Bosses admitting that there's a problem? Only in one's dreams.
Most of my supervisors, both in industry and academe, saw themselves as perfect as only those who were perfect became supervisors.
At the place where I used to teach, my last supervisor and I had an on-going dispute which lasted several years, a dispute which *he* started and maintained. One year, he conducted a survey in our department about his management style. The questions were posed in such a way that the results could only portray him in the best terms. Mark Twain's observations on statistics were, thereby, verified.
El Cid
1 comment:
I should add some of the excuses used to justify their misdeeds.
The last dean I had was rarely civil towards me. In all of my personal dealings with him, he was rude, hostile, and biased. Objectivity and impartiality weren't in his character. In one session, I endured several minutes of verbal abuse and only rarely could I get a word in edgewise which, in his typical fashion, he brushed aside. Frequently through all of that, he reminded me in a bombastic manner that he had *excellent* people skills.
If I were to behave exactly like he did, I would have been accused of barbaric behaviour. I guess good manners were defined by how high in the pecking order one was.
My immediate supervisor, the assistant department head, engaged in a long-running dispute with me that began soon after I started teaching. All his actions towards me were justified as being for the good of the students with any rights I might have had in the matter being non-existent. Some of the things he did included undermining my reputation and authority with the students, withholding course resources which he had promised, and using incidents which occurred several years before-and believed either resolved or unimportant--as "evidence".
There was also evidence that he was responsible for an unauthorized student evaluation which, when I brought it to his attention, was never investigated. The illicit results, instead, were going to be used in the next performance appraisal, even though he had received written warnings not to.
Both the dean and assistant head retired with full honours from the institution. I resigned and wasn't able to find a job after that.
El Cid
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