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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 07:34 AM
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#21
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Charlotte
Posts: 360
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
I was in I/T and enjoyed management for quite a while. Stayed involved with projects, customers etc and enjoyed the wider scope of action/responsibility. About last 10 years though, gradually became the pits as spent about half my time on recurring "downsizing" fits. Not fun when you have enjoyed building and being part of teams rather than dismembering them. Up side, compensation helped reach my beginning goal of retiring at 55, minimum age where I worked to receive pension/cash value benefit.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 08:53 AM
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#22
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,811
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spanky
I wonder if pharmacists receive extra pay for working extra hours. Anyway, it seems to be a nice, low-stress job with decent pay. I do not image that they have performance reviews, individual development plan/goals, meetings, project deadlines, and travels.
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I have a good friend that ERd from Mega Drug corp. He is a pharmacist and now works a couple of days a week at Walgreens and gets paid for all hours he works on an hourly basis. He has some benefits but does not need them due to Mega corp. He has no performance evals. no meetings to attend, no travel unless he is on vaction, no real stress except filling Rx as fast as he can. Other than that, he is having a ball and works for fun and toy money. He has a lot of offers for PT work but likes where he is since he can walk to work.
I tried to get my son to go into this field but he has no interest in that kind of work.
__________________
Work? I don't have time to work....I'm retired.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 08:58 AM
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#23
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
I suppose it comes down to this.
On the plus side, you get an extra 20% pay and the benefits of guiding your employees careers.
On the negative side, statistically, half of them dont care about you or the company, and are just in it for the paycheck. Once a year you'll have to pick 3-5% of your staff who are to be told out of the blue that they're underperformers because according to human resources, 5% of every staff group is an underperformer. When you're done delivering that message, you'll get to sell the 2.5% raise the rest of your employees got as being "the regular raise everybody is getting due to the off year you had", while your CEO took another 250 million as a bonus and raked down another 200 million in stock options. You'll be sitting in a meeting with a bunch of other people making six figures, operating a company bringing in billions of dollars in revenues. You've hit a momentary hiccup in revenue. You spend 2 hours discussing which employees in your division can have their pagers and/or cell phones taken away to save a few bucks to make the quarter look better. You think about the guys throwing deck chairs off the titanic.
An hour later after "justifying" not doing this in your division, some senior mucky-muck says everybody has to give them all up. You're tempted to pose the question "why did we give them cell phones if they dont need them?". Months later people are still trying to call the employees on cell phones they dont have or on numbers that arent correct anymore. You saved a hundred dollars on the exercise, and as a result millions of dollars worth of employees are not reachable in a timely manner.
In traditional corporate america, these sorts of scenarios play out weekly. Some peoples heads explode the first, maybe the second time they encounter such a situation. If that doesnt concern you, consider that a lot of your peer managers (making the same $ as you) will see the perfect sense in these sorts of things.
Would someone hand them another deck chair, please?
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 11:36 AM
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#24
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Pasadena CA
Posts: 3,346
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
(), that was terriffic. It hasn't been that bad for me generally but there were times like you described. Actually more like The Caine Mutiny. Dilbert and Office Space are humorous because of the common experience they reflect.
One approach, after surviving the initial phase, is to navigate from the fsat track to a more comfortable position that leaves time for family and personal activities. There is a financial cost to this but often ultimately a bargain in life.
__________________
T.S. Eliot:
Old men ought to be explorers
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 12:41 PM
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#25
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 1,719
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Quote:
Originally Posted by ()
I suppose it comes down to this.
On the plus side, you get an extra 20% pay and the benefits of guiding your employees careers.*
On the negative side, statistically, half of them dont care about you or the company, and are just in it for the paycheck.* Once a year you'll have to pick 3-5% of your staff who are to be told out of the blue that they're underperformers because according to human resources, 5% of every staff group is an underperformer.* When you're done delivering that message, you'll get to sell the 2.5% raise the rest of your employees got as being "the regular raise everybody is getting due to the off year you had", while your CEO took another 250 million as a bonus and raked down another 200 million in stock options.* You'll be sitting in a meeting with a bunch of other people making six figures, operating a company bringing in billions of dollars in revenues.* You've hit a momentary hiccup in revenue.* You spend 2 hours discussing which employees in your division can have their pagers and/or cell phones taken away to save a few bucks to make the quarter look better.* You think about the guys throwing deck chairs off the titanic.
An hour later after "justifying" not doing this in your division, some senior mucky-muck says everybody has to give them all up.* You're tempted to pose the question "why did we give them cell phones if they dont need them?".* Months later people are still trying to call the employees on cell phones they dont have or on numbers that arent correct anymore.* You saved a hundred dollars on the exercise, and as a result millions of dollars worth of employees are not reachable in a timely manner.
In traditional corporate america, these sorts of scenarios play out weekly.* Some peoples heads explode the first, maybe the second time they encounter such a situation.* If that doesnt concern you, consider that a lot of your peer managers (making the same $ as you) will see the perfect sense in these sorts of things.*
Would someone hand them another deck chair, please?
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Wow. I'm speechless.
Seriously though, () aptly described the significant downsides of management in a large to medium sized organization. True, the pay is better, but the sacrifices usually outweigh the increased pay unless there is a real potential for stock options or bonuses. Perhaps the better course would be to save your money while you're young, and rather than FIRE (if it's even possible by age 30-35) elect to launch your own business where you're the boss. Management is a whole lot different if you're the one with the ultimate decision-making authority (as well as the one collecting the big $$$). The worst that can happen is that you discover you're not suited to being an entrepreneur, and you head back to the cubicle...
__________________
He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it . . . It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. -- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 03:24 PM
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#26
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,811
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay_Gatsby
...* Perhaps the better course would be to save your money while you're young, and rather than FIRE (if it's even possible by age 30-35) elect to launch your own business where you're the boss.* Management is a whole lot different if you're the one with the ultimate decision-making authority (as well as the one collecting the big $$$).* The worst that can happen is that you discover you're not suited to being an entrepreneur, and you head back to the cubicle...
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One downside to this might be getting off the corporate ladder and losing your place in the pecking order for the better managment jobs. Most companies I have worked at in management expect you to work you way up the ladder and leaving the workforce to start you own business and then running back to Mega Corp. to get back on the ladder does not sit well with upper management most of the time.
If you leave to be your own boss but your business fails you could be far worse off than if you never left. Just something to consider.
()---Great job! I have "been there and seen that" more times than you can imagine. One of my memorable events was the big budget cut that took out 20% of the workforce and 90% or our expense bugets all while our production volume was going up 40%. We could not make the product without the people and we were stealing office suppliers from each other. Everyone put padlocks on the pencil and paper cabinets. As I recall, the CEO and his "boys" all got a 40% pay hike, 25% bonus and God knows how much in stock options for making their numbers. The end result was loss of market share because we could not supply enough product at the promised time due to budget cuts we were forced to take despite telling those turkeys what would happen. Oh, and they fired the GM at the plant because he did not make his product on time.
__________________
Work? I don't have time to work....I'm retired.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 04:47 PM
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#27
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 4,455
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Quote:
I tried to get my son to go into this field but he has no interest in that kind of work.
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I am trying to do the same to my daughter. However, she wants to do something more exciting. I guess I need to be more convincing.
__________________
May we live in peace and harmony and be free from all human sufferings.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 08:20 PM
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#28
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 7,113
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spanky
I am trying to do the same to my daughter. However, she wants to do something more exciting. I guess I need to be more convincing.
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If she has the skills and interest for the field help her understand that pharmacology isn't limited to dispensing pills. It can be an exciting field with lots of options. SteveR might be able to suggest folks for her to meet.
__________________
Duck bjorn.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-24-2006, 10:19 PM
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#29
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 4,455
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Hi Brat,
I am suggesting that she gets a summer job as an assistant at Walgreens. We could also arrange a visit to the hospital at which my nephew works as a clinical pharmacist.
Anyway, her interest lies in engineering or science. She excels in AP math and science classes and scores a 99% percentile in both ACT and SAT.
Spanky
__________________
May we live in peace and harmony and be free from all human sufferings.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-25-2006, 12:27 PM
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#30
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Modesto
Posts: 334
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
Regret?
Some, in my case it was a self defense move. The long time person Senior too me was basically a Manager in the tital role of a Senior Technical Job Description that IMHO she never actually had the MQ's to qualify for, but that's another story. So to have any control over my own destiny for my final 3 years in the work place, it was either compete and likely get the position, or let someone junior to me, or worse yet, some unknown come in and run the show for my last bit of career.
I went from problem solving of things to problem solving of people. I didn't truely enjoy the tranisition, although with the help of sage advice from DW who did this sort of thing for some years in her past with great success I was ultimately successful as well. I just don't enjoy managing people nearly as well as problem solving of more inantimate objects.
Still all in all, it was a promotion at just the right time to slightly enhance my final DBP ER payout, and therefore worth the sacrifice. Whine, sniff, cry...
__________________
It's about the music
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01-26-2006, 01:33 PM
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#31
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oahu
Posts: 26,860
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Scott Berkun on managers
Just in time to join the discussion, a former Microsoft manager has this advice:
Common good reasons to become a manager include:
You’re ready for more responsibility
You are interested in leading and teaching others
You’ve excelled at a specific role and want to help others do the same
You like setting people up to succeed
Common Bad reasons include:
Because your boss said so
To make your mother proud
To buy that new Maserati GranSport
To have less work to do (it’s rarely true)
To make people suffer in living hell forever
Here's the rest of the article.
__________________
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Co-author (with my daughter) of “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
I don't spend much time here— please send a PM.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-26-2006, 05:27 PM
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#32
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
I think many of us got pushed into the position because if we did not take it, someone else would and we needed to take the step to control, our destiny.
I was a very highly commissioned sales Person, but I figured some one new coming in would either cut my income or cut me, to save money?
All in all, it worked out very well, my career ended sooner than I wanted, but that's life.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-26-2006, 05:58 PM
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#33
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
I got into management once because I got caught reading a magazine with my feet up on my desk while listening to a boring meeting that was in a room about 10' away because I didnt want to have to spend a couple of hours looking interested. I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to see my boss and his boss, who the day before had sent out a memo about not dialing into meetings in the same building to avoid having to physically 'attend'.
After I landed back in the chair, with bemused smiles, they asked if I'd take over his group as he was moving to another facility. I figured I didnt have much standing to say 'no'...
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-26-2006, 06:08 PM
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#34
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3,875
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
I'm a control freak, especially if there is money involved.
Thus, I was probably destined for management from the get-go.
JG
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
01-26-2006, 06:09 PM
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#35
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
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Re: Any regret for getting into management or vice versa
The cute and fuzzy bunny thinks thats a lot better than the unemployment line...
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Scott Berkun on managers
01-26-2006, 09:08 PM
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#36
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 4,455
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Re: Scott Berkun on managers
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nords
Just in time to join the discussion, a former Microsoft manager has this advice:
Common good reasons to become a manager include:
You’re ready for more responsibility
You are interested in leading and teaching others
You’ve excelled at a specific role and want to help others do the same
You like setting people up to succeed
Common Bad reasons include:
Because your boss said so
To make your mother proud
To buy that new Maserati GranSport
To have less work to do (it’s rarely true)
To make people suffer in living hell forever
Here's the rest of the article.
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Nords,
Thanks for the link - I am looking forward for part 2.
Spanky
__________________
May we live in peace and harmony and be free from all human sufferings.
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