How to become a bad boss (3) | 如何當個壞老闆(三) - 辦公室隨筆 (七)

In last two post I talked about the worst boss I have ever and 5 characteristics of my boss:

上兩次說了我那個最差老闆的五個特點，

Communication Skill | 溝通技巧
Transparency | 透明度
Consistent decision making | 決定的一致性
Take all credit, pass on blames | 功勞自己領，過錯下屬當
Micro Management | 微觀管理

Let's continue and see what are left

讓我們繼續看看我這名上司還有什麼特別之處。

Unreasonable demands | 不合理的要求

We are given different goals for our assessment throughout our careers, that's why managers set goals for their subordinates. Such as sales targets, revenue targets, costs targets, etc. In addition to goals, we have to complete our daily tasks to fulfill. How to set goals and tasks for the team is the responsibilities of a manager, and it is an subject that is part of management courses. A good manager setup goals and tasks that are achievable and align with company's goals and objectives. On the contrary, a bad boss gives unreasonable demands, like putting 2 men's sales target on 1 man's shoulder, or asking a back office administration staff to provide helpdesk 7x24 support without any compensation.

在職場每個人的表現都是基於被給予的目標來考核。所以上司給下屬設置目標是平常不過的事。例如銷售人員會有每季的銷售目標，部門主管會有銷售，盈利，成本等多個目標。除了這些目標之外，日常還會有些由上司下達的要求，下屬需要盡力滿足。如果設定這些目標和要求是一門學問，亦是管理學必修的。好的上司的要求除了能令團隊的表現達到公司的要求外，亦會符合下屬的能力及期望。相反壞老闆傾向給予下屬不合理的目標和要求，例如要一名銷售背負兩個人份的銷售目標，又例如要原來只需要辦公時間工作的員工在沒有更改合約和提供相應的補償之下轉做7x24的全球支援。

This of course will adversely affect employees' loyalty and morale. What if my boss successfully put those unreasonable targets and tasks into action? That may help him achieve better result and get him promoted. You never know.

這種做法當然會影響員工的士氣和忠誠度，不過如果成功令下屬遵從的話，說不定可以節省不少成本，從而令老闆的業績更亮麗呀。

Dividing the team | 分裂團隊

There was a management practice which were also taught in my management classes. It was about creating 2 different teams for same functions, usually the most critical function in the company. The idea was to have them monitoring each other, built redundancy for the critical functions and enhance productivities by the competitive environment. However, having the department always under competitive situation, you can't expect there will be good team spirit in your department. That's why effectiveness of this management practice is always being questioned.

還記得讀書時，導師有提及過當時的管理層流行在公司內建立兩個功能相同但人事上互相對立的團隊，通常是負責公司內最重要的功能的團隊。目的是不讓單一團隊或者個人手握公司的命脈，因為有兩隊員工在營運那一功能即使其中一個隊伍因任何理由不能好好運作，仍然有另一個隊伍可以繼續工作，不致使公司停止運作。另外一個好處就是可以利用兩隊的競爭心態提高效率。當然，長期處於競爭，對立的狀態，團隊精神是不可能存在的了。所以這一套管理方式的成效一直存在爭議。

My boss seems to be a big fan of this management practice. He not only apply this practice but put it one step forward, he tried to introduce a competitive environment in our own department. We didn't have the luxury to have redundancy teams. Therefore, my boss tried to turn different team leaders against each others and had them monitored each others. He also gave works to colleagues who are not responsible for that areas so that we would be competing against our internal teammates.

但我上司不但使用這一套方式，而且更上一層樓。因為資源關係，我們內部並沒有相同工種的隊伍，所有工作都只有一隊人負責。但我上司卻會挑起團隊內部不同人的分歧，暗中鼓吹同事互相監視。還常常把甲同事的工作交由乙同事做，希望做到互相競爭的效果。難道他真的堅信那一套管理學說？

Choosing favourites | 偏心

We always have our own favorites, it is not possible to be 100% fair to everything and everybody. That's why we all tolerant to others showing certain level of bias towards things and people. However, being a manager, you have to be extremely careful about showing preferences. Just like my boss who has a very serious issues of showing preferences towards his own favorites, those colleagues who were hired by himself directly. This definitely is not a good example of management. One example was he allows his favorite staffs to not submitting reports on time, even help them to find excuses, but he would forces other colleagues to complete their reports even thought they were in long vacations. Another example was that his favorite staffs could deny their own works by claiming they're under pressure, my boss would put those works on other team members' shoulder, but those unlucky colleagues were in other teams, responsible for completely different tasks. Meanwhile, the so-call "under pressure" staffs were enjoying themselves during business travels. It is very clear to all of us that my boss would like to build up his own team to tightly control this department. Maybe this is the secret of his success.

對每一個人都要做到100%公平我覺得是不可能的，人總會對某些人和事有偏心，我想每個人都會接受其他人有所偏心的情形。不過作為上司，偏心這種東西就要非常小心處理。好像我老闆那一種嚴重偏心自己喜歡的下屬(所有佢自己親自聘請的人),而且是公開並不理任何情況之下都不顧忌的展露出來的情況，就肯定不是好的做法，最少在下屬的層面看起來是不好的。比如說，偏心的下屬可以不在限期前交報告，老闆會自己找個理由替其開脫，但其他人就算是正在放大假，有報告到期亦要在假期中做好交妥，做不到的就會被責難。又例如心愛的下屬可以說有壓力就連自己份內的工作都推掉不幹，老闆會找個完全沒有關係的人去幫其完成，但那名有壓力的同事可以在期間繼續借出差之名去遊玩。老闆偏心自己的親信，利用他們來控制整個部門的意圖非常明顯。可能這亦是他一直賴以成功的手段亦說不準。

I've been complaining about my "worst boss ever" for 3 articles and listed out his 8 management characteristics or tricks if you like. We definitely hate him for using such tricks on us. However, some people said that we were just not at the same level as him so that we didn't realize how successful he was. Those people said that he must be much better than us because he is now our boss. I gave this a second thought. I am seriously considering to learn from my boss. Maybe if I want to be promoted to senior management, I have to become a bad boss. What do you think?

雖然我一直數落了我這個公認為最差的上司的八個特點或者可能是其手段，作為下屬的我們當然非常痛恨他這些管理方式，不過亦有聲音說我這些投訴只是無能者的自我保護機制，如果我的能力夠高的話就不會覺得老闆有問題。如果他真的是這麼差勁，就不可能晉陞到今日的地位。所以我亦同時在想是不是應該學習如何當一個壞老闆，可能我亦可以晉身高層。大家有何看法？