Reference no: EM133390704

Case Study: You are the business office supervisor at Community Hospital. At 9:00 this morning, your boss, the controller, called you to his office for "a little chit-chat, 10 minutes or so, on where we stand getting the new procedure manual finished." You scooped up the proper papers and went to his office, bracing yourself because you knew how frustrating these sessions could be.

When you entered and seated yourself, your manager was shuffling through the desktop clutter looking for a particular document. At the same time he found the document he also found a pink telephone message slip apparently left over from the previous day. He said, "Uh-oh, should have done this yesterday. Hang on just a minute."

The "minute" turned into a quarter hour as he transacted some business and engaged in some social conversation. You fidgeted, wondering, as you always did at such times, whether you should get up and leave and return when he was free.

You were perhaps 5 minutes underway with the true subject of your meeting when the telephone rang. The boss answered it himself, although there was a secretary available who could have taken the call. This time it was 10 minutes before you could return to the subject of the meeting. Before you concluded your business, your manager had taken two more calls and made a brief additional call for something he "just remembered."

When at last you were finished to the boss's satisfaction you rose to leave. He rose also, reaching for his empty coffee mug. On his way out of the office he glanced at his watch and said, "Wow, 10 o'clock already. Time sure flies."

You made no comment. You were well aware that the pile of work on your desk had gotten no smaller while you were tied up for a full hour trying to accomplish about 10 minutes worth of true work.

Questions:

1. What assumptions about his time and your time are implicit in your manager's behavior?

2. What can you possibly do - or try to to do - to encourage your manager to show more respect for your working time?

3. To pose a question that is considerably broader than time management alone: Of what serious management errors is your manager apparently guilty?