This was especially true in the newspaper industry when I worked there 10-20 years ago. People were routinely promoted into line-management roles because they were fine journalists. One bloke in particular I reported into before I left the profession in 2014 was a dreadful manager but of the best journalists I ever worked with. Shame.
5 May 2023
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Same with teachers...
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It's not really a new idea, is it? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
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Yes and no. People who aren’t good at management becoming managers is a subset of that, but people can progress through multiple layers of management, despite being bad at management, without anyone (who matters) knowing. Management is generally just part of a job and you can get away with being bad at it because the people who suffer are, usually, not in a position to do anything about it. And extremely capable people can do great at the 90% of their job that isn’t management, whilst sucking hard at the 10% that is. I wouldn’t say that the principle applies there.
It’s still not a new idea though, obviously. But I reckon it’s a lot bigger than Peter and his principle.
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Management is, rightly or wrongly, career progression for loyal and capable employees in smaller firms so often they are good at what they do. This isn't everything but its often better than the alternative.
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You are in management, whether you know it or not, as soon as you are in a position that you are no longer just performing a prescribed set of actions, but organising the approach or order of activity (for just yourself, or also someone else). You are managing activity (as well as possibly performing it). This is a broad church, and you can arrive as minister through multiple avenues.
In small organisations this is likely to come about through performance of a specific role and increased responsibility, in larger more structured organisation it might be through appointing a specific role to provide a point of communication and accountability. 'Management' isn't one thing. In most organisations this is badly done, through being poorly conceived, specified, and failing to match the people skills to the requirements of the role. Plus there are often elements that are required (knowledge of the business or process) which limits the suitable candidates, who may not possess all of the skillsets required for the role. You can only put in place what you have access to. One manager might achieve great success through charisma and loyalty, and a quiet word here or there, where another might fail with measurement and tools and metrics and analysis and disciplinary processes. And vica versa.
Mostly organisations rise or fall on the strength of the dressing room, and whether that performs a degree of self management, and wants to play for the manager. Largely management is done so badly because there is a view amongst decision makers that counting beans, and drawing graphs, is more important than those actually playing the game. A lot of management consumes resources to prove how important it is...instead of getting out of the way where possible, and actually enabling more activity.
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There’s a new Kersal massive in town x.com/fk09____/status/1745407228151042373?s=46
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RAWK is amazing. They’ve had a funeral for Klopp and are now discussing his teeth, age, height and his wife.
Makes TB look exciting. Though nobody has dropped the N-word yet.
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I wonder what his 5k time is.
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Relatively short on his salary, one presumes. He'll be on a good screw.
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Yesterday I booked a flight for July. This morning I received an email informing me of a change in departure time (it's now taking off 20 minutes earlier). If they're messing around with it this far in advance that doesn't fill me with confidence.
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Love Marina, but I think she's a bit off the mark with this one...
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We booked our flights for our upcoming trip to NY on the day they were released (11 months from flight) They changed take off time a couple of weeks later and a few times since. Has been a but of a running joke (albeit a shit one)
We’re taking off 90mins or so after the initial booked time. But, seeing as I used a butt-fuck load of airmiles to upgrade us to upper class, I won’t be caring much as I’ll be doing my liver some damage in the lounge.
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Will you and your family be swaggering through the lounge like the awful cunts from the On The Beach advert?
