have thought such a career move not the career path of a graduate engineer. Back in the day, it would have been next to impossible to believe that someone in the top 8-5% education wise with a university degree in a hard science would have ended up as a carpet fitter. Strange days indeed.
I don't think level of education is indicative of how far up you climb in a corporate ladder or how successful you are professionally in the conventional sense. It certainly helps open doors or if you are in a skills or knowledge intensive field (mad scientist) it would help but there's rarely a direct correlation except for opening doors when it comes to organizational life. I know plenty of people who were successful in academia and have at best middling professional lives.