Managerial Jobs

[Aster1]

from what i've seen from 30+ yrs in the private sector,

management = passing your tasks downhill so you can go play w/your uber expensive toys.

if something good happens, you take the credit, if something bad happens, you blame an underling.

 

somebody prove me wrong.

 

Well now Bender, life isn't that good at the top for many. I have to manage a fair # of employees and what it means for me is (and I ain't complaining either, but this is my answer to Izzy as well):

 

1) I have to attempt to get them to buy into the way I want things done for my business

2) I have to worry about their well being when making many business decisions

3) I'm responsible with anyone screws up and maybe makes a big $$ mistake and correct (eat) it.

4) When we have a large project with a drop dead deadline, I'm the last one off the job site and home with my family. They often leave ON TIME most every time

5) I have to cover for anyone that doesn't show up or is sick often as I have everyone booked with work and it would fall on me to fill in (didn't get to go ride the Harley, my expensive toy, on those days either.

 

Izzy, the long and the short of it is, I accept the role of "the boss", manager, potentate etc. It costs me dearly in time, stress, and work load. I only hope it pays me dearly if/when the economy improves again & I can sell. For you, decide what you enjoy the most. If you'd rather manager/coordinate staff vs doing the Nursing work for the most part, then the management is a natural. If you like or can make touch decisions that effect peoples lives then you may have the ability too.

 

Aster

[fortyearspickn]

I've recently retired after 30 years in 'management' in hospital systems. I was in finance (MBA/accounting). My wife is an RN. I have seen countless cases of hands on caregivers being tempted by money, prestige and career growth to move 'up' to management. Their Masters programs neglected to tell them that being a Nurse Manager is a completely different job than being a Nurse. They get disgusted with what Milod calls 'politics' and either go back to the floor, or quit nursing all together. Similar examples occur in other clinical professions, not as much in Pharmacy - but mostly in Nursing. Nurse Managers almost universally hated doing their budgets, dealing with the hiring process, trying to plan equipment needs for the next 5 years and related tasks. Those with MSNs tended to give up more often than those who got MBAs.

With the coming changes we can expect from the Affordable Care Act (30 million more getting care they didn't get with no new doctors or money) you might find Management in a Clinical Setting will actually cause you to choose between your staff and your sanity. Forget bonuses. And, to build on Milod's personal anecdote - there are plenty of nurses who work into their 50s. Most don't quit for physical reasons. It's the mental stress of not having enough money to provide the care their patients need. Which is the result of the government paying approximately half the cost of caring for 'their' patients and expecting commercial insurance premiums , doctors and hospitals to make up their shortfall. While drug companies, insurance companies and for profit organizations get rich. This, of course has been going on for at least 20 years. You can't have some groups getting rich in an industry while others are trying to ignore the cost and only provide care. Our Canadian forum menbers may chime in, but they should first remember that wealthy Canadians still come here for their care. Drug companies sell their drugs in Canada for half of what they charge hospitals and patients here. And, last I heard, rationing (although it is called cost control) results in the entire country having as many MRI machines as we have in LA. So, Izzy - decide whether you want to retire young or have a rewarding career. If you want both - invent the Internet or discover another Apple or Google. Otherwise, like the rest of us, you can't have it all. We get paid to do a job, because no one would do it for free. A small number of jobs are done by volunteers. They cherry pick what they'll do and quit if they get 'burned out'. Otherwise - if you want to have a really great time every day, you have to buy a season pass at Disneyland. Sorry for the long version answer to a short version question.

[jimmyl51]

Same thing happened to my wife who was originally an NICU RN. I'm a general dentist. Healthcare in this country of ours is now on its way to a single payer system regardless of what the talking heads on the tube are saying. The insurance companies control healthcare and they control the government. The people don't. jim and mary in Maine ............

[fortyearspickn]

Well now Bender, life isn't that good at the top for many. I have to manage a fair # of employees and what it means for me is (and I ain't complaining either, but this is my answer to Izzy as well):

 

1) I have to attempt to get them to buy into the way I want things done for my business

2) I have to worry about their well being when making many business decisions

3) I'm responsible with anyone screws up and maybe makes a big $$ mistake and correct (eat) it.

4) When we have a large project with a drop dead deadline, I'm the last one off the job site and home with my family. They often leave ON TIME most every time

5) I have to cover for anyone that doesn't show up or is sick often as I have everyone booked with work and it would fall on me to fill in (didn't get to go ride the Harley, my expensive toy, on those days either.

 

Izzy, the long and the short of it is, I accept the role of "the boss", manager, potentate etc. It costs me dearly in time, stress, and work load. I only hope it pays me dearly if/when the economy improves again & I can sell. For you, decide what you enjoy the most. If you'd rather manager/coordinate staff vs doing the Nursing work for the most part, then the management is a natural. If you like or can make touch decisions that effect peoples lives then you may have the ability too.

 

Aster

 

Great Answer! 100% accurate.

Oh, Bender4Life - not to disagree, but it sounds like you don't actually have any experience 'in' management, possibly your views are a result of having worked for a bad manager. Yes, there are bad people, therefore, there are bad managers. Just like there are bad staff workers. Usually bad workers are a result of either having bad attitudes or a bad skill set - tolerated by a bad manager or a union contract instead of being proactively dealt with.

[grampa]

Unfortunately it will just suck the life out of your soul. Hopefully the payoff balances that.

[milod]

I think 40-years-pickin' pretty well nails some of the challenges one might expect in any health care management circumstance other than perhaps pharmacy.

 

OTOH, much as Grampa may have a point and be far more right than wrong, I think one need not have the life sucked from him or her for caring about any sort of "job," paid or volunteer.

 

Yet... it's tough when you care and it seems others don't. That's when a bit of reevaluation is required.

 

m

[kidblast]

Hi Izzy

 

so you're in health care services, not an easy job by any means,..God knows, we all need more good nurses than we need more managers!

 

I'm in IT services.. I'm mostly a hands on kind of guy, about 4 years ago, I was led down the path in the general direction of IT project management, so I did, and I worked really hard at it... and, I hated it. I hated everything about it.

 

I couldn't really do anything, I was a slave to Project plans that were based on dates that didn't matter, trying to get people in other organizations we had to work through to get to things that were my priorities, not there's... I became a person I didn't need or want to be.

 

2 years ago, I was offered another job back in a 3rd tier support position, it's a hands on job, a problem pops up, go fix it, install/setup/deploy servers/services, get your hands dirty, make it happen.. once again, I'm a resource on someone else s project plan, not the one managing the project and hammering people like me to do stuff. the money didn't matter, it was all lateral.. (I was given the title of PM level II, and all the BS associated, but that was all I got)

 

I'm a bit happier doing it this way, although I side also with Rich (rct),, I am doing work I don't exactly love, for a company I could never trust, I know that I am biding my time until I'm forced out due to a layoff, where I will probably have to find another job like this to pay the bills, or I survive till it's time to retire. (10 years at least)

 

you have to ask yourself,

 

do you like what you do everyday?

 

Can you see yourself doing this for another 5/10 years?

 

how ambitious are you?

 

do you care about "advancing" your own career, where the cost is more of your time goes to your job, less for "you" to pursue your own desires (like music)

 

are you interested in being really good at what you do?

 

don't let ANYONE fore a move like this on you unless you can really see yourself going there. if you must seek another place that appreciates the skills you bring to the table, instead of trying to mold you into what they feel you should be.

 

Be as much in control of your future as possible, and at the very least what you feel the most comfortable doing, and let the rest just take care of itself.

 

answer those questions, and you will know what path to take.

 

it doesn't seem to me, from what little I know of you, you're cut out for this kind of change,,

 

otherwise, you wouldn't have asked for insight. you would have just done it.

 

good luck

/Ray