About

Welcome to The Bad Manager

 

This is a blog written for managers by a manager.

 

Simple as that!

 

I have not received much in the way of formal management training for my current job but that is partly why I am here writing this blog. This is a blog for managers like me!
We are the ones that have not been to university to study business or management, have not been on endless management courses full of mind-numbingly boring people telling us how to do our jobs, and often we don’t even get paid enough to actually manage people. And yet we do, on a daily basis. We are trusted to take care of the daily workings in departments and companies all across the business world, we are trusted with information that is vital to the running of these companies; we are in charge of paying people, ordering stock, placing orders, basically the day to day running of the company. The buck stops with us more often than not.

I have worked for the said company for approx. 10 years now and until a year or two ago I was just a regular member of staff, there was in effect a glass ceiling that was known as my boss. She was a self-confessed battle axe and she was my friend.

Most of the areas of my work I have learnt either on my own or from watching and experiencing the management styles of others. I am naturally an inquisitive person and not knowing how to do something or understanding how something works frustrates me to the core. I feel much more confident knowing the ins and outs of the company and the daily workings of it, and it is this that has led me to become a manager. And with that, I get a lot more stress and a bigger pay packet.

Since starting this blog a year or so ago, I have been on many more training courses and completed a lot more ‘on the job’ training. So much so, I am able to talk with quite a lot of experience now about topics which, at the beginning of this journey, I knew little if anything about.

This blog is, I guess, a way for me to document my progress as a manager, a way for me to pass on little titbits of information which I have learnt over the years from various people in various fields. The aim of writing this is to help people like me and to pass on those little bits of knowledge which I have found to be invaluable in my journey to become. a better manager. When I was first taken to my MD’s office and asked if I’d like to take over the role of ‘Business Admin Manager’ I flat out said NO. I was not management material, I hated confrontation and was by no means confident enough in my work to be able to manage a whole team of ‘me’s’. But when he put forward the notion of bringing in a manager above me, well that was a whole other story, there was no way on this earth that I was going to be told what to do by a ‘newbie’, someone who didn’t know our customers, our products or even how our system worked. NO WAY was a manager being brought in above me. And that is how I became a manager. Sink or swim, it was baptism by fire. And I’ve survived, with only a few scorch marks to tell the tale for a full three years (I think, time flies when you’re too busy to count the days).

So why The Bad Manager? Well, basically, I’m still learning. I’m still crippled with self-doubt and I still feel like an imposter who will be caught out and asked to leave at any time. Am I a  bad manager? I’d like to think not, but really, I wouldn’t like to say, you’d have to ask my staff. (I still can’t believe I have ‘staff’!).

 

Consultancy

More recently, I have been asked by a few smaller companies to do some consultancy work for them on various subjects. I work closely with a web designer and between the two of us, we make a pretty mean team when it comes to knocking out policies, procedures and marketing strategies. For more information about the services we offer, check out our ‘soon to be’ services page or drop us an email with what you are looking for and we will take a look.