Manager Sandwich: The Middle Manager's Survival Blog

This article title comes from the eponymous song by R.E.M off of the Document album back in 1987.  I remember this distinctly because I listened to it often on my Walkman while in between classes while in college.  The song wasn't about the end of the world, but on how people overreact to events, change, death, etc. and simply think the worst is going to happen.  In the end however, life goes on, and gets better, and worse, and better again and again.  November 9th 2016 is nothing like September 12th 2001, or December 8th 1941.  On these other days, and many like them, Americans of all ages reflected on dire tragedy these days and with steel resolve vowed to overcome the day after wards. While I was in elementary school, one of our projects was to interview our grandparents about their reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  My parents  were too young to truly understand the details in the moment, but my grandparents on both sides s...

During a recent staff meeting, I grabbed a can of soda from the mini-fridge in the conference room.  There was one lonely can of Vernors Ginger Ale amongst the plethora of cans of Pepsi, and Diet Pepsi.  Normally, I don't drink regular soda because of the sugar, but a spicy Vernors sure did sound good.  If you aren't familiar with Vernors, it's a long-time Detroit favorite.  A once regional product, it has become a nationwide staple.  Different from Canada Dry or Schwepps ginger ale, Vernors has a unique darker color and spiciness that makes it an acquired taste. The logo of Vernors has always been an old style wooden stave barrel with riveted wrought iron bands.  Even this particular can was dressed up like an old barrel.  While holding the can in my hand, my mind was flooded of thoughts and memories about my connection with Detroit, and my grandfather, great uncle, and great grandfather that were in the barrel and crate business.  The busine...

This time of year, a while back, I was the only area manager in the plant just before Christmas.  We were in the middle of a large capital project installation.  The plant was down for the holidays, except for the construction work going on in the new facility.  Earlier the same morning, the millwrights had discovered that over $15,000 in hand tools and equipment had been stolen from the mechanical shop.  There was too much equipment missing all at once to be anything but theft.  The automation technicians had recently installed some DVR video cameras throughout the new part of the plant.  These cameras were situated to allow the operators to view key parts of the process from the operating pulpit. On one of the video feeds, the senior automation tech thought that he noticed two guys moving tools out of the shop through a glimpse of the camera.  The resolution wasn't very sharp, and was even worse when the footage was blown up to see as much detail a...

Everywhere you go, you will find people who are just dying to be in charge, that is until they have to do something with all that sought after responsibility.  Being a leader, for those of us slugging it out in the middle manager slit trenches, is all about making decisions; mostly the unpopular kind.  The easy decisions, are well, easy. As an old boss of mine would say, "That's easy, it's a no brainer!" Of course, that is assuming easily enough that I was a complete dumbass when I came to him for his infinite wisdom.  The simplicity of my challenge completely eluded my simpleton nature. I would always tell him that if it was easy, the guys doing the job would have already fixed it.  I was trying to get him to understand a much bigger problem that he was conveniently trivializing. So we all have had a boss, a middle manager who reigned over our even lower level of management, who thought our challenges and decisions were easy.  What is worse is when we are ...

The concept of a flat Earth dates back to the Bronze Age.  Early Greek philosophers including Pythagoras and later Aristotle were able to empirically develop the concept of a spherical Earth.  Ptolemy, hundreds of years later also used a spherical Earth model in the development of maps and the constructs of latitude and longitude.  How was it that such a developed science could be so easily dismissed in the dark ages?  For hundreds of years, the knowledge and understanding of a spherical earth was documented, yet for over 500 years you were labeled a heretic for even suggesting it.  The crews of Columbus’s initial New World Journey were terrified of the evils of over-speculated sea monsters and the inevitable fall off the edge of the world.  If you are encountering a culture shift in your workplace, then you have nothing to worry about compared what good ole’ Chris endured. Not only did Columbus need to get funding, he needed to recruit a crew of me...