Review the various types of "manager' decisions discussed in the text. Have you had the opportunity to make any of these? Which have been the easiest / hardest? I will offer this insight. For me the most difficult decisions are where I have to decide being fair to one associate versus fair to the group, Example... An associate has a family issue and needs time off and granting this will cause OT for the remaining associates. Tough call....
Todd, that does sound like a very tough decision! If I were the other employees I would be more than happy with the overtime, but I am a worker bee. : )
I have never had the opportunity to be a manger, but I have had to wait on a manager to make a decision for me. Last year I had to ask my manager to come in an extra day to accommodate the extra work load. He told me he would think about it and then let me know. After a whole weekend, he finally let me know on Monday that I could come in an extra day, but was not allowed to go over a certain amount of hours. It worked out great and the busy season is starting again in a few weeks so I will be doing it again.
Response 2
I think the worst time for me was as a shop foreman at a truck repair shop at the height of the recession. I was responsible for assigning work to the techs and it was the slowest I had seen the shop. They were all paid hourly but only if they were punched on a job. I had to constantly keep checking their hours to ensure I was being fair to everyone. I had techs with kids, and w/o kids but I felt that they all deserved equal time. It created tension because the more experienced techs could work on anything and the less experienced techs were limited to what they could do. So each time a job came I had to weigh several factors before assigning it just to fair.
Response 3
The hardest decision for me was having to set down grown men and women and make out an assigned break/lunch schedule. I felt that the team was working well together and I...