Managers: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Ask 20 construction-industry employees what makes a manager good or bad, and you might expect a wide variety of responses, but the answers from those we asked were surprisingly close. About 20 percent had experienced the manager from hell, and about the same number had experienced a manager who would have been at home in the other place—heaven. The majority of managers, it seems, are middle-of-the-road, down-to-earth folks who do a half-way decent job of leading others. Perhaps this article will make their job easier.

The manager from hell doesn’t have a forked tail, but he sure speaks with a forked tongue:

• “The worst thing I’ve seen is people making promises that they had no intention of keeping, to string somebody along, keep him employed or whatnot.” (Alabama)
  

• “Lying and not backing his word with deeds, but talking out of both sides of his mouth.” (Indiana).
  

• “Dishonesty.” (Louisiana)
  

• “Verbally committing to do things and then not doing them.” (California)
  

• “Not keeping promises, especially ones about bonuses and raises during the hiring interview.” (South Carolina)
  

• “I was denied a promised raise even though I was running the whole job and being paid the same as a bunch of clowns who wouldn’t even work.” (Connecticut)

Along the same lines is an employee from California who reports that “one manager competed with me instead of working with me. He would give me jobs to do and then sabotage them when I started to accomplish what he had asked me to do. He wanted to look good at my expense. When I realized his personality, and that I did not have the ability or time to change it, I just got along with him as best I could while looking for a job in another company.”

So it goes with all those who make promises lightly. A subcontractor from Georgia has seen the same in general contractors: “A year ago I was doing some work for a GC on the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. We had a signed contract on the demolition portion of the contract and were supposed to have been paid within seven days of completion. We finally heard 20 days after completion that the GC decided we had made a windfall profit and tried to enter into negotiations to pay us only half of the agreed upon amount before we could proceed any further with the contract, because we were ‘overcharging him.’ He didn’t have any problem going into the project and well understood our terms and conditions, because he’d made an alteration in just about every paragraph. The project hadn’t taken us as much time as anticipated. We refused, demanding payment in full, which he paid, and then we walked away from the project. If there’d been any overages, we’d have had a hard time getting those change orders through. But there we were with a signed contract and going through all the risk and meeting the deadlines, and then they thought we were making too much money. My attorney had a good laugh out of that one.”

What other characteristics mark the boss from hell, or a person on the fast-track to becoming one? Two things, it seems, micromanagement being one: “You can’t move without the person questioning you or scrutinizing everything you do.” (Ohio)

The other characteristic is being plain unpleasant, such as that experienced by a woman in Florida: “I’ve had my share of really bad ones—not direct superiors but people in other departments who made everyone miserable. A vice president tried to pull me onto his lap once. It was horrible! I screamed, jumped away and glared at him. I avoided him at all costs after that!

But there are other unpleasant experiences as well:

• “Treating others like pure crap, just irrational behavior.” (Alabama)
  

• “The boss came in and asked what the hell I was doing, if I was [goofing off] in the back room—which obviously I wasn’t. He often came in and started straight out by saying, ‘This needs to be changed, that needs to be changed.’ Some of the employees would offer suggestions for improvements, and he would not listen to them. ‘We are not talking with you right now, we are talking with me.’ He was always shooting down whatever anyone said. I quit and heard he was fired soon afterward.” (Pennsylvania)
  

• “An unfriendly person who put herself above everyone else.” (Oklahoma)

In searching for a common denominator to poor bosses, most felt a lack of knowledge lay underneath their poor behavior and performance:

• “I think the reason is insecurities, a problem he was afraid somebody was going to find out—that he didn’t really know as much as he was pretending to know—he was trying to bluff people.” (Alabama)
  

• “These kind of managers don’t really know what they are doing. Lack of training and education seems to be one of the biggest factors here. One manager was put in charge of something and didn’t have a clue, so the underlings were trying to train him how to do the job and it was a joke. It made him aggressive, and when someone questioned what he was doing or tried to point out there was another way to do something, or the policy said otherwise, he became agitated, and then demeaning and aggressive toward his fellow employees who were trying to help him. He would take it personally.” (Florida)
  

• A lousy manager doesn’t understand all the trades and what the process is for things to work. They come in and demand that things get done, but then don’t offer clear direction and communicate on the procedures and what they expect.” (Georgia)

This Georgian has the same charge to level at GC’s supers and project managers: “A lousy manager is one who doesn’t understand the scope of work for all the trades and that we all have to work together. One superintendent told me he wanted to have more men on the job. I knew I had enough men to meet the deadlines by working Saturday and Sunday. We were just waiting for the other trades to complete their work. I had to get right in the guy’s face with ‘No, we’re not doing that. This is the way we’re doing it, and we will meet your deadline.’
“I refer to some of these superintendents as having the ‘Barney Fife Syndrome.’ Barney was a skinny little deputy sheriff from The Andy Griffith Show who’d always become real excited when given a little power, sticking out his chest. They wouldn’t give him even one bullet, because he was liable to shoot himself in the foot with it! A little bit of authority goes to some people’s head. They push you and make demands, but they don’t really understand how everything is supposed to work together. All they want to do is meet their deadlines to satisfy their boss, not look at how things need to be done properly. It’s difficult when you have somebody inexperienced like that.”

This view that supervisor troubles stem from lack of knowledge was shared by two other subs:

• “The manager from hell is disorganized and lacks experience. The only way to cope with them is to try to be on top of your job, not manage the project for them. GCs increasingly expect the subs to do their work of coordinating the trades. Sometimes the managers are not hands-on and do not know what is going on in the field. They only turn up when there is a problem and say, ‘We need this done, we need that done.’” (Michigan)
  

• “Some supervisors on the job site lack knowledge, resulting in work having to be redone and work happening out of sequence. This is happening more and more as less and less-qualified supers and project managers appear in the field. Things started to slide about 12 years ago. These people may know something about business, but not much about the business of putting together a building.” (North Carolina)

And this leads us to the last characteristic of the poor manager: His ability to communicate is in the toilet.

• “Window, door and roof-flashing issues are our biggest enemy right now. Problems are being blamed on the cladding itself, but the actual problem is a lack of communication and proper procedure.” (Georgia)
• “The problem is communication between the different levels of construction, between the field and the office and so forth. That’s one of the big issues that always comes up.” (California)

One communication breakdown that rarely receives any attention is the one between the sexes. The woman in Florida points out that “most men in managerial positions within construction companies tend to view females in the corporation as unintelligent. It’s a macho thing. Men in the construction world tend to be much moreso than in other fields. In general, male employees in the field pay no attention to what females have to say. It is humorous at times, but it’s so aggravating at the time that I don’t see the humor in it until later. You tell them their ladder isn’t steady, for instance, and they may hurt themselves, but they won’t listen to a woman, so hey, they fall on their head!

“It’s not too bad where I am now though. I have a manager who has to listen to me because he is my spouse. But he is a good boss, and he insists that his people are professional. He doesn’t put up with any harassment or monkey business, and all employees have to be courteous. It’s little things like that that make everybody’s day-to-day life much easier and nicer.”

Which brings us to what a good manager is like. He or she is one who gets people up to speed on what is needed, and then lets them get on with it—good communication, no micromanagement, as in the following:

• “Their ability to give you adequate training for what you need to do and then leaving you alone to do it. This happens when a manager trusts you and you are worthy of that trust—because it can be misplaced. But if you are adequately trained for what you do and they leave you the hell alone to get it done, that makes for a very good working environment.” (Florida)
  

• “A good boss or manager tells you what he expects, what the goals are, then he asks for input from you on how to achieve that and what we need to get the job done. He is somebody who is working right there with us, asking questions and paying attention to what we’re doing, and asking what he and the other trades can do to help with the project. He’s somebody who communicates with us all along to make sure that all our needs are being met and that we’re meeting his needs. The worst thing in the world is for somebody to wait until the last minute to say, ‘This is wrong and you should have known better.’ The manager on the job site oversees the job and makes sure everybody is communicating and doing projects properly. He’s supposed to have an understanding of what is needed and not rely on the trade to tell him how things are supposed to be done.” (Georgia)
  

• “… allows us to work by ourselves and do what we think is right.” (Kansas)
  

• “… allows us to run our own project and leaves us to be responsible for it.” (Michigan)
  

• “I had a manager who turned into a mentor, seeing the potential in me and acted to bring out my strong traits. He spent time with me to explain how things worked and then let me go, whether I failed or succeeded. Good management results in more productive workers. Bad managers chase away good employees, whether consciously or subconsciously.” (California)

The good boss is also one appreciates what his or her people do and shows it:

• “He’s down to earth, expects you to do a good job and then appreciates what you do verbally as well as with rewards and bonuses—hunting and fishing trips and whatnot. He just treats you more or less like a member of the family.” (Alabama)

And beyond that, the great boss really does care for his or her employees. Consider the following two stories:

• “I have two good bosses, the two best people I have ever worked for. They give you direction and you go there. They care about your life both in and outside the company. I took my son on his first Cub Scout campout. It rained five hours that night. Fortunately we had camped on high ground, but they had told me to park my truck in a low-lying field and the next morning, the water was up to the windshield.

“To be honest, I think my bosses took it harder than I did. They made my problem their problem. Frank ran around for a week saying, ‘It’s not fair when a guy takes his kid on a camp-out and he loses his truck. It’s not damn right!’ He kept saying that, but he also called around and arranged for a great deal, below book value, on a new full-size F150 that saved me several thousand dollars. It’s things like that. My dad died last year and they let me take time off as much as I needed. They care, bottom line, and that’s why I have stayed with them for years.

“Compare this to the guy who micromanaged me. I have another son who has Tourette’s Syndrome. This manager made a big joke out of my son at the office one day. You can do a lot of things to me, but don’t laugh about my kid’s health. He didn’t know me or anything about my son. That didn’t fly with me. I let it simmer for a few days and realized that it was not going to work out with this manager and so left.” (Ohio)

“When I was hurt off the job, while rollerblading, the boss paid me full salary for the six weeks I was out. I thought that was exceptional. I’ve been with these same employers for over quarter of a century.” (Connecticut)

Various other pluses mentioned by those surveyed include these:

• “He makes people accountable for what they do—if they’re charged with doing something and don’t meet the deadline, then they are not allowed to pass that problem on to the next person, they have to deal with the problem at hand.” (California)
  

• “He doesn’t procrastinate, he is accurate, and he gets things done. He is not intimidating or controlling but is direct and to the point.” (Illinois)
  

• “He understands what he is meant to do, is honest and leads by example.” (Indiana)
  

• “She is willing to listen to my suggestions and actually use them. Overall, she made me feel valued as an employee.” (Kentucky)
  

• “Their experience and knowledge of the industry, the way they treat people, being honest.” (Louisiana)
• “… fun and easy to get on with.” (Massachusetts)
  

• “Great superintendents are flexible—willing to take different situations and work them out rather than being rigid. We love to work with these guys, because they are willing to work with us and be helpful rather than saying, ‘This is the way it is.’” (North Carolina)
  

• “They realize you are a human being, too. They were very understanding about life problems, flexible and helpful. I have been here seven years and don’t plan to leave.” (Oklahoma)

So what are the secrets of being a good manager? If you listen to the folks on the receiving end, rather than some management guru with clean fingernails, the list might look something like this:

• Get trained on the product of your job and how to produce it before stepping up to the plate.
  

• Likewise, make sure your employees are trained and then let them get on with it without streams of orders. If they mess up, fix it before it becomes a problem, and train the employee some more. If they keep messing up, find something they can do.
  

• Ignore people at your own peril. If you believe that line about going down to the cemetery and seeing how unimportant people really are, then find another job. Every individual is important (including the ladies) and has something to offer if you let him or her.
  

• What goes around, comes around. Be pleasant to the employees, they’ll back you up. Be interested in them and willing to talk with them and help them through their difficulties—most of them will reward your loyalty with theirs.

Perhaps it boils down to the good old Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would they do unto you—and good old-fashioned manners. They still have a place in our increasingly cut-throat world, and funnily enough, may well be the answers to many of the problems in it.

About the Author

Steven Ferry is a free-lance writer based in Clearwater, Fla.