bad managers
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- dan53820
I have a manager like this (currently taking over his department though and he keeps getting demoted!!). Just talk to him in complete designer jargon, then when he's really listening throw some terms in there that are completely wrong and when goes to explain his idea's to the boss call him out and provide references as to why he knows nothing about what he's doing.
- roundabout0
I had one fucker who made me work 2 week ahead of the deadline to cover his sad sorry ass, after the first month I told her to fuck right offffff.
- bliznutty0
My manager, whom i helped interview btw, turned out to be a total douchebag. he totally sucks. he's totally coasting and avoids work. The only time he has taken any intitiative was when the coffee machine broke he got it fixed. anywayz i feelz ya mang!
- chossy0
Leave I did when I felt like this and have never been happier.
- Point50
boss: "lets use a classy font... something like we used in [client names]'s ad"
me: "oh, porcelain? that's not really classy, it's a grunge font. I wouldn't recommend using that font based on the direction for this particular project"
boss: "that's not a grunge font, it's cursive!"
me: "uh, it's a script that's been de-constructed into a grunge font"
boss: "well, I don't think it's a grunge font, I like it! We're going to use it"
me: "..."- that sucks man. never show anyone it!studderine
- OMG we have the same manager!monkeyshine
- emecks0
My old boss at mm (there are a good few threads about THAT particular cunt on here too) used to have all of the "management speak" buzzwords down to a tee: "drink our own champagne" etc etc etc but had less than no clue.
For example:
He quite seriously never wrote a word of ColdFusion in his life yet wandered around the office wearing a "CFUG Edinburgh" lanyard round his neck - the chancing fuck.Not a clue about glue and pretending he was King Uhu all day long.
Here's the gormless cunt in all his glory:
- bitter at all emecks?vespa
- CFUG = ColdFusionUserGroup, but in his case:
Cunt Fucken Utterly Gormless.
emecks - not really vespa - since the fall of mm that fucker is unemployable :Demecks
- also how the devil are ye? no seen you on these shores for ages.emecks
- hey emecks - yea all good! balancing music and dezine nicely at the mo, enjoying it :)vespa
- how about you? where are you?vespa
- freelance now, more or less - hopefully more in the months to come...emecks
- olli1010
"I don't believe in usability testing" - oh boy. That's usually not a good sign.
- monkeyshine0
thanks for the advice. The Peter Principle is spot on. I'm relatively new and definitely get the sense that some of this is putting me in my place. "This is the way we do things round here" sorta vibe...though out the other side of his mouth is about how open he is. Talking has been painful...there has never been an instance where I couldn't defend my design decisions and his response is always...yeah, I hear you but I don't like it. Example: "I am not a fan of left aligned sites. We mostly do centered sites." Oh really? Have you ever tested your premise on users? "I don't believe in usability testing."
Oy.
- gentlejesus0
- hahah, been there before. Not that, but like that.Wolfboy
- citizen_h0
+ always have valid reasons to back up your design decisions.
- citizen_h0
just say thats why your the project manager and I"M THE DESIGNER.. so stick to managing budgets.
The key thing is as long as the creative director or senior design head is ok with it then your fine to say " i've cleared it with the the big creative cheeses".
- I'm assuming bad manager as non - creative. Do you mean they are a designer?citizen_h
- businessmanbob0
and peter can shove his principle. If I was made boss of everything all problems would be immediately solved
- businessmanbob0
I usually kick whomever in the kneecaps as soon as I hear the word "pet peeve". I fucking hate that word.
- neue75_bold0
Find ‘How to Kill Creativity' by Teresa Amabile and whack yer manager over the head with it...
- businessmanbob0
"I'm not feeling it" is great constructive criticism, especially if followed by "Now what I would do..." or "it's too busy".
- emecks0
Quote the Peter Principle at them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet…
It is damn near always true and it certainly always fucks off those who it describes.
- olli1010
HA! I just got out of a situation like this ultimately the person (and his subordinate) in question were terminated because they were seriously damaging my team's workflow.
I can offer this advice -
1: You need to really understand WHY the manager is bad - is it attitude, communication, discipline, all of them? Document everything.
2: Is that manager acting differently than everyone else (arrogance, incompetence, etc...) or is it really a greater symptom of company culture?
If it's just the manager - have a polite but firm conversation about what's working (very important) and what isn't. Cover your ass if you need to with recent accomplishments but make it clear that things need to change and you're willing to meet them half-way for the good of everyone. If you have the support of the company, chances are you'll win in the end as long as you play it cool and back it up with concrete examples.
For example, I went to a VERY senior person and showed how this person was ruining morale and damaging the workflow with a bad attitude. Members of my team did as well and it worked.
If it's the company culture that promotes or is unwilling to address this sort of thing - RUN. Seriously. All it will do is drag you down, make you miserable and eventually wreck your self-esteem
and productivity.Just because we're "creative" and "non-corporate" doesn't mean we need to put up with unprofessional bullshit. It's a very big job market out there and if employers don't realize that they will never
retain decent employees if they don't know how treat employees fairly.You can always do better.
Ok, rant over.
- October0
do a barrel roll
- MrOneHundred0
Let down two of his tyres. But make sure you tell him just before he is leaving for the day. And do it 5 days straight. Sure, it won’t help, but it won’t hurt either.
- boobs0
Just because someone manages to be really bad, doesn't mean they're a bad manager.
But, you know, you're probably right.
How much you want to bet he's Latvian?