To think a manager should know the job of the team they manage?

[CorinnaSinner]

I have two managers in my department, neither of them I could go to to ask a question about the job if I get stuck on something.

Aibu to think a manager should have some idea of the job role they are managing?

Depends on the level of the roles. For example, I'm a manager and would expect to be able to answer technical questions from my direct reports. However, I wouldn't expect my manager to be that involved in the day to day detail.

Not necessarily. Management is a different job with different responsibilities

I lead a team of specialist professionals working in the same industry but different specialisms. I also have my own specialism. Wouldn’t have a clue to answer a technical question about their work, but could answer process questions. They are employed at their level (with commensurate pay) to know the technical stuff!

I lead a team of specialist professionals working in the same industry but different specialisms. I also have my own specialism. Wouldn’t have a clue to answer a technical question about their work, but could answer process questions. They are employed at their level (with commensurate pay) to know the technical stuff!

^This

I manage a team of tech specialists with varying specialisms. My specialism is people...my job is to make sure they have everything they need to do the technical stuff, whilst I manage the expectation of stakeholders and thus, their workload. I wouldn’t be able to do their job, nor they mine.

I’m a team leader and know the job pretty well as I was promoted within. I think it does have massive benefits however it’s not always required.

I’m with you OP

If they don’t understand what you do, why are they your manager? I know a lot of companies operate in this crap fashion.

I manage a team of technical specialist professionals, I couldn’t do their role but I do have ‘an idea’ about it

In my industry I am seeing more managers recruited for their ability to "people manage" instead of their ability to undertake the technical work of their team members. Having experienced both a manager who is good at the soft skills but not technical, and a technical manager who was not good at the soft skills, I am torn as to which I prefer.

I don't know the technical side of my team.
I expect my team leaders to understand the day to day stuff and I focus on the strategic side.
I have a fantastic dev who would be terrible as a line manager, but then I have someone much less technical with amazing mentoring skills.
Both can progress but in different ways, being good at the job does not make a good manager.

Depends on the type of job. Is there anyone else you can ask if you get stuck? I would say a manager wouldn't necessarily be able to answer the question but should be able to help to get the question answered.

It absolutely depends, nursing or teaching then yes, as they are registered professions that promote from within.
In business you probably wouldn't expect a global logistics manager to be able to do the role of her data analyst (as an example).

My previous food and beverage manager didn't know how to cook at all (including the likes of a fried egg) and asked me whether it was right or wrong to rinse chicken in the sink 🙄.
You don't need to be an expert at your underlings roles, because not everyone is promoted from within, but you should have a decent level of knowledge of the principles so your team has some sort of level of confidence in you/ can liase with you if they have queries.

It's more common now to have teams that are not solely comprised on the same job and in that case, I wouldn't expect the manager to know every role inside out tbh.

I wouldn't expect the manager to know every role inside out tbh.

But I never said that,

I'm the only researcher in my entire organisation - there is literally no one else who understands my job or who I can ask for help.

I couldn't do the detail of all the jobs my team does but I do understand their challenges and know where to go to get them help if they need it.

I think in almost all senior roles there will be people you manage who's job you couldn't do.

Depends what sort of question to be honest. How do I do this specific thing on this one piece of software - wouldn't expect them to know but would expect them to point you elsewhere or know where you could find out. Do you have advice on how I could do this part of my role better or more efficiently - yes, I think a manager should be able to answer that.

I actually had a day at my old job where the top bosses worked 'as us' for the day doing our regular tasks. It was hilarious, they didn't have a clue, were asking everyone for help and it was a really fun exercise for the team.

Surely it depends on the query? If it's a workload or priority issue then YANBU but if it's something specific to the job I wouldn't expect them to know it in detail. That's what training is for plus your own experience and expertise in holding the job.

They need to know the process and understand enough to provide support to the team and to advocate for the team in the wider organisation, they don't always need to know all the details, but context is everything, for some roles they do need the details and the team always needs somewhere to go for technical advice, professionally.

I duno. My manager understands the business better thab anyone but probably couldn't do the specifics of my role. Similarly, I definitely couldn't do my team's role or advice them on anything but the logistics (but the MD is able to provide technical advise/support)

I think it depends on the business really

Depends on what the manager's role is. I am a team lead, which is different from a manager. I know how to do the jobs of my team, because I'm part of the team. But I don't expect all the managers do.

No, the skillset of a manager is very different in many cases from the skillset of the roles they manage,

I’ve managed teams where I simply couldn’t have done their job. Generally they were analytical/system type roles. It was their role, not mine. I never pretended I could do their jobs, but equally many of them couldn’t have done mine.

A manger should know where to get the answer if a team member is struggling, but no they should not be automatically assumed they also can do the job.

I think if you manage a broad technical team you shouldn’t necessarily be expected to know the ins and outs of everything.

However, I’m currently in a situation where my line manager knows fuck all about what I do, not even the general area. It’s immensely frustrating to have to go back to basics every time I need to highlight a risk. Even worse, his boss knows even less about the entire area of the business he is supposed to manage and is the sort of person who apparently just assumes that we don’t do much of importance, because he doesn’t really understand what we all do.

They’re both new in role, and the wider team is getting more and more fucked off at the absolute idiots we have in charge. They’ve been there about 6 months and are showing no signs of even attempting to learn the generalities.

As a result some quite serious risks are not getting raised up in the right way. We’re quite looking forward to it all falling apart, really. At least then they might finally start to appreciate what we do. They are supposedly in charge of strategic direction, which is fairly frightening.

I don’t need bosses to know exactly the ins and outs of all the technical stuff, but I do think it’s important for managers to have a grasp of the wider concepts; and to at the very least have an attitude of “I don’t necessarily understand everything, but I trust in my technical teams to make the right calls and will escalate the stuff they’re bringing me because they sound stressed so it’s probably important”.