#payitforward
They come with different names. Supervisor. Coordinator. Team Lead. Boss. CEO. Some of us are blessed with great leaders who guide us to our employment potential. Others create quite the hostile working environment, which makes us want to quit. What traits differentiate a great supervisor and a deplorable one?
This is on my mind today, all week actually, because I have a new position at work. As a reminder, I work as a direct support professional, supporting adults with special needs such as down syndrom and autism. I support these individuals in a day program. We do activities with them, help them to experience a rich life, even if they are quadriplegic and non verbal.
The coordinator herself seems to be efficient and socially in tune. She has a smile and a kind word to her staff, even when their request is impossible. She does her best to explain why the request wouldn't work, and then works to resolve it if she can.
And then there is the one who likes to think she is in charge.
I guess she's the assistant, so she does have some authority. And I can respect her efforts to keep us DSPs in line and keep the Day Program running smoothly. But, oh my, what a hostile environment she engenders!
Now, I am rarely the one to complain, and I do my best to look at things from others' points of view. I can see the pain in her eyes and imagine the things she has suffered to warp her attitude towards other people.
If I ask her a question of any kind, I typically get silence, a scowl, or a "do this because I tell you to." Yesterday, she randomly moved lunch to noon rather than 11:30, even though that would make afternoon activities rushed and departure late. I hesitated asking why; when I did, I got a huff and a "because I said so."
I pick up our people from their homes in the morning and take them to the program. Last week, I made the mistake of changing the order I picked people up, and she chewed me out when I got to the program. One of the guardians of the individuals got upset because I picked her son up later than usual. "You must follow the order I've written exactly!" the assistant said. "You must make parents happy or you will lose your job."
Needless to say, I was a bit cowed.
On Thursday, another guardian asked that we pick up her daughter at a specific time. I agreed and told the actual coordinator.
So on Monday morning, I followed the transport list exactly. It was different from the one last week, but I figured they had rewritten it to accommodate the guardian's request. The assistant had put the list in the van book, she did every morning that there was a change. Unfortunately, she forgot to update it, it was the wrong list, and I ended up not picking up one of the people I was supposed to.
Ok, I should have called her when I couldn't get hold of the coordinator. But honestly, I hate talking to this woman and avoid it whenever I can. And that's really saying something, because I can generally talk with anyone, from a non-verbal individual with down syndrom, to an astrophysicist.
Her eyes vibrated in anger, her lips tightened, as though I had done something so insulting to her personal dignity. As if this were an offense to her. As if it wasn't her responsibility to update the transport list for a new staff, especially when a change had been discussed.
I asked her, politely and respectfully, if she could understand how I could have made the mistake. She said, "No. I cannot. You should have called me! You should have done the transport you were trained on!"
I didn't bother to remind her that there was a change in the transport. She seems unable to listen to any suggestions of any kind from an underling. I smiled as politely as I could manage, apologized profusely, and promised to do better.
Can I just say, I love an environment where questions are always welcomed? And here I have this position in which all questions are impossible. And now I am a bit intimidated by the job.
How about you steemians? Do you have any horror stories about supervisors you have suffered under? Or, what do you think makes a good supervisor?
