Indecisiveness: A Sign Of True Management

(The shift manager and plant manager stop me and pull me into the office.)

Plant Manager: “[General Manager] is denying the fifteen minutes of daily overtime to the team leaders, and they still haven’t gotten paid for what they did work.”

(I had, with approval, asked the team leaders to come in fifteen minutes early each day to set up.)

Shift Supervisor: “I’ll have to tell HR to pay out what they already worked, and then tell the team leaders no more coming in early.”

Me: “But I thought [General Manager] had given me a verbal okay for the overtime?”

Plant Manager: “Well, now he’s giving a verbal no.”

Me: “But we only did this because he said okay.”

Plant Manager: “Your logic is correct.”

Me: “So, I didn’t do anything wrong?”

(I’ve only been a supervisor for three months and I’m still kind of skittish.)

Shift Supervisor: “No!”

Plant Manager: “No, you did everything right. [General Manager] just changed his mind.”

(And this is but one of the many reasons no one likes the general manager.)