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As a supervisor, how do you balance not being an asshole without getting walked on?

Quick background: I am a supervisor, not the boss. I can’t fire people and the ultimate decision is the branch manager’s. But I do try to treat people with kindness and respect. I’ve always hated micromanaging bosses and I have made an effort to not do that to my colleagues. However, I feel that I am constantly babysitting. Several of the workers that I supervise seem to need to be told what to do every second of their shift or else they just sit and socialize and do nothing. I have verbally and in writing given tasks and activities that need to be completed during downtime when we are not dealing directly with a customer. I don’t expect people to kill themselves trying to complete unrealistic or unreasonable tasks, but I do expect there to be more work done than watching til tok videos. It’s like herding cats, I have…


Quick background: I am a supervisor, not the boss. I can’t fire people and the ultimate decision is the branch manager’s.
But I do try to treat people with kindness and respect. I’ve always hated micromanaging bosses and I have made an effort to not do that to my colleagues. However, I feel that I am constantly babysitting. Several of the workers that I supervise seem to need to be told what to do every second of their shift or else they just sit and socialize and do nothing. I have verbally and in writing given tasks and activities that need to be completed during downtime when we are not dealing directly with a customer. I don’t expect people to kill themselves trying to complete unrealistic or unreasonable tasks, but I do expect there to be more work done than watching til tok videos. It’s like herding cats, I have to constantly stop what I am doing to break up the social hour. And then I get shit from the actual boss for things not getting done. I want to treat people as adults and not be that asshole supervisor (we’ve all had those) but I feel like I am being forced into it. Any constructive advice would be appreciated.

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