Supervisor problems - looking for perspective

Sauve

Hi all,
Having a bit of a problem with my direct supervisor at work, I'd like to know what you guys think...
Been working with her for about four years now and it's slowly getting worse. She's quite controlling over myself and everybody else who works closely with her (there are six of us in total).
Now, in our defence, I can honestly say that we are all good at our jobs, never overstep the mark, and mistakes are rare. We're all well trained, know our job descriptions, and are well aware of when something should be handled by the supervisor.
But the control is really getting me down lately. She stands over us while we're doing something (by the nature of my work, everything I do is handed over to her to be signed off), so hovering over my shoulder really puts me off.
She runs to the phone (literally), to answer it before anybody else can, and if we do happen to take a call, she stands in front of us asking who it is, what they want, etc., which as I'm sure you can imagine makes it extremely hard to deal with the customer.
She constantly undermines us, ie if we're dealing with something, and waiting on a phonecall - if we're not there to take the call, she'll take a message, then not pass it on to us. I've often rang people wondering why I haven't heard from them only to discover that they phoned days before and left a message for me.

In the past, we've all asked her not to do things like this- when I asked her not to speak over me while I'm on the phone she said
"I need to know what's going on"
Last week, another colleague asked her not to stand over her as it was making her nervous. The answer she got was
"I'll stand over you if I like"

The advice I'm looking for is how to deal with this in a professional manner. I've been very tempted lately to get my coat and walk out when something like this happens, but I'm not a drama queen, it's not in my nature to react that way.
I could go straight to the company owner, but I know that if I did, she'd be horrified and the sh*t would hit the fan. She trusts all of her staff implicitly and I'd be afraid that the supervisor would lose her job for treating us like this. (much as I dislike her I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone getting fired).

So, to all you wise people out there - are there any ways I can deal with this without it ending in a major row?
I've tried the soft approach, and this hasn't worked either, so something in between is needed.
Apologies about the length of the post btw!

johnboysligo

Sauvignon82 wrote: »

I dislike her I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone getting fired).

If you bring a serious and legit complaint to her supervisor and that supervisor decides what shes done is bad enough to warrant getting rid of her, than she got herself fired.
Some people are thick so thick that you wonder if they should be allowed breed.

If shes making your working environment unnecessarily stressful than tell her that and ask her to change. If that doesn't work tell her again but imply you have no problems with going above her head If she continues to make your job worse or picks on you than go right above her head again and she will have lost her job ( or at least be on thin ice )

amdublin

Micro manager.

Is there ever an opportunity to give her feedback?
For example if at your performance review when your personal development comes up for discussion tell her you feel you'd develop if she trusted you more.

LegacyUser

Give her the control she wants. In bucketloads.
If she's standing over you while you're doing something, stop writing. Stand aside& let her take over.
If she tries to butt in on a phonecall, hand her the phone to deal with it herself. (act innocent if she reprimands you, "oh, I thought you wanted to speak to them personally?")
Basically, play her at her own game. It's v easy to supervise, not so easy when the work gets shafted onto you because you ask for it! She'll soon get sick of ye giving her the work. In a v nice way of course, you're only doing what she asks you to

Sauve

amdublin wrote: »

Micro manager.

Is there ever an opportunity to give her feedback?
For example if at your performance review when your personal development comes up for discussion tell her you feel you'd develop if she trusted you more.

We don't have reviews with her, in fact there's very little positive or negative communication at all. There's a once-yearly review with the owner of the company where we discuss things like payrises/cuts, holidays, that sort of thing. And I don't really want to bring it up then because like I said, the sh1t would hit the fan and I don't want to go that far unless I have no other options.
Maybe just taking a deep breath and coming out with it all someday would work. I hate this type of confrontation, but I may have to go there to fix this!

Zen65

Sauvignon82 wrote: »

The advice I'm looking for is how to deal with this in a professional manner.

Ideally, if a number of you feel this way, you should ask to speak to her as a team. That way nobody gets singled out. Explain that you believe that while she has the duty to perform necessary checks and balances as a supervisor, everybody's performance would be improved if she took a less micro-managing approach. Ask that she allow each of you the dignity to perform your duties in a way that makes you feel like valued employees, rather than as untrained minions.

You could also approach it from the perspective of having a team performance discussion or workshop, where you each discuss ideas to help the team perform better. The premise for such a workshop might be that in the current economic climate you each want to discuss how you could make the team more effective and so make your jobs more secure. In this way you might introduce the idea of having more established roles and responsibilities, which will also require you to suggest ways you could improve your own individual performances. If the session turns out to be simply suggestions about how she should change it will not be well received.

It's vitally important that if you go down this route you all do so together, and you all remain calm. Any emotional outbursts will put her in a very difficult position and she will feel as though she is being undermined. Above all, focus on the idea of team performance rather than her performance as supervisor.


Be at peace,

Z

Sauve

Some great advice there guys, thank you all so much.
I've got a lot of thinking to do now to put a plan together, and it makes it a lot easier knowing that it's not just me being paranoid about all of this.
Thanks again, sending you all good vibes for your wonderful advice