MY BOSS IS UNBEARABLE

On foot of the publication of a significant survey into management style and practices, Q102 invited representatives from Irishjobs.ie (who funded the study) and Fortify Services to discuss the findings and the wider problems the survey exposed.

Q102: A third of Irish workers have described their relationship with their boss as being "almost unbearable" while another third are "less than satisfied" with their boss. That is according to a new survey undertaken by the recruitment website Irishjobs.ie. The survey focused on the issue of management style and tells us exactly what the Irish workforce thinks of their bosses. We'd like to welcome to the show the Chief Executive of Irishjobs, Maria Mahon - good evening Maria.

Irishjobs: Good evening Scott.

Q102: Maria, as a boss yourself, were you mortified and traumatised and upset or maybe surprised by the findings?

Irishjobs: I'm just crossing my fingers that I'm not in the "unbearable" one third! But, as you say, I think the results suggest a wake-up call for management out there. Obviously, with any survey you are just capturing a trend, but when fully one third of respondents are using terms like "almost unbearable" it is clearly a cause for concern.

Q102: What can we glean from the results? Does it go a little further than what I call the "Hitler Syndrome"? Are there other elements there - are people taken for granted, are people abused (or exploited) or is it just plain bad manners?

Irishjobs: It's interesting, because in a lot of cases, it seem to be exactly that - it's the very obvious things of people saying that their boss isn't approachable or isn't a good listener or doesn't treat them with respect. So the issues that I would see would be very much the fundamentals of good management and those fundamentals seem to be missing - in some cases.

To be fair, you have a third of employees who conversely say that they have quite a good relationship with their managers and the kind of factors that they quote are exactly those - my boss listens to me, I am treated with respect, and so forth. You touched on lack of manners and that is something that did come up in the survey which really did surprise me - people complaining about a boss who was just plain ignorant or consistently lacking in manners and people skills

Q102: I think we have all worked for one of them at some point in our lives. Maria, does this point to, or show, a lack of training amongst management in Ireland?

Irishjobs: I definitely feel that that is one of the issues. One thing that can happen in an organisation is that somebody can be promoted into a management position from, perhaps, a functional role at which they excel - be that a radio broadcaster or an Account Manager or whatever. They get promoted into management because of their performance in their current role; which may not have required much in the way of management skills at all. What you have seen here in the past several years is an upsurge in investment in management training and publications on how better to manage your staff (to try and compensate for that).

And all of that is probably part of the changing workforce. We conducted a survey some months back trying to identify what are the criteria that jobseekers use in choosing a position now and they have moved away from the obvious ones like "salary" and "benefits" and it has moved much more into what I would call 'softer issues' like flexible working hours and childcare facilities and ... the relationship with the boss.

Q102: One final thing, for employees listening to you who are saying, "That's just me, I have exactly that problem." Have you a word of advice, a pithy thought of encouragement for how people can broach this issue with their boss? And perhaps get on better for the New Year?

Irishjobs: You've hit the nail on the head. In many cases managers may not know how employees feel about them. They should know, but they may not know. Some of our jobseekers on the site say, "I'll just move job." But that should be a last resort. If you are in a job that you enjoy, apart from your relationship with your boss, talk to your boss about it or if you feel uncomfortable talking to your boss, identify someone in the organisation - be it the HR Manager or another manager with whom you have got a good relationship - and raise your concerns, raise your issues. You may be surprised, there may be bosses out there who just don't realise that they are having this effect on their staff

Q102: Absolutely - sometimes there just seems to be a big lack of mirrors around ... Maria Mahon, thank you very much for that. And Maria is the Chief Executive of Irishjobs.ie. Now Maria mentioned people who may have been good in some functional capacity - who may have been some sort of operative - and who got promoted for being 'the best we have' in say, a Sales Executive role might then be promoted to being a Sales Manager. The fact of the matter is that people can struggle. Is it all about titles and does that cause some of the problems? Rowan Manahan from Fortify Services is well-known to us all, good evening Rowan ...

Fortify: Hi Scott, hi Venetia

Q102: Good to have you back. Now you know that example that Maria was referring to where you have somebody who was a really good Sales Exec and they make him or her into the Sales Manager and they are struggling ... They're not able for it, they haven't really got the skills for it, and they end up basically pissing off the team and we end up with a negative result ...

Fortify: Happens all the time. Happens ALL the time. People don't leave companies. People don't leave jobs. People leave people. There are a number of valid reasons that people feel they can raise for wanting to move on - and this would be in a job interview setting in response to Interview Question Number 2: "Why do you want to leave your current job?" And the reason that no-one ever raises is "Because my boss is a creep. Because my boss was promoted from the ranks and turned into a mini-Hitler" as you so ably described.

Q102: Clearly if you said that in a job interview situation, the interview panel would go, "Whoops, here comes trouble ..."

Fortify: Exactly! "Here comes can-of-worms guy!"

Q102: And no-one wants to take on 'can-of-worms' employees.

Fortify: Which is precisely why a clash of personalities is the taboo reason for wanting to move jobs. It's the one reason the NO-ONE will talk about and no-one wants to talk about it within a company because you sound like a whinger and a moaner. Plus you sound like you might be rocking the boat. And, yes, there's a HR Department and you should be able to talk to them about boss troubles but the bottom line is - and I know that there will be number of people who will be immediately able to identify with this - no-one wants to know, in many cases you just don't feel like there's anyone you can turn to.

Q102: What do you do then, Rowan?

Fortify: Well, Maria said it and it can become the regrettable necessity, you start thinking about voting with your feet. You start looking to move on. It is unfortunate that it frequently comes to that. It should never come to that, because management is not rocket science, it's essentially very simple and the problems arise when people start breaking the fundamental rules on a daily basis.

There's a wonderful slimline book that every manager should have in their top desk drawer, it's called The One-Minute Manager and it addresses the absolute basics and fundamentals. It will take you about half an hour to read and everyone who is put in charge of other human beings should read this book.

Q102: Well, we'll have to get some copies of that from you Rowan and sit and talk about this for an evening ...

Fortify: (laughing) Unfortunately I didn't write it. But what I find amazing when we are brought in and we (Fortify) are frequently brought in as a 'Mopper-Upper' where there has been a problem, when morale has plummeted, when productivity has dropped significantly in, as you describe, a sales team or a marketing department. And what we frequently find is that there is one person there who is wielding power like a blunt instrument, who is not aware of the impact they have on other people. Or, more importantly, doesn't really care about their impact on other people and who probably should never have been placed into a management function in the first instance. But you balance that against senior management's concern which is, "We've got to make the numbers, we've got to drive this, we've got to make it happen and make it profitable. And if there are people out on the shop floor who are whingeing and moaning well ... They always will!"

Management's perception on this is that there is a certain percentage of the population who are just whingers! The dilemma then becomes how to distinguish between the ongoing, background noise type of whingeing and a real problem. Very difficult position for any Senior Manager to find him- or herself in.

Q102: And in a case like that, senior management should ring you, Rowan, and you will solve all of their problems ...

Fortify: (laughing) Chance would be a fine thing!

Q102: I'm afraid we have to leave it there. Rowan Manahan from Fortify Services, thanks as always ...

Fortify: Good to talk to you guys.