Raise Your Hand if you Like Your Boss!

Like many of you, I’ve been fortunate to have a number of good-to-occasionally great, supervisors, and conversely, some that should not have been allowed within three area codes of managing people.

With few exceptions, I’ve learned something from almost all of them – my previous post being a notable exception to that rule - but that’s discussion fodder for another column.

Some were mentors who selflessly and patiently imparted their experience and wisdom and made me not only better at my job, but better as a person as well.

On the flip side, I’ve had a few managers whose only lines of communication opened when something went wrong and they demanded answers.

Along those lines, I came across a recent survey by the staffing company Accountemps which polled some 1,000 accounting and finance professionals about their level of satisfaction with their superiors and more importantly, where they felt they could improve.

Among their findings were that some 64 percent of those surveyed reported that they were happy with their managers while just 8 percent gave their supervisors a decided “No,” in terms of satisfaction levels.

Among the critical areas in which they felt their respective managers could improve was…surprise… communication – specifically in the areas of recognizing accomplishments, helping with career paths and perhaps most important of all, simply listening.

Thirty-four percent admitted to leaving a job because of a poor relationship with a supervisor with 17 percent of that group responding that they would be far happier if their boss quickly packed their bags and exited stage left.  Unfortunately time and space limitations prevent me from sharing some depressing war stories on that subject.

With regard to age demographics, those 35-54 were the largest group to claim they were not pleased with their current supervisors. However what I found most disturbing and sadly not surprising was that 16 percent revealed that their bosses had little or no understanding of what the employees’ job actually entailed on a daily basis.

Again, I could fill the online equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica with personal anecdotes on that sobering statistic.

Okay just one. I once had a newly-installed publisher who was so clueless on what the editorial staff did that he asked, “So you guys write stories on the industry?”

I wish I was kidding but I’m not. At that moment I knew it was going to be a long year.

And finally, millennials were more likely to want their managers to provide better communication and listening, support for career advancement, recognize accomplishments, and help promote work-life balance.

Note to CPA firms who keep asking us how to attract Millennials – see above.