Sunday Scaries: Managers get scaries too

When you speak to people about their Sunday Scaries, I feel like it's 500%* more common for people to point at their Manager as the cause of their scaries than it is a Manager to point at someone in the team as the cause of theirs.

If you haven't Managed others yet, you might not think that it's possible but when you really simplify things, Managers want to do well and be liked as much as the people in their teams want to do well and have their manager like them.

That Manager might be trying their best for you to like them so you feel engaged and perform well but then their boss is cracking the whip on them to get their team to perform better.

You might have a good relationship with your Manager but then you're not seeing the passive-aggressive messages and 1:1s your colleague is having with them, giving them the Sunday night sweats about the next confrontation.

Those of your that love feedback and validation ask yourself this, when is the last time you told your manager they were doing a good job? Or even just asked how they were doing?

You might be the cause of your managers Sunday Scaries, ever think about that?

*Estimation

You must be on time! You, not me

Years ago I had a manager who loved to point out when someone wasn't at their desk before 9am. Actually, they weren't even my manager, they were just a Senior colleague that loved to be in everyone's business.

Now I'm usually early to things including work. One of my toxic traits is even though I know a 7pm movie won't actually start till about 7:25, I'm still in the theatre at 6:55pm. It's impossible to not eat most of the popcorn and drink most of my coke (which also cost me about $37) before the trailers have even started.

So being early 95% of the time went totally out the window on the days I was late, usually due to City Rail and out of my hands.

BUT when they were late, which was a good 3 days a week on average, it was everyone else's fault. Traffic. The line at the Cafe. Parking.

Those of us that had to cop their comments when we were late had to stifle ourselves when they rattled off all the reasons they turned up at 9:30, again.

It's one of the most annoying styles of management I've come across, the contradictory clock watcher.

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