Well, that’s kind of harsh – even if it is true for many leaders. How did it come to this? How did you manage your career so you could end up mediating between two employees who are applying death-threats to each other because one used the other’s Arthur Fonzarelli commemorative coffee mug, and never washed it?
None of us stood up in the first grade and announced to the world that we wanted to be a middle manager. Yet, there are far more middle managers than there are police officers, fire-fighters and ballerinas combined. And here you are a generation later with the title, “Manager” which entitles you to:
- 10% more pay than the two idiots arguing over the coffee mug
- longer working hours
- hypertension.
I remember being the manager of a supermarket, where I’d have to mediate such disputes as who had to check through the groceries. Yep, that’s right – we had hired over 100 people into the job description, “cashier”, and I was constantly involved in battles over who had to check. Weren’t we paying all of you to perform that function?
Or another employee who made a career out of torturing other people with comments such as:
- “I think you’ve put on weight”
- “You’ll probably be bald in another couple of years”
- “Why do you think it is that people don’t like you”
Of course, he always phrased these in such a way that he couldn’t be taken to task for harassment, but that didn’t stop the line-up of complaints about his behaviour.
I finally developed a coping strategy for these petty complaints that made me tremendously unpopular with everyone, but I enjoyed my job much more, and had way more time on my hands. Unless I deemed the complaint to be something that would effect the viability of the business, or lead to an unacceptable amount of risk, I would tell people, “You need to sort this out on your own, because if you try to involve me, I guarantee no one is going to like the result”.
A threat? Probably.
A survival strategy? Definitely.
I’ve spoken in this space before about “the burden of leadership” that some managers have thought is a bit harsh. I won’t back away from those comments, but I will say that petty complaints and conflicts are not part of any manager’s job – it’s a baby-sitter’s job.
The Manager’s job is often a thankless one, but it doesn’t have to be trivial, unless you allow it to be so. This aspect of the manager’s job is timeless.