Anonymous wrote:Give HR an anon note. We can handle it from there. I love getting the anonymous typed paper slipped under my door.

What do you do with the information?

Keep your mouth shut. We had a supervisor ordered training venting bonding session where we were encouraged to criticize management. I did. I am now unemployed.

Really not much you can do. Sure, you could talk with HR or if there is some one above the supervisor but it will come back to bite you. Her insecurity will impact your job if you show that you are more successful. If stick your head in the sand and do your job or get that resume updated and start looking. Unless she leaves you are stuck.

Give HR an anon note. We can handle it from there. I love getting the anonymous typed paper slipped under my door.

Give her some helpful advice. She needs it.

Good people will leave, poor performers will stay.
What other better way for an incompetent manager to stay than to passively push out the competition and try to look indisposable?

Ugh, no 360 reviews at your company either?!?
They are par for the course everywhere I worked in NY, but not DC land. People protect themselves too much, when hiring weak ppl, come review time, when communicating (or not!).

I've seen this time after time. One who is technically competent, even super, as a peer, gets promoted for the wrong reason (technical skill vs. management ability) and it's a disaster.

None of the attempts to help have succeeded, I even essentially arranged a couple of interventions by our mgmt. team with one especially pathetic manager.

None of them worked and as noted above, in one or two cases those who try to help with constructive feedback are not appreciated or even end up in the doghouse.

Stay as long as you can stand it or leave. In my experience, these incompetents tend to last 3-4 yrs. or so, and when it's one after another it can be hard to take. In my office we've been on a run since '04 of horrible managers, with one brief break in '08-10.

Anonymous wrote:My newish supervisor has terrible communication skills, resulting in a fair amount of chaos. From my standpoint, better communication would solve many of the current problems. Do I point this out? I don't want to appear adversarial, but the chaos has made a previously pleasant working environment into a stressful one. I think that this person might be too insecure to take such criticisim constructively. How long do you wait out a manager with poor leadership skills?

I was in the same boat last year. My entire team started looking for new positions within 4 months of our peer becoming our supervisor. Luckily she quit to be a SAHM soon after.

I can't think of an appropriate way to confront the situation without making things worse. Your boss has to know she's screwing up. Hopefully she is humble enough to seek advice from her superiors.

Good Luck

Is it. Situation where you could offer to take something off of his/her plate to improve things? Or is it that you are not getting the communicatiospns or information you need? If the latter, I tried addressing it with a boss once and it fell flat. I think it actually made things worse. Sorry but the best solution may be a new boss I.e. new job.

Anonymous wrote:My newish supervisor has terrible communication skills, resulting in a fair amount of chaos. From my standpoint, better communication would solve many of the current problems. Do I point this out? I don't want to appear adversarial, but the chaos has made a previously pleasant working environment into a stressful one. I think that this person might be too insecure to take such criticisim constructively. How long do you wait out a manager with poor leadership skills?

Blimey, do you work at my office?

And don't be patronizing. She was selected into this job for a reason. Don't go in with Drama, nothing is more of a soul-sucker than petty Drama.. If you're going in to chat with her, have it be specific with recommended and measurable outcomes.

Help her help herself, as well as her subordinates. Don't chastise her or make her feel incompetent, offer her suggestions for what you, as an employee, would like to see accomplished to help the team efforts overall.

Anonymous wrote:My newish supervisor has terrible communication skills, resulting in a fair amount of chaos. From my standpoint, better communication would solve many of the current problems. Do I point this out? I don't want to appear adversarial, but the chaos has made a previously pleasant working environment into a stressful one. I think that this person might be too insecure to take such criticisim constructively. How long do you wait out a manager with poor leadership skills?

Until retirement. It is just a couple of decades. Never, ever, ever, ever offer a supervisor constructive criticism. Not even when they ask for it. They will make you pay.

My newish supervisor has terrible communication skills, resulting in a fair amount of chaos. From my standpoint, better communication would solve many of the current problems. Do I point this out? I don't want to appear adversarial, but the chaos has made a previously pleasant working environment into a stressful one. I think that this person might be too insecure to take such criticisim constructively. How long do you wait out a manager with poor leadership skills?