UNITED STATES—Throughout my career I’ve learned something of great importance: be careful what you wish for! The idea of being your own boss or working in management is not as ‘great’ as some would like to perceive. How do I know this? Well I’ve known a lot of people who worked in management positions, only to find themselves bumping down their status to eliminate stress.
Being a manager is not easy. You have to deal with the notion of having to ‘manage’ other people and their jobs. Why did I place the word manage in quotes? Well that is a term not easily defined. I mean honestly what does it mean to manage someone? My first gut reaction is to oversee the productivity level of work from someone underneath you. I wouldn’t dare say the word inferior because some people would get offended, and let’s face it; plenty of people in management are not cut out for it.
I have seen literally several people in management follow each other around like lap dogs. It boiled my skin to a degree because there were so many other things that needed attention in the workplace, but management seemed to think otherwise.
Something I’ve learned about being in a position of management is the level of stress that comes with it. You sometimes have to deal with things that you didn’t necessarily sign up for. Its not always fun, and that is something that I have come to grasp. Just because you’re a manager doesn’t mean things are a cake walk. The level of scrutiny you sometimes face is unbearable, the conversations are brutal, and the micro-managing of staff members who fail to adequately complete assignments in a timely manner is unnerving. I mean the list goes on and on.
Knowing what I have seen my parents, family members, other co-workers and even myself experience, management is something I would rather do without. I’ve noticed when I’m responsible solely for my performance and only my performance the level of stress is at an all-time low for me. I’m not worried about this, or about that, or about things that I can’t control. When you’re in a position of power, there are just some things that you can’t escape.
They follow you all the time. Even after an arduous day of work, there are things that seem to permeate into your personal life while you’re off the clock. That is something that has become a normalcy in society. We are always working, we never seem to stop, and the unfortunate side effect is the impact it has not only on our psyche, but our personal lives.
Less time to spend with family, more stress that affects our health and state of being, the list goes on and on. Am I flat out saying management is a bad thing, no, what I’m saying is that some people are just not cut out for it. It’s not so much a thing of leadership it’s an issue of control.
I believe in the notion that an individual can only motivate someone to a certain degree. Beyond that, it’s up to the other person to take the next step. You can’t force someone to do something unless you’re presenting imminent and deadly harm, which let’s face it, will not happen in the workplace, but sometimes that’s the level of agony someone in management has to deal with.
What can I do to make people do what I want without coming across as a power-hungry titan, or a rude and soulless individual? The perk of being in management is a larger paycheck, but with that paycheck comes responsibilities, some of us just don’t want to handle. Management is an amazing thing for those of us who can handle the good and the bad. For some of us, we’re just not cut out for management, but in due time maybe.
