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Wearing Too Many Hats At Work
The restaurant captain is an old Taiwanese man who chews too much pinlang, and his smile is always that of a vampire. He seats us at a table near the far end of the restaurant, away from much of the noisy mostly crowd Taiwanese crowd in his popular Taiwanese restaurant. Then he doesn’t bother to let me order, choosing instead to have me eat the dishes of his choice.
The meal begins which chilled crushed greenbeans with ice, and blurs into a potpurri of basil leaf chicken, taiwanese chillied cod and a large bowl of bittergourd soup. Rice is served the Taiwanese way, with shredded stewed pork.
As I ate, I recall the events of the day. This morning, I had been called into another department’s meeting because the BIG BOSS had told me that he was having problems with them since their manager left. I said I would help out wherever possible and he told me to just come attend the meeting. I assumed foolishly at the time that it was to observe and advice.
The meeting commenced with everybody introducing themselves, and when it came to my turn - the BIG BOSS announced to everybody that I was their new Acting Dept Manager. In this way, the BIG BOSS had cut off any escape route possible for me to decline the role.
So I suddenly find myself now saddled with a rather large department in addition to my current one. And I’ve also inherited all their issues too.
Shortly after that, I contacted my actual superiors back at Regional HQ in Singapore. They were also at a loss over the turn of events.
I believe there are two kinds of managers. The first type is the type that actually know what they are doing and can function without their subordinates because they know how to do everybody’s job. I don’t fall into that category.
I happen to be the second type of manager - I have absolutely no idea what the hell I am doing most of the time. All my strength lies in the fact that I have incredibly great subordinates, and my only skill is making sure that I move them around as if I were playing a game of chess. In other words, I set the direction we’re supposed to be headed to and then get the hell out of the way for them to do their job.
Of course, I know that I’m actually useless - and my subordinates also know my limitations. But they know they rise and fall with me - and of course, I take incredibly good care of them. My nightmares are filled with scenarios where they quit on me in disgust. But like I say, I take good care of my people, and my people do eat well.
So I suddenly find myself saddled with another group of people whom I barely know. Most of the problems are incredibly foreign to me, but seem like another exercise in careful chess playing. My superiors are not 100% happy with this new hat I am wearing, but then if I don’t do it - they don’t know who else is going to as well.
So I am flying back to Singapore tomorrow (Thursday) and headed right back to China the following Monday immediately because there’s just too much work to be done.
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