PLEASE STOP FORWARDING ME ARTICLES YOU READ ON LINE, I ALREADY SAW THEM!

Dear Stephen:

The most annoying thing. I have one of those bosses who is always forwarding me and others on my work team “self-help” type articles she reads on-line from newspapers, newsletters, magazines … anywhere! It could be the LA TIMES, WAPO or WSJ - this woman loves e-blasting them out to me and my colleagues. Always with a brief note with her take on why we should be reading it. I think she thinks she is coaching us, or maybe managing her team with these strategies she read on line. I don’t know how she has the time to read all this stuff that I find clogging my e-mail. God forbid it goes to SPAM and I overlook it because it is often the topic of our weekly team meeting. Does she thinks this makes her a better manager? Showing off by curating other people’s “white papers”? I cannot stand it anymore nor can many of my co-workers. Some of us make little jokes about the profusion of articles, such as “help yourself to some self-help”, but, of course, always verbally and certainly not on the company email.

We all have access to every newspaper and magazine in the world today and it seems like everyone is constantly looking at their smart device. I am very much about self-improvement but there is very little in new content that she sends that I did not already see. Her weekly epistles feel like homework assignments when our jobs are busy enough. Worse is I feel like this pattern is defining her as a manager - does she think being a good manager means being a good article curator? Her critics, me among them think she is just sharing other people’s management philosophies instead of coming up with original ideas specific to our own team’s productivity.

Recently I wanted to send her an article I read entitled: “People do not leave Bad Jobs, they just leave Bad Bosses”. Hey, I like my job and usually even my boss, but this on line article sharing is just too much. I get it from friends, relatives, my wife and now my boss.

Signed,

Mailbox Full!

Dear Full!

Wow, you have a lot to say about a fairly minor problem. First let me point out I’m getting a vibe from your letter (and often it is hard to know for sure what is in a writer’s head based on the short letters I receive) that you really do not like your boss. Your perceived burden of the weekly article she sends you is just the excuse. You do not like her! The article you mention above is true - people rarely leaves jobs because they do not like the job, they leave a job because they do not like there immediate supervisor. Maybe it is time to look for a new job. There are certainly plenty of jobs around right now.

As far the specific question you have for me about being inundated with emails from your boss, it happens to everyone. And I am guilty of it myself. I may be reading something I think a friend or relative or even someone I work with will enjoy, and I’ll forward it to them. My friends have told me that I can “over-forward” (my employees probably feel that way too!) and I’m sure they’re right. After reading your letter I think I need to slow that down myself. However there is a big difference between sending an article on the latest diet or exercise craze, or recipes, restaurants or celebrity gossip, which is what I do, and hijacking a story on management from Forbes or the NY Times and sending them out each week as the next best thing in management solutions for your work team. I think her intentions are good, and her heart’s in the right place and she may be excited about what she read but it is overkill! A good leader comes up with her own ideas and leads by example – not the example of others. I would advise your boss or any manager reading this to digest what you read, analyze how it applies to your company and team and create your own version of it, sort of a “white paper” that your own team can implement. Then, at a team meeting, give credit to the original article that inspired the idea. And don’t do it every week – no one can digest that much new information, that frequently. It is that simple.

Similarly, for employees and employers who read my column, take from it what you like and make it your own. I hope you can learn from it and if it applies to you, great. There is no greater form of flattery then to copy someone’s good idea. And no one knows that better than me because every time I turn around some unemployed furniture executive calls me to tell me they want to become a head hunter!  Now go get your resume ready and figure out why you are complaining about something so trivial.

Stephen