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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was in your situation two years ago, 7 years into my federal career, and this is what I'd say:

- even when you're being promoted to manage your own office, being a manager is a completely different job than the SME job you have currently. Personally, I was interested in the promotion because I was bored with my SME job. The supervisory job has it's ups and downs, but it has been a new professional challenge, which has been satisfying.

- being a manager requires a completely different skill set than being a subject matter expert. Your SME experience is secondary, and may be - depending on your office - significantly less relevant than you think. You might want to talk with hiring manager or other managers at your level to learn more about the skills that are needed to be a good manager.

- being a manager entails dealing with people and their problems, even when you have very high performing staff. I have no low performers on my team, and yet I swear to god, being a manager is like parenting children who come to you to fix every little problem that they have.

- does the job set you up for the long term career trajectory that you want? my promotion puts me in line to be the SES over my office, likely within the next 15 years. I'm actually worried that I will get railroaded into the position just because that's the way my agency works. At this time, I don't want a promotion beyond my current position.

- don't take the job for the money. that would be foolish because the pay difference is nominal. Even the little pay bump if I did get the SES position isn't enough to be worth it (in my opinion).

- as the manager, you set the culture for the office. you do the hiring, you control the quality of the training, you are the one who is responsible for working with lower performers to improve their performance.

- how reasonable is the chain of command above you? first line supervision sucks if your chain of command has unreasonable expectations and will not support you if you find you recommend pushing back on unreasonable expectations - especially in the federal gov't where every office I see if short staffed. if the people above you will never say no to their leadership, you will likely find yourself frustrated and unhappy with the position. I actually like being a manager but from what I hear from others at my level in my agency, I absolutely would not do this job for a problematic chain of command. If you're on the fence about the promotion, don't take it if you don't think your chain of command is unreasonable.

- likewise, do you actually like your chain of command? Do you think they make reasonable decisions? You will work closely with these people, and they will become your new professional peers (because the people you used to work alongside will no longer be your friends after you become their manager).

- I personally don't work many more hours than I did before becoming a supervisor. Typically 40 hours a week, with some crunch periods here and there where I work a couple of extra hours a week to wrap up an urgent project. But that's a boundary I establish and enforce myself, so if you aren't great with boundaries, your work hours will probably creep up. [/quote]

Such an excellent post. Thank you. [/quote]

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