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Why is it when one becomes a manager they automatically become a jackass?

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AlimNassor

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My friend got promoted last week to ZMS (i'm running a department,I'm not a real manager but he is)and is now overseeing my area. He's become full of himself, and acts like a tyrant. When I got hired he was a department manager, but, he was super nice and loved by everyone in the store. His associates loved him, and he treated everyone with respect.

When he got promoted at first he didn't change, but, that changed rapidly. now he's become arrogant, controlling, and generally unpleasant to be around. He'll bark orders at you, and then if it's not done super fast he gets upset. He's drinking the corporate juice now, constantly going on about the company and customers being right.

It's like seriously man? They give him a promotion and now he thinks he's God. It's obnoxious become most the real managers (assistant-salaried) are huge jackasses who constantly use interrogation tactics to get things done.
 
tumblr_lvga6wARjj1qdku5lo1_250.gif
 
He might be under a lot of pressure.

When I became manager I managed to keep my jackassery under check but there is a lot of pressure with the role.
 
DoctorWho said:
He might be under a lot of pressure.

When I became manager I managed to keep my jackassery under check but there is a lot of pressure with the role.
Click to expand...

It is, but, he's been a department manager for years. It wouldn't be too different then what he's already used too. He's used to the area too. He used to oversee housewares, now he oversees entertainment.
 
Slayven said:
I think it is the DNA of people that want to be mangers.
Click to expand...

While we can't say this about everyone, I think it's pretty accurate. Maybe not DNA but certainly personality, morals and ethics.

As some others have mentioned, he may be getting pressure from above as well.
 
Yarr, I expect there's a ton of stress being brought down from on high. This might be when he needs a friend the most. Hang in there!
 
It's his job to be your boss, not your friend. He may be under pressure to increase productivity, lower hours, the whole nine yards. When that happens, being your buddy becomes second to getting his job done, especially if his area isn't up to snuff.
 
DoctorWho said:
He might be under a lot of pressure.

When I became manager I managed to keep my jackassery under check but there is a lot of pressure with the role.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this. He must be having a hard time dealing with all the new responsibilities.

And people get drunk on power easily, too.
 
Keep in mind that his job depends on running a tight ship. He basically had to switch/drop alliances at work. He used to be an equal and now he is not.

A manager that only knows to bark orders is a bad manager, but unfortunatelly many junior managers lack the proper social training and will resort to harshness because as formerly tortured grunts, they believe that's the only thing grunts understand.

Then you have the real asshats.
 
The jackasses he has to answer to now turned him into a jackass. Different priorities, responsibitlies. Well all have to answer to someone.
 
bad mangers don't know how to deal with personnel .

a manager has to be a cool calm composed person who knows how to deal with people and how to allocate work and resources in the right places.

a bad manager is someone who blames everyone else because he can't manage shit
 
I found out that the company manager training sessions change people. My supervisor was pretty cool until she went to 'training' with other managers. She came back as a dickwad, and she almost forced people to resign.

I don't know what they teach them in those conferences, to manipulate and treat people like cattle?
 
Probably getting yelled at by other people now, so he's not able to absorb that and it's coming through to everyone else. More pressure, basically. Or the other thing is what you mentioned, that the power could be going to his head.
 
Vyroxis said:
It's his job to be your boss, not your friend. He may be under pressure to increase productivity, lower hours, the whole nine yards. When that happens, being your buddy becomes second to getting his job done, especially if his area isn't up to snuff.
Click to expand...

It's his job to manage. Nowhere does it say not be friendly. Good managers usually treat their associates with respect and never rule through fear or intimidation tactics. It's not effective when your associates fear you. They'll just hate you. I don't treat my associates like my friends, but, I treat them like people even if they're useless. I have expectations, and understand they aren't machines. I also understand they aren't dogs, and a simple hello and thanks goes a long way.

The guy he replaced did all that. He gave us a ton to do but, at least he was friendly about it. He gave us clear instructions what to do, and never treated us unfairly. Of course who could have seen that we stealing from the store by marking down things super low to give to family and friends.
 
Because now he is responsible for a bunch of good for nothing jackass workers. They fuck up, he gets in trouble. He needs to show you plebs what's what.
 
Not my previous project manager. I really respect him and ended up seeing him as a surrogate father. I think you know you have a great manager when you try to do your best not out of fear but because you don't want to disappoint him.

But yeah, a good manager is far and few.
 
AlimNassor said:
My friend got promoted last week to ZMS (i'm running a department,I'm not a real manager but he is)and is now overseeing my area. He's become full of himself, and acts like a tyrant. When I got hired he was a department manager, but, he was super nice and loved by everyone in the store. His associates loved him, and he treated everyone with respect.

When he got promoted at first he didn't change, but, that changed rapidly. now he's become arrogant, controlling, and generally unpleasant to be around. He'll bark orders at you, and then if it's not done super fast he gets upset. He's drinking the corporate juice now, constantly going on about the company and customers being right.

It's like seriously man? They give him a promotion and now he thinks he's God. It's obnoxious become most the real managers (assistant-salaried) are huge jackasses who constantly use interrogation tactics to get things done.
Click to expand...

He didn't change. You guys did.
 
Because now that he's responsible for you all he realizes how terrible you all are at your jobs and has to hear shit whenever you guys fail.

That's the other side of the coin.

He could just be a terrible ass who had power go to his head, but you also have to keep in mind that every terrible worker ever always hates their boss, so maybe that is something to look into as well
 
I used to work with this guy that was cool beans. Dude was an awesome co-worker, next thing you know he becomes a supervisor and slowly became a dick. At the same time he was fighting urges of becoming one by being lean and fair to co workers. It was like trying to not succumb to the dark side with him. Eventually he left for another job. I guess the pressure behind keeping customers happy, managing workers, and meeting company quota can bring the worst out of you.
 
I got to witness a lot of Walmart asst. managers talk shit about their employees when I was a manager at a DD inside of a Walmart. Some of the managers were cool, but a lot just had tremendous egos. I would say the reason your friend is a dick is because it's part of the culture. They are under pressure to pretty much get as much as they can out of the workers while paying as little as possible. Their job is kind of to fuck their people over. I guess that makes work a little difficult, plus now anything that goes wrong inevitably comes down on them.
 
Now that his job relies on the people around him performing well, he's going to be up everybody's ass because he has people up his ass.

It's different when you're specific to a smaller department; You have less people to work with and you're usually part of the team that gets stuff done, so if someone slacks a little you can make up for it yourself. When you're a full on "manager" you're told not to do shit, just make sure everybody else is doing their stuff properly.

Realistically, he's thinking the same things about you and your coworkers. He probably notices you all goofing off or underperforming more often than he used to, and sees it as all of you taking advantage of him. It's infuriating to have the people that you thought were your "friends" work less now that you're in charge of them. In his previous position it probably just affected the team as a whole, so he didn't mind as much, but now it comes back to him on a personal level when someone doesn't get something done.

He also could know something that he can't tell you and your coworkers. So while he may be acting like a jackass, he could be trying to help you guys out. For example, where I work I'm friends with a few people that the manager above me wants to fire. I can't really tell them that, so all I can do is get on their case about how they need to work harder. They can call me an asshole all they want, I'm trying to help them save their own job, because I have no power to save it for them. But when I get "Stop being an asshole and just fuck off" when they're literally not even working, it just kind of adds more reason for them to be let go. Which sucks, because they're my friends, but if something doesn't get done about it then I'm the one who gets put on the spot for their mistakes. Sorry, but I'm not putting my job in jeopardy because you don't feel like doing your job :\
 
Well you see, he's now not only your superior, but also your superior. Having to deal with inferior specimens often leads to aggravation.
 
He is suiting up for corporate battle, to slay the dragons of inefficiency and indolence. You are either with him or against him. He will leave the day's victories and losses on the field and return home to his loving wife and children, only to heed the battlecry another day.
 
Not only does it make for a great joke, but the scene between Vader and the Emperor in ESB is the perfect analogy for corporate capitalist culture:

EMPEROR
The Force is strong with him. The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi (employee at a competitor).

VADER
If he could be turned (molded into the type of manager we want), he would become a powerful ally.

EMPEROR
Yes. Yes. He would be a great asset. Can it be done? (will the raise be enough?)

VADER
He will join us (do what we demand) or die (get fired), my master.
 
Vyroxis said:
It's his job to be your boss, not your friend. He may be under pressure to increase productivity, lower hours, the whole nine yards. When that happens, being your buddy becomes second to getting his job done, especially if his area isn't up to snuff.
Click to expand...


So much this.


He is also new at the job. It takes time to be able to properly do any new job, and should be given some slack as he learns his new position.
 
rakhir said:
I found out that the company manager training sessions change people. My supervisor was pretty cool until she went to 'training' with other managers. She came back as a dickwad, and she almost forced people to resign.

I don't know what they teach them in those conferences, to manipulate and treat people like cattle?
Click to expand...

I've seen this too: every time someone I know has become a manager, they start off okay but then they noticeably change after taking management training. Most things they say or do appear to be coming straight out of a manual.
 
Hes the boss now. You go from not caring about the overall operation to having how it operates reflect on yourself. So you start to view tasks and problems as poor functionality that needs to be corrected so you start bossing people around and giving orders without thinking about how you act because in your mind you are solving a problem. Responsiblity bro. Accountability. Also, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
 
Vyroxis said:
It's his job to be your boss, not your friend. He may be under pressure to increase productivity, lower hours, the whole nine yards. When that happens, being your buddy becomes second to getting his job done, especially if his area isn't up to snuff.
Click to expand...

Yep. Was wondering how far I would have to go through the thread before I saw someone who understands the managers dilemma. The guy has a different set of priorities and he is evaluated upon a different set of criteria now - so he has to focus on a whole different set of skills like all managers do... and the higher up the food chain you go, the more distant he will become because his world view is going to be entirely different from the people that are entering at the other end of the funnel.
 
As a manager, you'd be surprised how much shit we get from our high end management. Even when things are going good, we have to keep increasing productivity no matter what.

And some of the suggestions we get from our bosses... They are really crazy.
 
Being a manager kind of sucks, you get hell from both sides and there never seems to be a happy medium that ever comes along with it.
 
Doominated said:
Now that his job relies on the people around him performing well, he's going to be up everybody's ass because he has people up his ass.

It's different when you're specific to a smaller department; You have less people to work with and you're usually part of the team that gets stuff done, so if someone slacks a little you can make up for it yourself. When you're a full on "manager" you're told not to do shit, just make sure everybody else is doing their stuff properly.

Realistically, he's thinking the same things about you and your coworkers. He probably notices you all goofing off or underperforming more often than he used to, and sees it as all of you taking advantage of him. It's infuriating to have the people that you thought were your "friends" work less now that you're in charge of them. In his previous position it probably just affected the team as a whole, so he didn't mind as much, but now it comes back to him on a personal level when someone doesn't get something done.

He also could know something that he can't tell you and your coworkers. So while he may be acting like a jackass, he could be trying to help you guys out. For example, where I work I'm friends with a few people that the manager above me wants to fire. I can't really tell them that, so all I can do is get on their case about how they need to work harder. They can call me an asshole all they want, I'm trying to help them save their own job, because I have no power to save it for them. But when I get "Stop being an asshole and just fuck off" when they're literally not even working, it just kind of adds more reason for them to be let go. Which sucks, because they're my friends, but if something doesn't get done about it then I'm the one who gets put on the spot for their mistakes. Sorry, but I'm not putting my job in jeopardy because you don't feel like doing your job :
Click to expand...
i2eUkOCR6Nk3e.gif
 
They say that if you want to see the true nature of a man, give him a little power.

Doominated said:
Now that his job relies on the people around him performing well, he's going to be up everybody's ass because he has people up his ass.

It's different when you're specific to a smaller department; You have less people to work with and you're usually part of the team that gets stuff done, so if someone slacks a little you can make up for it yourself. When you're a full on "manager" you're told not to do shit, just make sure everybody else is doing their stuff properly.

Realistically, he's thinking the same things about you and your coworkers. He probably notices you all goofing off or underperforming more often than he used to, and sees it as all of you taking advantage of him. It's infuriating to have the people that you thought were your "friends" work less now that you're in charge of them. In his previous position it probably just affected the team as a whole, so he didn't mind as much, but now it comes back to him on a personal level when someone doesn't get something done.

He also could know something that he can't tell you and your coworkers. So while he may be acting like a jackass, he could be trying to help you guys out. For example, where I work I'm friends with a few people that the manager above me wants to fire. I can't really tell them that, so all I can do is get on their case about how they need to work harder. They can call me an asshole all they want, I'm trying to help them save their own job, because I have no power to save it for them. But when I get "Stop being an asshole and just fuck off" when they're literally not even working, it just kind of adds more reason for them to be let go. Which sucks, because they're my friends, but if something doesn't get done about it then I'm the one who gets put on the spot for their mistakes. Sorry, but I'm not putting my job in jeopardy because you don't feel like doing your job :\
Click to expand...

But this makes a whole hell of a lot of sense too.
 
Because he's a new manager. Many new managers suck.

You can play the role for a bit, but good luck keeping talent being like that in long haul
 
The economy doesn't incentivize human welfare. It only incentivizes for monetary movement.

It only produces positive human welfare as a positive externality of its drive for monetary movement.

As a result, unless the lowest end worker can somehow encourage upper management to believe that consideration for their welfare will result in positive monetarty externalities for the company, then they're going to be pushed to breaking point.

And given the lack of options that the lowest end worker has... they often can do nothing to convince their managers above them of thinking about them as anything but fleshy human cogs in a money making machine.


In other words, your friend has neither the incentives nor the wisdom to consider your humanity. Indeed, he's faced with multiple incentives to *not* consider your humanity. If he can somehow convince you to work for nothing, then he will do so - because he's incentivized to do this.

Unless of course the laws in your state stop that bullshit, placing economic incentive on companies to not abuse worker rights. But this isn't true for all states.
 
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