Have you ever had a manager who you just didn't like taking instructions from?

[MrsOverTheRoad]

I'm just mulling things over...in the past I've sometimes found it hard to take instructions from SOME managers....hard as in I don't like being told what to do.

I haven't had many job-jobs...but have been self-employed since I was around 30...I'm 45 now. Prior to my 30s I had various mcjobs and sometimes, I'd work for someone that I just hated taking orders from.

It happened again recently..I got a part time job for the first time in a long time and one manager, I just couldn't stand the way she delivered her instructions to me...I don't THINK it's a problem with my personality...because other managers I've had no issues with them telling me what to do at all.

Are there some management styles which just don't work for everyone or something?

To try to illustrate it...she was quite "cold" and seemed to speak down to me a bit.

She's gone now...she was "let go" on an unrelated issue.

[WaitrosePigeon]

Sometimes some people's delivery isn't good.

[whompoleSaily]

"Mc job"

I THINK it could possibly be something to do with your personality.

[maddiemookins16mum]

Oh yes. Our fab Head of Dept was made redundant and was replaced with a manager from a different dept (although our two depts did work together though on some stuff). Really lovely lady (and not her fault we all missed our previous boss) but she didn't know how to do the job and would get us to do stuff ex boss wouldn't have to the point huge mistakes were made despite us gently suggesting 'it hasn't worked like that before because of x y z etc'.
It was all very difficult.

[MrsOverTheRoad]

Whomp don't latch onto that. I didn't mean offence.

I meant jobs that weren't my career choice. Shops and random places...casual positions.

[MrsOverTheRoad]

Maddie how awkward! This particular woman seemed very cold...and she seemed to be asking me to do jobs which I knew were hers.

[Silverthorn]

Yes. If they were incompetent, or an arsehole I find it very difficult to tow the line.

[JaceLancs]

I think it's delivery failure
When managing my own staff I try and give them instructions in a way that suits their personality or way of working and try to put myself in their shoes as to the best way to get the best out of them
I've been in some kind of management role from junior to very senior - small teams and big teams for most of the last 30 years
So far it's worked well - although some people are trickier than others.......

[Topseyt]

Yes, I had one once. She was a bitch trying to build her own empire in that office. If your face didn't fit she was cold and horrible, and you just knew that she was looking to shaft you out or stab you in the back. There was nothing you could do about it.

My face didn't fit. I'd been good at my job up until she arrived, but nothing I did could ever have been right for her. In fact, the only face that really fitted in her mind was her own.

The day I had another job offer (at a rival firm) and could hand in my notice was a great day. I didn't hold back on her after that, and funnily enough I found that most others in our open plan office came up to me and asked how I had stuck her for as long as I had.

I then had holiday to use up. She tried to stop me and I told her to bugger off.

[MrsOverTheRoad]

Jace yes...I'm quite a friendly person. My good manager who I like, always instructs me with a friendly voice and in a cheerful, no nonsense manner.

The other manager, she'd speak in this funereal voice....as though she were a judge delivering a death sentence!

[MardAsSnails]

It's definitely in the delivery. My boss at the moment is a cunt. But it's more attitude than the instructions. Everyone dreads going and asking him things and discussing things with him.

[GummyGoddess]

I have had a manager who has gone crying to her manager saying we were bullying her when she realised we had overheard a conversation with another team member (that she liked) saying how she was going to get rid of us.

Her manager used to work with another colleague and knew she and the rest of us wouldn't do that. Horrible manager has got rid of 5 staff now due to her attitude and there are only 4 of us left. She has replaced them with people from within the company who she knows will bitch about us with her.

Many complaints have been made to hr but nothing ever gets done.