Re: Working later than the boss

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

At this point I am no longer speculating about Anonymous'
situation, I am replying to your view that it is somehow
"wrong" if someone paying you to do your job does less
work than you do.

It's true I have a gardener and don't garden, but as
writers we often do not work for other writers, so 
that's irrelevant.  If I tell my gardener I want him to do
more than he has been doing, he'll tell me how much 
more it's going to cost.  If we're not able to agree on
terms, I either accept that I'm not going to get the work 
or I go find another gardener who finds my new 
requirements acceptable.  And whether my gardener 
works for me alone or as part of a larger group is also
irrelvant, because we don't negotiate our terms by
collective bargaining.

When I manage people I'll go to the ends of the Earth
and fight windmills and dragons to get them what they
need to do their jobs and ensure that their efforts and 
achievements are recognized, and to do whatever I can 
to put myself in the path of anything stupid or harmful 
that upper management attempts to do to them.  They 
know that they can always come to me if they need 
my help in any of these areas.  But they also know 
that our organization chart illustrates the fact that we 
are a benign dicatorship, not an egalitarian democracy,
and that I am their manager and not their den mother.
Anybody who expects a manager to lead the group
in choruses of Kumbaya had probably best pass on
any openings I post.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Janice Gelb" <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>

> Nor are you a cog in a machine wearing blinders to
> everything that goes on around you. The gardener
> analogy doesn't work: you're paying the gardener
> to garden. You don't garden, the gardener isn't
> part of an employment team you manage, and after
> you discussed your expectations, you haven't
> changed the rules on him.
> 
> You said there's nothing wrong with employees
> perceiving their manager to put in less hours
> than they do on a consistent basis, and asking
> them to shoulder even more of the burden now.
> From a pure employment perspective, you're right.
> However, I was trying to point out that there is
> a morale perspective to this issue that you didn't
> seem to be taking into account.
> 
> Finally, we don't really know the entire situation
> here so it's probably pointless to speculate any
> further.

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