Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
Yes, and I don't like that. It can work well if you have a good manager, who is also a good person, who leads a life an underling would want to aspire to, but that combination of qualities within a manager coupled with a junior who both needs and wants their guidance is incredibly rare. If we normalize mentoring from every manager to every subordinate, you inevitably end up with millions of manhours of unqualified people offering bad advice to people who don't want it and won't benefit from it. Also, you're going to get situations where the underling is more qualified to offer better advice to the manager because there's no reason that a higher position in a company means you are better equipped to offer life advice.
Managers are people, too. They should be willing to grow from all the people around them and vice versa. Managers who sit in their office helping guide the lives of people under them should probably just focus on whatever work helps the core business and leave the general life counseling to trained counselors. I don't like a power dynamic where because I'm in a higher role in a company I can gather the little people and bestow my superior knowledge upon them. I can bestow corporate knowledge and offer advice in a limited capacity like anybody else, but your average boss shouldn't be giving life advice in weekly/monthly one-one-ones.
The other thing is junior level people should not be burdening their superiors with life problems to the extent possible. I mean, if you're going through a divorce, please let me know if you'd like to share as that will affect your work and you're going to need some leeway for an extended period. I'll do what I can to help one human to another, but don't submit to me the way a patient does to a psychiatrist. That's inappropriate for both of us and I'm not qualified to help you in the way you may need.
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I really don't understand how we have gotten to the sticking point of managers offering personal advice? I don't understand how that's implied from my statement that you bolded or any statement I have made in the past.
I don't disagree with you what so ever on that front.
When I stated that some people enjoy watching the career growth of their coworkers I 'm simply implying that owners/managers etc.. often enjoy seeing their coworkers careers develop as the business develops. This can be watching juniors or even long standing people get the opportunities they deserve. In many cases you need to grow the business to be able to offer these opportunities and in many cases it can come at risk to the owners/managers etc...