Is 21 a big number? At most places I've been (in various European countries) 12-15 direct reports has generally been considered on the lower side and 30 wasn't considered abnormal in any way.
If each manager can only manage 5-10 people doesn't that just lead to unnecessarily many layers of management?
We should all discourage organizations that set people up to do a bad job. If I'm going to have a manager, I don't want one with 21 direct reports. With so many reports, it's incredibly unlikely that they'd be able to offer much of anything that a good manager should be doing. That's very little time for coaching, using their position to unblock you, identifying problems you're having that are coming across the team, recognizing your strengths, collecting feedback from colleagues, helping you develop a promotion plan, or even just holding 1:1s.
>We should all discourage organizations that set people up to do a bad job.
That doesn't seem like the case here though. One of the things she was complaining about was participating in new manager training. 21 direct reports isn't that many. Managers have to prioritize their time differently than other jobs.
Ultimately it seems like she had accepted a transfer to a management position to maintain a job instead of being laid off or being transferred to some other sort of job and then realized that she wasn't cut out for management. It's OK to not be cut out for management, most people aren't, but pretending it was anything extreme is ridiculous.
Presumably you were either on the track for management or agreed to accept the position in lieu of some other sort of transfer or lay off, much like the person in the article. Management isn't for everyone, but nothing in the article sounds out of bounds for a normal management job and 21 reports isn't really a lot.
Is 21 a big number? At most places I've been (in various European countries) 12-15 direct reports has generally been considered on the lower side and 30 wasn't considered abnormal in any way.
If each manager can only manage 5-10 people doesn't that just lead to unnecessarily many layers of management?
Separately, at this point, people that work at Amazon know what they’re getting into. I’m not sure we need a new article like this every week.
It’s weird how different cultures can be. I’m in Sweden and never had a boss with less than 30 reports.
https://archive.is/jg9jB
My god, these stories break my heart.
Not sure if that is sarcastic or not, but the whole article seems to be "middle manager doesn't like basic parts of being a middle manager".
We should all discourage organizations that set people up to do a bad job. If I'm going to have a manager, I don't want one with 21 direct reports. With so many reports, it's incredibly unlikely that they'd be able to offer much of anything that a good manager should be doing. That's very little time for coaching, using their position to unblock you, identifying problems you're having that are coming across the team, recognizing your strengths, collecting feedback from colleagues, helping you develop a promotion plan, or even just holding 1:1s.
>We should all discourage organizations that set people up to do a bad job.
That doesn't seem like the case here though. One of the things she was complaining about was participating in new manager training. 21 direct reports isn't that many. Managers have to prioritize their time differently than other jobs.
Ultimately it seems like she had accepted a transfer to a management position to maintain a job instead of being laid off or being transferred to some other sort of job and then realized that she wasn't cut out for management. It's OK to not be cut out for management, most people aren't, but pretending it was anything extreme is ridiculous.
She was in HR, so managing 21 direct reports doing diddly squat isn't much anyways.
> Not sure if that is sarcastic or not, but the whole article seems to be "middle manager doesn't like basic parts of being a middle manager".
Can you share which parts made you think that? I don't think that's a fair assessment.
I was unexpectedly appointed manager
>I was unexpectedly appointed manager
Presumably you were either on the track for management or agreed to accept the position in lieu of some other sort of transfer or lay off, much like the person in the article. Management isn't for everyone, but nothing in the article sounds out of bounds for a normal management job and 21 reports isn't really a lot.