Have a day every year called Boss Humility Day, when top management or the bosses in every company and organisation are required by law to spend the day doing what their employees do, in a reversal of roles.
This will not only teach them humility but also give them rare and intimate insights into the lives of their employees, which could foreseeably be useful from a managerial or human resource development perspective. Who knows, it may even reform a few tyrants.-- baboo, Apr 11 2002 send the boss on these http://www.halfbake...d_20Bound_20courses [sappho, Apr 11 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] WIBNI-- phoenix, Apr 11 2002 It only makes tyrants more tyrannical-- thumbwax, Apr 11 2002 There's a series on BBC TV (UK) called "Back to the Floor", in which high-level executives spend a week working as some entry-level employee in their own companies. So, sorta baked-ish.-- angel, Apr 11 2002 How does this work any better than 'Inward Bound Courses'? see link. However, I suspect the word 'redundant' wouldn't go down too well with someone who clearly resents their boss already.-- sappho, Apr 11 2002 Not quite the same. 'Inward Bound Courses' is about sending bosses to certain courses. I'm suggesting that bosses try the very things they ask their subordinates to do, which is only fair in a sense. Before you ask someone to do something, be prepared to do it yourself. And some bosses may discover that they have berated subordinates for mistakes that they could well commit themselves.
I don't think this would make them more tyrannical, but then maybe I'm not cynical enough, yet.-- baboo, Apr 11 2002 Bosses often don't need to be able to do what their employees do. People are hired for their skills and talents. A supervisor's job is to ensure those skills and talents are used properly and that work is completed.
If I'm a record producer, I don't need to be a virtuoso instrumentalist. I just need to know how to get an instrumentalist to give me the output I want for the recording. If I'm a CEO of an automobile manufacturer, I don't need to be able to design cars or project sales trends. I just need to hire people who can reliably do those things well, and I bring their functions together in concert to meet the company's objectives.
So I disagree that the axiom, "Before you ask someone to do something, be prepared to do it yourself," applies here. If I could do it myself, I wouldn't need to hire people to do it, would I?-- waugsqueke, Apr 11 2002 Back when I worked for a bus company, the MD regularly took a shift as a driver.-- angel, Apr 11 2002 Speaking of cynicism, why would we want the boss at the ground level making mistakes that could really matter? At least when our bosses screw up there is time for the mistakes to be fixed as they filter down to us.-- rbl, Apr 11 2002 Please let me know in advance before B-H Day comes, okay? I need to plan not to fly or have surgery or buy a car made on that day or buy drugs made that day or watch TV that day or...-- beauxeault, Apr 11 2002 ...[beauxeault] ...you could go up to the mountains for a nice walk. Oh, although I guess even rescue teams have a boss.-- sappho, Apr 11 2002 I'm with waugsqueke.
Bosses are hired to do nothing more than their jobs, and few of them are tyrants anyway.
I should also mention that most existing bosses didn't come out of their mothers wearing a tie and holding a briefcase...they worked their way up the ladder.-- DonutBox, Apr 11 2002 I'm in middle-management. When do I get MY day?
thumbwax - if they perform really badly does it make them tyrannical wrecks?
You might come to regret the job switch, baboo. They could decide the job is so easy you are redundant!-- Canuck, Apr 12 2002 "few of them (bosses) are tyrants" (DonutBox).
That's true! I know at least one who is a...-- beauxeault, Apr 12 2002 I was hoping this was going to be more literal. Oh well.-- SpocksEyebrow, May 07 2005 random, halfbakery