Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

People Above You ... That Are Useless And Make More Money

T

Turkish

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 12, 2007
358
0
You know what really annoys me?

Working with and for people that are in higher positions than me that have no earthly idea what they are doing.

You'd think the general manager of our publishing company might know how to copy edit, use Quark or even have an idea about pre-press.

Nope.

She probably makes 40% more than I do in a year and she's useless to the organization (and no, it's not pay envy). I'm not even sure what she does...
 
dynamicv said:
Only one way round that.

Freelancing baby!!! It's the waaay to go!! :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, done that.

Definite disadvantages to that, but it's getting more and more desirable by the day.

Is it bad that I want to slap this woman?
 
PlaceofDis said:
work:
its about who you know, not what you can do.
Click to expand...


Absolutely - I have been fighting that since I was 12 and each day it becomes more and more obvious that it is true...27 years later I still know nobody that can 'help' me :)

Being at the right place at the right time helps as well - there can be a luck factor.

I just went through this again and quized a few folks by asking the following questions:

Can you do what the people above you do?
Can they do what you do?
Can you do what the people below you do?
Who gets called when an emergency occurs?

So why do they get the cash and props?
 
You'll find this across the whole country. The higher you are, the less you need to actually do or know because you have minions who will do it for you.

Wholeheartedly recommend going freelance/ contracting. Despite Mr Brown's best efforts to kill off the freelance workforce in the UK, we're still here and we're not going away :D
 
Turkish said:
You'd think the general manager of our publishing company might know how to copy edit, use Quark or even have an idea about pre-press.
Click to expand...

MD of the newspaper I used to work for actually took pride in the fact that he knew nothing about technology. His PA used to have to print off his e-mails and put them on his desk to be read, and he used to hand write his responses across the bottom for her to type up and send back.

He didn't even know what a font was.

Now, I would have had no particular problem with that if he had shown the good grace to therefore accept that I, as Production Manager did know about this stuff. But he didn't.

He appeared to believe that all Macs came with a button that was marked "Create Spanky Advert", and the PCs had a "typeset 64 pages of classified ads" automatic function, and thus resented every penny he paid me and my department.

Needless to say, that was not a job with a bright future.

Cheers

Jim
 
Myob

Do you really think its necessary for upper management to know how to run a pre-press? Maybe a good to know, but probably not necessary. That is why you are there. She probably does a lot of work that you are not even aware of, and yes you may be able to do her job, but then again, maybe not. You remind me of the warehouse manager at work who is constantly bemoaning everything that everyone does, thinking that we are all idiots and he is the only one who knows what is going on. Concentrate more on what your job, be good at it, and stop with the resentment.
 
smartin684 said:
Do you really think its necessary for upper management to know how to run a pre-press?
Click to expand...

When it's a six person shop?

Yup.

smartin684 said:
That is why you are there.
Click to expand...

Nope. I write stuff.


smartin684 said:
She probably does a lot of work that you are not even aware of, and yes you may be able to do her job, but then again, maybe not.
Click to expand...

I sit right behind here and she surfs the Web most of the day. Or writes pages long e-mails.

smartin684 said:
You remind me of the warehouse manager at work who is constantly bemoaning everything that everyone does, thinking that we are all idiots and he is the only one who knows what is going on.
Click to expand...

I certainly don't know everything that's going on here, but when the half the staff is asking me what she does and if she can help them, it's a good sign that she's got no clue. I'm not the only one here that wonders what it is she does.

smartin684 said:
Concentrate more on what your job, be good at it, and stop with the resentment.
Click to expand...

I don't resent her. She's a dead weight on the efficiency of the organization.
 
I agree with smartin on this one. It's not your managers job to run the pre press or whatever. It's her job to manage you and do more of the businessy stuff so that you don't have to. It would suck if you couldn't get on with writing because you were bogged down in trying to deal with the business side of things. Your manager is there to take that pressure away. You don't need a manager who can do your job, you need one who can take the pressure off you and get you working more efficiently.
 
I can't count how many incompetent bosses I've had. All I've got to say is Office Space and if you don't like it (the situation, not the movie) you better go into business for yourself (unless you're incompetent as well and you should already be running someone else's business into the ground).:)

EDIT:Any boss should be knowledgeable enough to take over any other coworkers job in a small work environment, if not to take over well they all quit, then to know what real life expectations could/should be made of everyone working there.
 
alas, they're everywhere, just like in the Dilbert comic strip.

Wanna know what really stings? If said higher-ups are forced out, (it happens) and they twirl out the door with enormous severance packages.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back