Caught in the Middle

One of the most conceptually brilliant yet poorly executed jobs in a wide variety of disciplines is that of the middle manager, that poor hapless person who is assigned to supervise the underlings in a department and wring as much performance out of them as possible. When these people do their jobs correctly, they are invaluable to their departments, providing assistance as a resource, a little extra "oomph", plugging the holes that pop up from time to time and pumping up the morale of their workers when things get hairy. Or, they take what would otherwise be a well oiled machine consisting of experienced people who know how things work and totally screwing it up.

Half the time it's not the clueless individuals fault. While the guys in the trenches who are actually performing the work know what works and what doesn't, and are committed to getting the most return for the least effort, the person appointed over them usually hasn't a clue as to what's going on yet is made to believe they have some god-given superior knowledge that they need to impart to those beneath them. Now, the superior knowledge we speak of is that magic piece of paper we all know as the college degree. The degree might be in English literature, basket weaving, or pop psychology, and might not have anything to do with selling shoes or producing transistors, but it is still expected to translate into some magic management ability. And you wonder why the fresh faced pimply college graduate that just got to appointed to manage you seems to be out to destroy you and your department, if not the entire company.

It is well known in the military, although I'm not sure this is imparted to the fodder at the service academies, that if fresh young lieutenants desire to survive their tours of duty, that they best listen to their older NCO's. Theoretical leadership is one thing; leading the charge into stupidity due to lack of real life experience is another.
I would suggest that aside from the military, and sometimes even including it, the two major courses of study that need to be majored in when it comes to managing people is Respect and Humility. When you are first entering ANY field of endeavor, you may come with fresh ideas and idealism, but you are only asking for failure if you think you have all the answers and ignore the resources at your disposal already present in your assigned department. And if you truly expect to succeed, for yourself and your company, then respect and humility are two virtues you ignore at your own peril. These people you are expected to lead will not follow you, and will even go so far as to sabotage your agenda if you do not draw upon their knowledge and experience before running roughshod over their contributions to the collective. With their help, you have the potential to become an excellent manager. Without it, you invariably will become the monkey wrench and your career will be short.

So whose to blame for middle managers being the bane of the worker, the customer, and the company? Well, simply put, it's the people who hire them. These are usually upper tier management types who came up through the ranks by rote rather than actual work and have no real idea how their workers do what they do. They hire BODIES, preferably with that magic piece of paper, and throw them into the fray with very little preparation, orientation, education, or any real explanation of what's expected of them or how to achieve it. They usually pay them just enough to compensate them slightly better than the hourly staff, yet work them incredibly long and inconvenient hours for a set salary. The buck usually stops with them, but only after the hapless greenhorn manager has destroyed the morale of the department, causing the best ones to quit and firing the rest. By then the damage has already been done, they get fired or demoted, and then the cycle begins again. In the meantime, another group of hourly, hard working stiffs are taught to hate college graduates and the companies that employ them.

We are constantly fed this ration of shit about how we can all become upwardly mobile in the business world by taking advantage of higher education, adapting our skills to the new realities which keep changing all around us. That's all fine and dandy, but let's say we ALL become college graduates and become middle managers. Who's left to do the work? Do we genetically alter orangoutangs to "man" the sales floor? Do we train chimpanzees to fabricate computer chips? How about an especially bright rhesus monkey to take care of you in the Critical Care ward of the hospital? Is THAT how critical the common hourly wage worker is viewed in the workplace? Does knowledge and experience count for anything when it comes to value in the company?

I occupy a particular niche in my organization which is not particularly well compensated or respected in the grand scheme of things, yet I know the impact my contribution has on this entity which cannot easily be done without. Sometimes I have to provide my own sense of self worth in order to give my contributions some validity. But, I am sure that I am in the majority in that respect, so I am fairly confident that what I have discussed here rings true with many people. What I would hope is that those of you who have aspired to become or are middle managers understand the foundations upon which your position are built, and perhaps that you endeavor to develop that all-important virtue of RESPECT and HUMILITY that wasn't taught to you in college or written into your employment contract. You might find yourself actually becoming a big help to your fellow man rather than someone we'd just as soon murder in the back store room.

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