What exactly do supervisors and managers and above do everyday? My supervisor is either in a meeting or on a call almost everyday, and seems like every 3-4 hours they have to go to a meeting or hop on a call. So my question is, for sups or whoever is familiar, what the heck exactly do these sups do everyday? No way you will have so much to say if you go on a meeting almost everyday for 4-5 hours a day?
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@s2 My supervisor never have time to answer my questions when i have one. I am in call center, so sometimes on a call i have an issue i cant solve so i would message my supervisor. And hes either always telling me he is in a meeting, ask him later, or just give me a link to a set of questions/article or refer me to some website which i then have to scroll and find the answers my self. So i am curious how important these meetings are that he cant just assist with finding answers to some basic questions.
I’m low level manager and I’m in meetings usually 7-9 hours a day. Then I get to do my actual work. I am always confused by managers who micromanage. Who had time for that?
I will say, Centene is meeting happy. I have meetings about meetings. Most could be an email. Hr, It, leadership. It. Never. Ends.
Ohhhh trust me, I used to wonder the same thing until I became one! supervisors aren’t “just sitting in meetings,” they’re basically the human glue holding everything together.
Supervisors spend their day juggling about 14 different fires at once. It’s constant tracking, coaching, fixing attendance issues, putting in PTO, updating time sheets because someone inevitably messed theirs up, answering calls, dealing with grown‑adult drama, implementing new processes from higher‑ups, and being the emotional support animal for an entire team. Every problem personal or work becomes your problem.
And while you’re doing all that, you still have your own goals, metrics, and career growth to worry about. You’re trying to develop your team, keep morale up, hit numbers, and somehow not lose your mind in the process.
Those meetings? Half the time they’re about new changes, new expectations, new metrics, new issues, or new fires that need to be put out ASAP. Supervisors aren’t talking for 4–5 hours because they want to they’re talking because every department needs something from them.
It’s a mentally exhausting, thankless job. You don’t understand how much they do until youve been in their shoes
Please, feel free to scream about management, but if you're clocking off after 8 hours, you have no idea when your people leaders are getting their work done. I have completed tasks at 10:00 p.m. as well as at 3:00 a.m. Who knows? You may have received an email from me at 11:30 at night, answering some trivial question that I have answered multiple times.
PL here, My day consists of meeting with my manager, first thing in the morning - to update on workflow - how much work is pending. Then, we have a meeting with our staff, to let them know of the same thing (could have been an email - but we are directed by the VP that we have to have the morning meeting). During the day, we have more calls with other departments - to go over audits/errors that came through the week prior. Then we have more calls - with Directors/Managers to go over compliance or stuff that was out of compliance - the weeks prior. Then we have to reach out to specific staff - who was on those reports and coach them about the mistakes made. On top of that - I personally get a lot of emails with reports that need to be reviewed and validated and those are different...so I review, reach out to staff... THEN - every hour on the hour - I have to see how much work is pending (this is a production based environment) and I have to see how much work my staff has in their personal queues - and I have to assign out more... HOURLY... so that's where my days go. Lots of calls...lots of reports... Please stop lumping us in with the senior leadership - we are just trying to make a paycheck too.
When I do annual reviews - I realize that I honestly don't get paid that much more than the people who report to me... its a lot of work, a lot of unnecessary stress. I have gotten an ulcer and horrible anxiety while here. And now - this. I personally hope I get denied the VSP - because I have no plan B. But took it as a precaution.
PL here - see a lot of demonizing here for us, but I legitimately work at least 80 hours each week and a lot of that is me trying to keepu team from being overwhelmed - I do menial stuff in addition to the expectations of my role because I know my team members make less money and it's even less fair for them to be overwhelmed. this year along I've worked through cancer and a heart problem - I didn't go on leave the first time to keep my team from being overwhelmed and the second time I didn't to help us position ourselves as best as possible before these layoffs. Please stop lumping people leaders together negatively - many of us care a lot about our teams and also a have just as much to lose.
I was even willing to take a demotion and pay cut to keep others from losing their job, which is something sentence should have asked of of all leaders befor the VSP or RIFs.
Meetings and late nights to do actual work for me.
A big part of my day is working through really complex and cross functional issues that can only get resolved in meetings.
Multitasking during those calls is required. We read and reply to emails, teams chats, time off requests, and let mandatory training run in the background. Oh, and sometimes get time for coffee and lunch.
My manager is usually triple booked with meetings all day. They have so many meetings they can't even go to all of them.
Surely you’ve already done a thorough calendar creep on Outlook?
Former VP here--I spent upwards of 10 hours a day on meetings. It was mind-numbing.
My PL (Senior Director) is in meetings for 9 hours per day every single day.
Absolutely ridiculous.
@a8 Sounds like a horror story! I’m so glad my PL does not micromanage.
@aa Same with my husband. Constantly in meetings daily and always have to produce reports and coach staff. I have asked about his work and he always tell me a cr-p load of stuff he does daily/weekly. So they’re not sitting back twirling their fingers.
@a8 I do wonder sometimes if the CEO has monitoring software on their work computer and work phone and constantly being monitored and being flagged if say they show away for over 10 minutes.
I’m kidding! Happy Friday! Lol
I think about this daily, lol
Although, seeing my husband in so many unnecessary meetings a day for his company kinda makes me wonder if that's the same thing-- idk, but it's crazy. Seems like the meetings are more frequent now with the upcoming RIF and VSP, but yet there's so much they seem to not know or be sharing. Sigh.
They only micromanage and monitor what the real workers are doing.
I wonder the same thing!