My pet peeves when I was a new manager (2016)

Originally written in 2016

Over the years, I learnt a lot and my thoughts have drastically changed; but, I feel good to be reminded about my thoughts in the past.

It feels great to be called as the youngest manager in the organization! But, does it mean that everything is green and mellow? No! Not at all!

I love my job! I enjoy being a friend to my team and a positive contributor in my organization. Regrettably, there are a few things which I dislike. I would try to classify my points into two major categories -

1. Unwanted criticism

2. Unrealistic expectations

Coming to my first category of unwanted criticism which I usually hear from someone who is either of my batch with the same amount of experience or someone who’s senior to me:

• (Being Sarcastic) Congratulations on being promoted! What new things are you doing?

• To a third person, “I don’t think this guy is doing anything new!”

• Senior addressing me, “You must be the one who has been sending weekly reports to the CEO, and this is why he as asked all managers to share weekly project reports. We never had this trouble earlier!”

• In a group, “The organization is now promoting without any eligibility criteria!”

• When a Functional Manager says, “You are making my resources work more” without understanding any context!

Moving on to the second category which I generally hear from my team:

• (With eyes open) “Sir, you must have all the rights! May I ask for a favor?”

• When I ask about the status of a task which was expected to be complete, “Sir, I am on it! But, this would be completed by end of next week.”

• When I talk about an email,

• “Sir, I am not on the email distribution list!”

• “Sir, I don’t have Outlook installed on my mobile phone”

• “Sir, I always read emails but today I missed reading because of xyz”

• When I act a little strict after a short period of indiscipline

• “Sir, I feel that you are losing trust on me. I have been the best contributor and have spent long nights”

• “Sir, I had these problems and hence, I missed the deadline”

• “Sir, you did not remind me”

These are just a few examples of what I generally hear! If I try to put down a list, it would be never ending.

Now, when I introspect myself, I see that I have been able to handle all these pretty well when it comes in terms of delivery! However, these are not the things that I would like to solve everyday. I am working on strategies towards eradicating these with the hope that people would some day become self organized with more positive thoughts!