I have this manager that drives me nuts. If you’ve never worked in a corporate setting, there’s a specific type of executive you run into every so often that is really high up in the company, but very clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.
One such executive is one of my direct managers we’ll call Andy. I work as a marketing specialist and Andy is the Creative Director, which means he doesn’t technically need to influence my job and the work I do, but Andy loooooves to look like he’s making big decisions and getting results. So he bosses around everyone that he’s able to.
Andy comes up to me one day and says “Hey, you need to do your job like this, instead of like that.” Now, I’m more than happy to take constructive criticism from people who know more than me, but I also happen to be really good at my job and know when I’m being told something that’s a bad idea. So I explain to Andy “that’s going to negatively affect my numbers because of X Y and Z.” Andy isn’t having it. He’s going off about how he’s the creative director and I need to listen to him.
So I decided to learn from stories I’ve read here and said “Okay, will you get me that in writing so I can document the process?” and Andy was more than happy oblige. I made the changes to my campaigns that he suggested and sure enough- my numbers TANKED over the next 2 weeks. When I was approached by the CEO and asked why I wasn’t performing as well as I had, I happily directed my boss to the email from Andy telling me exactly what changes to make and my objections to them.
Andy has been getting chewed out in the CEOs office for the last half hour. I don’t think Andy will be telling me how to do my job anymore.