Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Can you measure a manager’s good-ness by the weight of the people being managed? I contend that you can.

First, a little story:

I was eating lunch with Rob. Now that he had moved to a new job, he ate lunch in the cafeteria everyday. In his previous job, he rarely ate lunch in the cafeteria. He simply didn’t have the time with the demands of the job and the demands of his manager.

I expected someone who went from rarely eating a full lunch to always eating a full lunch to gain weight. Rob surprised me by stating that he had lost weight.

In the coming weeks, I met several other people who had worked in the old organization for the old manager that Rob had. They all had the same stories: their new job, their new manager, wasn’t so demanding. They all ate regular lunches.

And they all lost weight.

Does a demanding job cause weight gain? Does a demanding manager cause weight gain?

I contend the answer to the second question is, “YES!” The manager at the center of the above story was scatter-brained (giving him credit for having a brain is, well, giving him credit for something that may not have been true). The manager created crises on the hour. People, like Rob and the others I met, were yanked to and fro all day and did not eat regular meals. Instead, they “grabbed snacks” when they could.

They ate poorly. They gained weight. They were often sick.

Perhaps I can extend the weight factor to the general health factor.

How good is a manager? Look at the health of the people being managed.

Are you a manager? How healthy are the people you manage?