Ken Marks: Bad managers as types in Dante's circles

[Ken and I go way back, to 1970's IBM in San Jose, California. Reading his cast of bad managers actually makes me feel less bad about my own recent experience. And I bet he could identify a few more types from among the dozen managers to which he alludes....]

Courtesy University of Texas at Austin
(lots of incisive graphics)

It's impossible for me to pick a single Bad Manager story. At least a dozen managers in my work history are Dantesque figures whose characters vary in all the textures of venality, timidity, pomposity, oafishness, and treachery that you might imagine. To pick one would be as capricious as awarding a Razzie for worst movie of the year. But maybe you'll permit me to offer a sample.     I recall The Bitch On Wheels. It was her great pleasure to "clean house" by writing appraisals full of the imaginary misdeeds of her department members. A least a third of the members were fired to show that IBM, with its profits shriveling in the early 90's, was setting a higher standard. Her manager, whom I dubbed The Enabler, was happy to demonstrate to her superiors that the bar had been raised.
    Then there was The Apparatchik. She was a details person who looked at everything but your work. The slightest deviation from the party line would bring a sigh, a head shake, and a "needs improvement" entry in your record.
    The award for most pitiful would go to The Milquetoast. He never presented an original idea to the department. They scared him. He insisted on nothing, but every so often he'd offer a mild criticism. However, if you helped him to see where he was mistaken, he'd immediately withdraw it. There was never any point in walking into his office and saying, "I'm afraid we have a problem." His brain would freeze at once. I was told that every five years or so, he'd resign and live a couple of years as a hobo, after which he'd be rehired.
    I'll finish with The Nonentity. He was much like The Milquetoast, except he was capable of showing enthusiasm and listening to a problem. His most salient characteristic was that, like so many other managers, he was perfectly transparent. It happened, though, that he was my manager at a time when management had decided to wring every drop of energy out of its workforce. We were truly pumping out mindless crap, and yet we were asked to take the time to find ways to improve our morale! Dutifully, The Nonentity endorsed every cruelty on management's agenda. Whoever he once was, his humanity had been squashed down inside him to the point of invisibility. He had become an amoral coward.