managers have needs too
Ever heard the old adage ‘those who can, do’, ‘those who can’t, teach’ and ‘those who can’t teach, manage’? Boom boom.
I have to admit that this, during my working days, filled me with a degree of fear and I consequently fought tooth & nail to keep a high level of hands-on operational work. ‘Do as I do’ was my mantra, even though the business probably needed me to apply what limited knowledge I had, to other more worthy areas. On the rare occasions I donned a management hat I did so reluctantly and often delighted in a seemingly innate ability to pick holes in the delegated work and tasks of others. There always seemed so many errors, so many mistakes that, even as a manager, I was essential and damned near irreplaceable.
And then I came across the ‘theory of the hairy arm’.
Apparently this, and the other judicious names it goes under, is a process by which mere underlings conspire to make their managers’ feel worthy, important and necessary to the business. The ‘hairy arm’ theory goes back to a particular graphic designer’s manager who always felt he had to make changes to the presented work, often tiny and unnecessary changes. On realising this, the graphic designer would crop something into the work – an arm, a duck, a cup stain, whatever – so it presented a blatant opportunity for the manager to say “great work but ferchristsakes get rid of the hairy arm!” He could then be heard muttering to anyone in listening range “these people, you gotta watch them like a hawk!” The arm was no error, it was introduced for the manager to feel he justified his salary, added some benefit to the business and, perhaps more importantly, for the employees to manage their boss.
Uh oh. So many errors, so many mistakes. B*ggers the lot of ‘em!
