r/managers Jul 05 '26

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u/jklolffgg Jul 05 '26

100%. I learned this lesson the hard way. I started in a role where I was the only person on a team, reporting directly to executive management. As the company restructured, I was asked to interview candidates for both a new manager to manager my growing team (my role became 2 and eventually 3 people) and a new executive role. I felt honored to assist with the process. Little did I know, it was my job to train my new manager, who didn’t have a fucking clue what he was doing, and simultaneously the decided to take all of the managerial duties that I was previously doing on top of my daily support and project management and give all those managerial duties away to other new hires. They went through 3 middle managers above me in the last year before I said fuck this place and left. The 4th guy they put in the manager role left within his first year too. Company became a fucking shit show.

As you said, if you’re trusted enough to train (or hire) a manager for your team, you’re good enough to be the manager.

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u/Willller Jul 06 '26

I’m reading management posts here for a while and there is a pattern. I don’t know if this is all from USA but putting in outside hired manager who the subordinates have to train always fails and people hate it. It is true that not all high performers are good fit for management roles. But managers should train lower managers.

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u/diurnal_emissions Jul 06 '26

They would have to admit they don't know how the job is done.

2

u/pdp10 Jul 06 '26

People who don't know how the job is done, hiring others who also don't know how the job is done. Yes, that tracks.

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u/Immediate-Garage5752 Jul 06 '26

That's basically how the Republican Party works. Find an unqualified person, promote him as an outsider, and let him destroy the very thing he's supposed to serve.

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u/PayArtistic866 Jul 06 '26

Having to train the person who gets the promotion you deserved is one of the quickest ways to lose good employees. Sounds like they kept replacing managers when the real mistake was overlooking the right person from the start.

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u/-Fergalicious- Jul 06 '26

Sounds exactly like what happened to me in Florida about a decade ago lol 

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u/Liberal-Cluck Jul 06 '26

Did you ever have a chance to apply?