If you are like most people, you can think of at least a few terrible project managers.
These may be people who have supervised you directly or who you’ve witnessed interact destructively with their direct reports.
There’s a strange disconnect here. Even though we all know of these managers, virtually none of us would consider ourselves a project manager from hell. Are we deceiving ourselves? Or, are we really immune to this behavior we so quickly condemn in others?
The project manager from hell series
Poor managers are the biggest threat to successful projects. Like most of you reading this, I have witnessed firsthand how destructive a single person can be of productivity, collaboration, trust, goodwill and happiness on the job.
A bad project manager is a one-man team destruction machine.
Because building strong teams is one of the primary things I bring to my project management consulting assignments, it is inevitable that at times I have opportunity to witness actions and situations that just should not occur.
Why write about project managers from hell?
My intentions in writing this series are simple. I hope to:
- Encourage you
- Make you laugh
- Confirm (if you work for one of these people) that you are not crazy
- Nudge you to do something about any of these that work for you
- Help you, if you are one of these devils, to let go of your evil ways!
In each series entry, I will describe a situation that happened to myself or a colleague. (All situations will be
changed or disguised.) I’ll include what the manager did, the likely results of the manager’s action, and what the manager could have done, or could still do, to get the project back on track.
Is this project manager a real person?
This manager is an amalgam of many different people made into an composite archetype. As a fictitious character, our manager, let’s call him Doug, exists only in this blog. With all this being so, rest assured that some project manager somewhere is taking actions like these even as you are reading these words.
Project Managers from hell have a strange way of sticking around companies
Hellish managers (male or female for hell is not a respecter of gender) have a strange way of sticking around companies. They remain long after all the good people have quit, retired, been hospitalized or reduced to
zombie-like time-card punchers through their Doug interactions. I don’t know why firms allow Dougs to interfere with productive workers and take control of all that their eyes can see.
- Perhaps the companies don’t see the damage that Dougs do.
- Maybe the people who do see are too busy to do anything.
- Dougs often try to portray a different face to those above them and those below. This may fool some.
- Others may be afraid to fire them for fear of litigation.
In all, it’s hard not to consider the presence of Dougs in companies as yet another indication of the crisis of American leadership.
If you have a project manager like Doug operating under you, please, please, please, for the sake of your
company, do something. Demote him. Fire him. Transfer him if you must. Please don’t ignore him. Never, never, never let him manage even one person. The people that you rescue from this world of pain may never know what you have done in saving them. You will know. This can be your good deed accomplishment for the year, the decade, or even for your whole career.
Send me your project manager from hell experiences
Use the contact form or add your story below. I will keep your personal information private, and may use what you write in a future post. Let’s provide a repository of help for any of these managers who seek to do better - and a history of outrageousness for those who deny that such things exist in 2008.
Next post in the series: Phyrric Victory or When the Medicine is Worse Than The Disease.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hany 07.25.08 at 10:17 am
Doug still exist in corporate America because Management on a high level don’t look for efficiency in their mid. managers, yet LOYALTY.. And Doug is very loyal as a Dog to his bosses.. but his loyalty goes to a hyena loyalty when dealing with his coworkers and subordinates … The only way to get rid of him.. Well not him, but his behavior, is to make him feel that everybody is a source of authority; by implementing 360 reviews for everybody in the company. Then all have a say as to how he is performing, then his loyalty goes up to be a Dog with everybody.. Good boy Doug!
My 2 cents..
John Doe 07.25.08 at 2:52 pm
I’ve worked for a Doug before. Some choice quotes:
To a consulting agency: “We can’t hire anybody in a wheelchair because we don’t have an elevator here.”
After he terminated my contract and I didn’t bill him for the 2 hours I was away: “I don’t appreciate you taking time away from me so that you can look for a new job.”
To the team (in the consultant’s absence): “If he can’t pick up the technology in a week we can get rid of him and find somebody else.”
To a manager of the server group (and in full view of our entire group): “Why don’t you do your f-ing job!”
(he was doing his f-ing job).
To me: “I need you to work on something. Tell that you ran into some delays and his work won’t be ready until next week.”
To me: “I don’t like that you speak to your wife during the day. Doing things like that can break your concentration.”
He was fired soon after I left.