Introduction
My theme for the essay is that managers take tough decisions to protect the organization and to secure their job in the future, while employees’ perspectives are narrowly-minded; initially they are self-seeking before employees realize the true benefits of decisions taking against their positions. Decisions making becomes a difficult task especially when ones relative or close friend are directly or indirectly affected. In this situation decision making is seen to be very slow and sometimes feeling of guilt and restiveness set in with lots of self blames.
How mangers are attuned to affect the lives and careers of employees
Some managerial decisions have helped in advancing the careers of their employees, while at the same time others are done to retard and kill these careers. Sometimes, these decisions are taken out of love and trust to see that employees develop their skills, even when their career development and advancement are put into use in other organizations outside where the manager oversees. An example of this is seen where a manager see that the potentials of a very productive employee is in the fashion industry outside the company he manages. He called the female employee and encouraged her to move to New York and start a thriving fashion career. This played out well for his former employee, even though he lost communication with her.
However, some managers are known to stand against the career advancement of their employees. An example to illustrate this is seen when a manager whose family is having difficulty with child birth and marital challenges became hostile and opposes the career of a female employee who went on maternity leave for four months. Even, while the lady came to her duty post after the leave and was still productive in executing her task, this manager ensured that the lady was fired; accusing her of giving priority to her family than her job. This shows how some managers stand against the growth and development of their employees’ careers.
Lastly, it is seen that managers tend to be slow in taking decisions that affect the lives of close friends or relatives working as subordinates in their organizations. Example of this is seen where a manager of a bar, named Paul, hired the niece of his close friend. It happened that this employee was giving out extra rounds of drinks to get more tips from customers. The manager was reluctant to fire this employee, but later took the tough decision to sack her after explaining the reason for the sack. Another example is seen where an employee lied to the manager that he was attending an emergency family issue, but it was discovered he actually travelled to a bachelor’s party. The manager was reluctant to fire him because he has formed a bond with the employee.
Indeed some decisions are difficult to take when managers are dealing with their friends or relatives. However, putting the interest of the organization should come first, because if the organization goes under the manager will sink with it and lose his/her job.
Also, managers in a bid to affect the lives and careers of employees can be further explained from the perspectives of managers which are quite different from those of employees. While managers are faced with and take tough decisions on how to maintain discipline and keep the organization on track, employees’ views are usually, to some extend at first, self-centered and later they get to see the true picture of some decisions taking that affects their lines of duties.
Are managers’ decisions to affect the lives and careers of employees at most time accurate? The level of influence of how managers affect employees can be accessed from the employees’ stance where some interviews have shown that decisions against them at first are perceived as vendetta against them. But, due to self-centeredness they becloud their sense of reasoning to see the true picture of the situation. Examples of this from the interviews include the Senior Database Administrator whose manager gave him a higher responsibility that would aid his future advancement. But, initially he saw this as a form of burden, but when his manager convinced him and gave in-depth explanation he saw the reality of things and having executed the CRM project he was thankful for his manager’s decision. Another example is seen when a manager advised an employee to leave his job since he foresees no future there for this very productive employee after the merger of the company. At first he was reluctant to accept this advice; but having moved on, the employee got a better offer and he was grateful he heeded the advice of the manager. These examples have further shown that sometimes, out of fear to take risk and undertake the unknown, employees may be reluctant to heed some certain decisions or solutions proffered by their managers.
Hence, managers are most times attuned to impact positively in the lives and careers of employees, but sometimes some are selfish and don’t want their subordinates to develop to their managerial level.
