Supervisor's advantages and dis advantages ?

Question

when you are a super visor, what are the advantages and dis advantages ?

Answer 1

The biggest disadvantages:

1. Once you're in the management "food chain," you are expected to put in more hours, unpaid, as necessary. Take a good look at how much time the people on the supervisory/management ladder have to spend at work or doing work while at home, and ask yourself if that is something you really want to do.

2. You are now responsible not just for your own mistakes and screw-ups, but for those of all the people who report to you! Congratulations! Makes you look at the people who report to you in a whole different light, doesn't it?

3. You become, of necessity, more of a "company person." When you're at the bottom of the food chain and not involved in management, you can whine and bad-mouth your company to your heart's content. But once you get into the management chain, you cannot do that any more. Or at least not to anyone who might report what you said.

4. You cannot be on quite the same friendly terms with those you are promoted over as you used to be.

5. You are now the person who gets to do performance appraisals for your people, who gets to decide who gets raises and promotions, who gets disciplined, and (worst case) who gets layed off. Yep, you now have the joyous task of telling someone "You're fired!" if the occasion arises.

The good things:

1. You are now on track to more promotions and higher pay.

That's really about it.

FWIW, most of the people I know who are supervisors aren't real happy with the job. The higher up in management you go, the more your job becomes administrative and the less you get to do the stuff that you went to school for--e.g., if you're an engineer, the higher you go in management, the less engineering you get to do.

Good luck to you!

Answer 2

I am a manager and I love my job. I've been in this position for about 1.5 years....

I can say that I'm friends with many folks, some of who were once managers or supervisors and they wouldn't be paid to go back! I guess depending on the people you'd be supervising, they could be professional (ontime, don't abuse sick time, work hard, etc.) or petty (some HR complaints, complaining all the time, hate the company, in late, etc.) And to be honest, you are the one who would have to tell them what they are doing right AND wrong. (Some people really can't take telling people negative information).

In my job, I'm on more of a roller coaster than I was as just a worker. My highs (impressing higher ups) are pretty high, but my lows (making an idiot of myself, wrong decisions, etc.) are lower. You don't have too much more say (my old manager was really surprised at how little authority he had...after all, supervisors have bosses too!)

And sometimes people expect you to know it all too!

For me, I just enjoy supporting my team and enabling them to shine. I assist them when the need it, approve their timecards, take the sick calls, attend meetings, and represent my team to the higher ups. I also don't mind the administrative/paperwork aspect of it (which some people hate).