With the Great Resignation in full effect it seems more and more that a business’ answer to their people wanting to leave is a pay rise. But with 65% of employees choosing to take a new boss over a pay-rise the real problem appears to be hiding in plain sight.

When experts become managers without realising what’s expected of them, they resort to treating their people how they were treated by their manager. Their people can become discouraged and disheartened. Ultimately they leave. The organisation's solution is usually more money. Is taking a pay rise really going to solve that problem?

Tom, our marketing guy was managed by an accidental manager and wanted to share his story…

I was an apprentice working for one such manager at a company that was looking to break into a new category for a very specific product. I already had knowledge of the product so my manager asked me to put together some market research to present as none of the marketing team knew about the product, what it did, where it came from or how it worked.

I started to feel like my manager didn’t hold me as much of a priority.

I worked really hard on the research; perfecting it and making it as detailed as possible. I spent about two weeks in all and was really proud of what I had created. This gave me more drive to present it as I wanted the CEO - who would be present in the meeting - to approve of my work.

I shared it with my manager. She said the work was brilliant. She even shared it with the product team as it was very informative. She then told me that I would be presenting it the following week. I was very confident to present it as I was proud of what I had done.

A couple of days later she said, “I’ve got a lot on that week, I think we have to move it to the week after”. I didn’t feel too bad, but as the day of the rescheduled presentation approached she did it again.

I started to feel like my manager didn’t hold me as much of a priority. This left me very disheartened about my manager and my workplace. 

The day to present got closer again. Can you guess what happened? My manager did it again. For the third time she postponed the work she herself had asked me to do. 

I had spent weeks creating and pouring effort into that presentation so it really started to have a negative effect on me.

When the following week came around (and presenting my research was postponed yet again!) I didn’t bother mentioning it. I had had enough. I also wanted to see if my manager would even notice that I hadn’t presented it yet.

She didn’t say a thing. She completely forgot about the research she’d had asked for. 

65% of employees would chose to take a new boss over a pay-rise

I felt completely undervalued. I felt my manager’s day to day tasks were more important than managing me and my work. Ultimately it drove down my productivity.  I mean, why would you give something your all just to receive a slap in the face in return?

I’m not saying that my work was more important but, at the very least, I would expect my manager to explain what was more important and why. That didn’t occur to them because they were too focussed on remaining hands-on instead of managing me and my expectations.

It seems more and more experts are becoming accidental managers - being given the title of manager without having the skills needed to be a manager. Just because you might be an expert in your given field, that doesn’t mean you have a talent for dealing with people; that you are cut-out to be a manager. 

I was one of the 65% of employees who would chose to take a new boss over a pay-rise. I enjoyed the work environment and got along well with my peers. But there’s never any point taking a raise in pay if you aren’t happy; as they say money can’t buy happiness.

Give your managers time to lead

Making sure your business has managers who can lead your people into the future is super important; to both improve productivity and wellbeing. If you don’t have those managers, it could cost you a lot of time and a lot of money due to the hiring and rehiring process.

Don’t let your manager make the mistake my manager did. Give your managers time to lead. 

If you’d like to find out if your managers have the time to lead, get in touch for a quick chat.