I have a gut dislike for authority figures.

[Mr._Graybeard]

This was definitely a hindrance to my career. I had the skills, but most of my bosses did not consider me a "team player." In retrospect, I'm relieved that I didn't have to participate in the dirty deeds of HR as my field of employment diminished.

Is anyone else here with me? Agin' me?

 

[Car-Guy]

At work, I never had a real problem with authority. We all have a boss or bosses... I even respected most of them. What I had/have a problem with is incompetence, and/or rude and abusive bosses/leaders.... And there is plenty of that "everywhere" I look. And speaking of HR, I saw them do some things that IMO, were just plain wrong/unfair, base on the information I had.

A lot of people are in positions for the wrong reasons.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Me too. When I was in a position of authority, I lead by consensus and by the attitude that I was there to serve the others on the team. Most of those who covet authority are the ones who are not team players. I got fired because someone thought I wanted to become department chair. The person who fired me was highly incompetent and fiscally irresponsible. I met with an EEOC lawyer in Philadelphia and he said I had a discrimination case, but asked if I really wanted to pursue it, and I decided that I did not. Fourteen years later, I again was threatened with firing after I came back to from retirement to "help the team" when they were understaffed. That's when I retired for good.

Those with the most skills are often attacked by those in charge. Many of those who seek positions of authority do it for the wrong reasons, namely, to overcome a sense of inadequacy. They end up as bullies. I'm with you.

 

[Nemo2]

Promoted within the telco sales group I was obliged to attend a New Manager's Course; part way through we had to split up into groups and work on some little project.

Afterward the person running the course told us that it was an exercise in different management techniques with pre-assigned 'leaders'.

I said I didn't realize that the 'leader' of our group was the leader, I just did what I wanted to do.

 

[Midpack]

This was definitely a hindrance to my career. I had the skills, but most of my bosses did not consider me a "team player." In retrospect, I'm relieved that I didn't have to participate in the dirty deeds of HR as my field of employment diminished.

Is anyone else here with me? Agin' me?

What’s the better alternative? Anarchy? A blanket “gut dislike” of authority is misplaced IME. There are certainly bad authority figures, but there’s no shortage of problem employees either. Sometimes one begets the other...

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I was fortunate in that I spent a lot of time in a role where I had little immediate supervision but a lot of immediate authority. So I guess I was the authority figure! My boss would check in once a shift to see if anything crazy was going down. Beyond that, I was free to do what I saw as necessary. But I always felt a little uneasy among those at the top of the management pyramid.

Maybe this is all ancient history and not worth revisiting. But I think it applies to a lot of broader categories in life. I just don't buy a lot of the BS that comes down from above.
Never have, and never will.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

What’s the better alternative? Anarchy? A blanket “gut dislike” of authority is misplaced IME. There are certainly bad authority figures, but there’s no shortage of problem employees either. Sometimes one begets the other...

I've always felt like a leader leads by example. Show me what you want by what you do.

 

[Exchme]

You have to remember that management has a different job than the team. Management realizes that the team will be conservative on the time/effort to do a task. But if everything is estimated conservatively, the company is out of business.

So management has to push. The art of good management is to push the team enough to get some business and make some progress, but not so much as to fail spectacularly to deliver to the customer. It inherently means balancing a lot of unknowns so even good managers will not always be right. The other part of their job is to select people that understand all that and will work to achieve the team's goals.

There are always going to be some bad managers (hopefully higher ups will spot the issue and remove the manager), so it's perfectly possible to have bad management, but if you find you can't get along with any management, you probably haven't tried to walk in management's shoes.

 

[Dtail]

Was part of upper/middle management. Usually managed by consensus in a very high pressured work scenario.
Always had respect for those above me, although lots of egos out there.

 

[Sunset]

This was definitely a hindrance to my career. I had the skills, but most of my bosses did not consider me a "team player." In retrospect, I'm relieved that I didn't have to participate in the dirty deeds of HR as my field of employment diminished.

Is anyone else here with me? Agin' me?

YES.......!!!!

I did like most of my immediate bosses, but felt less respect for some of the higher up folks, as some decisions they made were to make themselves look good, even if it hurt the company/goal.

I questioned (criticized) the Big Boss in a meeting once, so 2 weeks later during layoff's I was included in the layoff.. Our tiny team had never had a layoff before.
Too bad as within a month their system went down, due to other staff not being familiar with the complexity of the releases and being short staffed.

I always felt like I was a team player. I just didn't like people making pronouncements based on "because I'm boss" rather than "because it's a better way".

I do think, my attitude (inside) meant I never tried to be a Manager.

 

[HawkOwl]

I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect an employee to play well with others. Not in the sense of brown nosing, but in applying basic social skills to their interactions. I can think of few situations where a lack of respect for superiors, colleagues, or subordinates can be overridden by just “being good at my job”.

An employee who couldn’t control his or her ego enough to circle the wagons when needed and unify against an external threat had little value to the other team members.

 

[Keim]

Yes. I've made it a habit over my career to be in field offices, etc, so I had as much leeway as possible to do things my way.

It has definitely effected my career. Positively and negatively. I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[jollystomper]

I dealt with authority at work in a very simple manner:

1) Agree with those in authority? We're cool.
2) Disagree with those in authority?
=> 2a) Do I have a better/alternative idea/suggestion/plan of attack?
===> 2a1) Yes: bring it up, respectfully, with evidence, being willing to risk pushing to a certain degree, but always with respect
===> 2a2) No: we're cool, but if I think of something better... see 2a1

A couple of the best sayings I have heard related to this, as well as group consensus:
- "You may not think you are drunk, but if two or three others say you are you should at least sit down".
- "What hill do you choose to die on?"

 

[razztazz]

On the whole I'm on board. Maybe not gut dislike but gut distrust....? I actually like the concept of somebody being "in charge." Civilization and progress are not designed to work on a truly libertarian basis. But all power structures can be assumed to be fundamentally corrupt, prima facia, unless otherwise shown.

No matter how good I was or how accommodating I was ("Team Player") it was never enough. The need to "authort" themselves was ceaseless and pervasive. I did not have, as was the custom, a family or a drinking problem. Nor did I fudge travel vouchers. Ergo I was not a team player.

Even when I was "the boss" I never played the game as The Establishment would have had me. Things worked just fine. Everything got done. Nobody found technical fault. But career-wise it got me nowhere.

 

[Jerry1]

I succumbed to authority the minute I expected a paycheck from someone. That's the deal. If you didn't figure that out, I suppose it did hinder your career.

I agree with others that it was certainly easier to work for bosses who knew more than me, but there is also many facets to leadership that do not involve technical knowledge. In mega corp, many people above me didn't have my technical knowledge, but they had other skills that I didn't. For example, my direct boss was technically deficient. However, he was an extrovert and could work a crowd very well. I was glad it was him and not me. I was also lucky to never have had to work for a complete a-hole. Sure, everyone had their quirks, but hey, so did I.

But hey, this is but one of the reasons we retire early!!!

 

[ls99]

At my last employer one was considered a good team player if to the command: Jump, the question was: how high?

If the question was: why? one was not a proper team player.
Most of the time I asked, why?

While never a fan of Timothy Leary, I liked his slogan of question authority. BTW I think he stole the slogan from Benjamin Franklin.

 

[Keim]

Several years ago, when I was about 30, I had a conversation with a boss that went like this:
Keim, here's our plan.
Sir, are you saying I should do this instead of the plan I ran by you 3 months ago, and am in the middle of implementing?
Yes.
Sir, are you saying my performance will be based on how well I meet the goals, or how well I follow your plan?
How well you meet the goals.
Okay, Sir. I see some good ideas in your plan. I'll add those to my existing plan, and otherwise stick with it.
YOU CAN'T DO THAT!
Watch me.

Fortunately I had the proven performance metrics to back me. We're still friends, but I knew I was taking a chance.

I dealt with authority at work in a very simple manner:

1) Agree with those in authority? We're cool.
2) Disagree with those in authority?
=> 2a) Do I have a better/alternative idea/suggestion/plan of attack?
===> 2a1) Yes: bring it up, respectfully, with evidence, being willing to risk pushing to a certain degree, but always with respect
===> 2a2) No: we're cool, but if I think of something better... see 2a1

A couple of the best sayings I have heard related to this, as well as group consensus:
- "You may not think you are drunk, but if two or three others say you are you should at least sit down".
- "What hill do you choose to die on?"

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

There are leaders and there are bosses. I respect leaders, and have worked for some good ones. Maybe they were just bosses who knew how to push my buttons, but they knew how to motivate me. And yeah, results were important. The carrot outproduces the stick.

One organization I worked for was known for the surliness of top management. As in, one guy was upset at an underling and threw a dictionary at him. This was a corporate vice president.

In my business, there were literally hundreds of people who were eager to work in that environment, so management was not motivated to change. But I don't think that attitude contributed one whit to the output of the business, which maintained what I consider a high level despite the tantrums from above. Individual professionalism rather than management kept the gears turning.

 

[Blueskies123]

Assuming you want to live the good life and happiness is one of your goals then being a good team player (assuming your are dealing with people that are not crooks) has to be one of the skills you perfect over time.
I always tried to make my boss look good with hard work, honesty, and some degree of loyalty and they rewarded me over time. Fairly quickly I became the boss.
I have some relatives that are not team players and now that we are all in our 60's I am glad I made the choices I picked.

 

[Aerides]

I always thought being a good team player was more about my collaborating with my colleagues, since we all worked on big projects together most of my career.

In retrospect, my most challenging bosses were the ones I learned the most from. Maybe 1 in 5 bosses were "ugh...that guy/gal", and it was more often they'd move on before long.

 

[Amethyst]

I got along well with honest bosses, since we both wanted the same things: for our team or department to do well and look good.

Like everyone else here, I didn't do as well with bosses who were only out for themselves. My dissembling skills are nil, and people don't like it when they know you see through them.

I can't recall ever hearing that I wasn't a good team player. I was happy leading a team or being a team member, either way was fine with me.

 

[6miths]

In my education and work life I felt I was very lucky to have been in places where one was expected to challenge and be a skeptic and this behaviour was role modeled by those more senior so no I generally felt positive about the 'leaders' I encountered. Now near the end of my career I found myself in a place where less emphasis was placed on questioning by some way up the chain but there were enough worker bees to make things work day to day.

 

[Gumby]

Since I started in the military when I was 18, I never had a problem with authority. Somebody has to be in charge. If it wasn't me, I worked to support the person who was. If I had a better idea, I would bring it up to them. However, if the person in charge declined to take my suggestion, I would do my best to implement their plan.

And getting along with people is just common sense. If you're a genius, they'll figure that out for themselves and start asking for your opinion more.

 

[JP.mpls]

Car Guy,
I'm kind of like you. I have no problem following orders, but I struggle heavily taking orders from someone I've determined is incompetent or an *******.

I ended my work career working for someone I believed was both.

I would have been bad in the military.

I've read books by Tim O'Brian about fighting in Vietnam, and situations where experienced soldiers were dealing with incompetent officers. Ugh.

This was one of the side stories in the Band of Brothers world war II books/movies too.
If you haven't seen that series on PBS, it is great.

Side tracked over to war stories, my apologies.

JP

At work, I never had a real problem with authority. We all have a boss or bosses... I even respected most of them. What I had/have a problem with is incompetence, and/or rude and abusive bosses/leaders.... And there is plenty of that "everywhere" I look. And speaking of HR, I saw them do some things that IMO, were just plain wrong/unfair, base on the information I had.

A lot of people are in positions for the wrong reasons.

 

[Bamaman]

I've got a nephew that's graduating in May from a very competitive private high school. He's leaning toward a state university, but it's almost a waste for someone from a $25K a year school not to go on to an institute of higher learning.

I told him that if I had it to do over again, I'd look to avoid the corporate grind. There's nothing worse than meeting lofty monthly objectives only to have next years' objectives substantially increased out of sight. And somehow, we'd do the impossible.

We have a university close by that has a full commercial pilot program that's relatively well priced. I told the kid to go there and come out with a conditional ATP flight rating at age 22.