Jul 15, 2008
Assistant Manager
It has been my observation, from decades of toiling at a job, that people with 'assistant' in their title are trouble. Assistant Manager, Assistant Principal, Assistant Warden, you get the idea.
Assistants are people who want to be boss and are earning their stripes by being professional bad guys. Getting their hands dirty, so the boss doesn't have to. Some are born to it, others have it thrust upon them.
There are exceptions but they are few and far between. The assistant manager of our store is an older guy who knows he is not moving up and is fine with that. He is great to work with. As I said, he is the exception.
For instance, this morning we made a couple of keys for one of the workers from a quick copy place down the street. Just business as usual.
That is until the assistant manager of the joint suddenly appeared and told me that I had not given 'her girl' the original key back. I checked the key machines and the desk area and there was no key laying about. I was certain that I had given it back to her, because it is easy to forget it in the key machine and I have a little routine I use, so that I don't forget to return it.
As an aside, who but an assistant manager would use the expression 'my girl' in this day and age? Not exactly new millennium kind of behavior?
The more I explained that I didn't have the key, the more insistent she became that I did have it. Finally, completely exasperated with me, she phoned 'her girl'. This only served to set off another round of did so, did not.
I suggested that we check with the cashier to see if it was left there, but it wasn't. The assistant manager, now sensing a broader conspiracy, strengthened in her resolve that we were behind the missing key.
She projected the attitude that it was inconceivable that anyone under her command could be wrong about where the key went. It had to be us and she made no bones about it.
That is until one of the other employees came in the front store of the store, held something aloft and asked, "Anyone lose a key? I found it in the parking lot."
Seamlessly, the assistant manager shifted her ire from us to 'my girl', who in an instant turned from saint to incompetent. I pity 'my girl' when ths assistant boss got back to the store.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
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13 comments:
You could write a book about the people who visit the hardware shop.
Can I add some pages about the people who work in A Clothing Store?
Funny, yesterday the Mgr I worked for, in praise of his "conservation" skills with books from me. mentioned the "other stuff" he was not good at.
That may be a start.
Last Fri I was short 3 hrs on my check and emailed him and my boss in NC. Someone from the front office came by and asked me if he had told me why. I answered no. She said she had told him last Tues. Well, need I mention he still has not told me?
No care, I simply circumnavigate around him most the time anyway. That's the problem of knowing more than who you work for.
And why say anything, it all comes back to bite 'em in the ass anyway.
Sooner or later.
Good you kept a level head.
Ah the pecking order ... so universal and, well ... so boring, isn't it?
"My girl" ?? Yuck.
And yeah about "assistant mgr" status. Some of the dumbest folks I've ever worked with had that title.
The pecking order. ouch. I was assistant editor to an editor who did absolutely nothing all day and told me to tell authors he was "in a meeting" every single time they called. As assistant I was considered stupid by these authors, and they had no idea I was the person editing their work. They wanted to talk to my boss, the genius.
Dennis says Ched is my assistant and he's a busy little fellow!
I have 2 blog assistants. One I haven't seen or heard from in weeks. the other is fairly helpful.
@bitchlet, check out Waiter Rant (http://waiterrant.net/). It's the same thing, only it's from the viewpoint of a waiter.
@Anonymous - my boss actually is in meetings most of the time. Yet the same people will come by, expecting him to be in his office, act all surprised, and ask where he is. Duh.
@Merle - I can only use "my girl" for fun. "Have your girl call my girl to set something up" just means we'll talk again when we're both looking at our calendars. It's amazing that a phrase of only two words can be so demeaning. Both the "my" and the "girl" are insults (not to mention the deliberate insults hurled once the key was found in the parking lot).
I particularly like managers who are intolerant of mistakes of any kind, as if competent people never make mistakes (like dropping a key).
I'm so glad I changed my title from "assistant" to "Queen of the World"....
Keen observations about the assisting function.
i refuse to assist
Sometimes, working for yourself, even with your spouse in the same room, has its up side . . .
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