Supervising Through My Eyes

I read chapters one and two in the management book and there was one thing that really caught my eye. The book said that sometimes managers don’t make as much money as workers do but probably put in longer hours. At first it seemed unrealistic but then I realized that I saw it first hand during externship. Sometimes hourly workers who rack up the overtime do make more money than a manager who might be on a fixed salary. I guess you have to cope and do what it takes to move up the ladder.

All around there is definitely more to becoming a supervisor than expected. Everybody has had their share of “cool” supervisors and ones that they didn’t like. When I thought of the productivity being done when I was working under my “cool” and “un-cool” supervisors I began to realize that the job was smoother with the stricter, “un-cool” supervisor. Of course as the book says being strict and having a having a theory x type approach does not always work and I am no longer working for that employer. So of course theory x can definitely lead to high turnover. I guess it’s a give and take.

In class the question was asked, “Who is more important, the guest, owners, or employees.” My original answer was right away to say the guest. After looking back at my externship, the hotel I was at did invest much of its time to the employees. There were of course problems at the hotel with guests but most of them were with things that employees could not help. Guests were normally happy with the service provided, which now lets me understand how a supervisors main priority is to the employees and not the guests.

Lastly, I could really relate to the boomerang effect even though I’ve never been a supervisor. I have seen many people who worked side by side with me become supervisors. I have also seen many of them fail because they couldn’t control the people who they were supervising. That happened a lot at the hotel I was working at. The person who you went out for drinks with two days ago is now giving you orders. Lots of times your friends make it harder for you to move up because of the lack of respect they give you. Sometimes you might have to decide between friendship and success.