So I’m getting a promotion soon (yay!), moving up from just a line cook to sous-chef and I’ve only been with this company for a few months. Thing is that I’m still quite young (mid twenties) and will be the direct supervisor of some people a fair bit older than I am. Think 10-20 years older. It might just still be a bit of imposter syndrome, but the idea of having to tell people who have been in the business for far longer than I what to do and such really weirds me out.

I feel I wouldn’t like it if “some young brat” that just got hired almost immediately gets a promotion and becomes my supervisor eventhough I worked at the company for far longer. Though maybe not everyone feels like this.

Do other people who have experience with a situation like this have any advice on how to deal with this? It’s kinda been keeping me up at night…

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
    41·
    1 year ago

    Someone’s competency isn’t defined by their opinion of you. I’ve been a manager for about 16 years, and the vast majority of my relationships with my employees over the years have been very positive - I’m friends still with many who’ve retired - but they didn’t always start that way. I still say making a good faith effort to help the team succeed, including each person on it, is the way to go, regardless of what you think of them as a person, or they you. That’s also how you end up getting the respect of everyone.

    You’re right that not every person is right for every job, but that’s a completely different parameter. Most people are relieved when you avoid assigning them to things they aren’t good at unless it’s a stretch/development assignment. I’ve had exactly zero employees who intentionally did a crappy job in order to screw me. People generally aren’t like that unless you give them a significant reason to.

    • karloz@lemmy.world
      11·
      1 year ago

      Perhaps it’s due to my past experiences, but in the company where I was a manager for most of the time (approximately 10 years at different hierarchical levels), there was a policy of no layoffs except in criminal cases, which gave employees a certain level of arrogance. Unfortunately, I had to deal, more than once, with employees who actively tried to mess with me or a manager beneath me for whatever reasons, did I do something against them? No, it just happened to be that I was the unlucky manager of the time.

      I no longer work at that place and in my new position, where I’m not a manager by personal choice, I see a world more similar to the one you describe, simply because accountability exists, so the bad apples are fired when they start to cause problems.