Great Info Tips

Why is it that an office manager can be such a jerk? Bosses are rather ignorant at times, but the office manager is supposed to guide you through the process of learning your job whenever there are changes in the ways to do things. I heard of one who actually told her employee that she didn’t think this employee would be able to handle the new ways of doing things. Then she constantly hovered over the girl making sure things were handled the way they were supposed to be done. This just made the girl so nervous that she did make mistakes, therefore resulting in being written up for the mistakes.

Is there a course for office managers? There should be! One on how to treat your employees. Kindness, understanding, and patience should not need to be taught, but perhaps some managers need to take courses on these things. Making your employee feel stupid or so nervous that they make mistakes is not the way to handle business. One girl I know said she was so nervous her hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t type words correctly, resulting in taking longer to type a letter than it should have. She felt bad about that and rather stupid. One kind word from her office manager would have made her feel better and not stupid. No one wants to feel stupid or be told they are stupid. After a while even an intelligent person will begin to feel stupid if the intimidation continues.

And how does one approach an office manager to explain how they feel about the treatment they’ve been getting? Rather cautiously, since some companies don’t seem to care if the employee quits or gets fired. There are too many other people out there looking for work. Is it better to go over the office manager’s head to the person above him or her? You might make things worse as the office manager will then have “it in for you”.

I wasn’t able to advise my friend’s coworker about what she should do about this particular office manager. I do welcome any one’s comments and will pass them on. This coworker quit last week, tired of being belittled and told she wasn’t going to be able to learn the new techniques that were required. She said she would rather flip burgers than deal with such harassment. Pity, as she was a good worker and had patience, kindness and understanding of others she worked with, unlike her office manager.