A client came in looking for help coping with a very difficult, obviously troubled manager. To make a long story short, she did so well getting on top of the way she handled herself from then on with that manager, that when it was time to choose a successor to that departing manager my client was the surprise, popular choice. Despite some healthy hesitation based on lack of supervisory experience, my client was flattered, and felt she simply had to respond to the opportunity which had dropped in her lap.
Our final session, which occurred early in the second week in her new position, was positive and optimistic. She told me that she’d even heard a faint ”ding dong the witch is dead” coming from a cubicle. Two months later, my client called asking for a meeting. She sounded subdued, almost stricken. You can guess what had happened.
The “honeymoon” had barely lasted a month. She’d started out communicating that she was still “one of the girls” taking the tack “this is going to be fun, now we can relax, loosen up, trust each other” etc. But the new, casual tone now permeating the workplace complicated her supervisory learning curve. Productivity levels and error rates were worse than ever.
Instead of appreciation for her non-authoritarian approach, she was being victimized by it - and worst of all, some of the quiet, solid performers were now glaring at her as she passed their cubicles. Passing out work, or following up on problems became increasingly loaded with resistance - sometimes cloaked in surface cooperation, but the struggle was palpable. Worst of all, her direct supervisor had transformed from early “fan” to being chilly and guarded. It almost would have been funny, if it hadn’t been such a disillusioning blow to the new manager. Talk about learning on the job.
