When your manager is not interactive enough

No news is good news…There are basically two types of people in terms of expressing themselves; ones who really are vocal about things and tell you about how they feel and others who only like to talk when it's needed.  We get to deal with both types of people in our daily life and yes they can come with options! 

Option to avoid or engage. Like with your neighbor or any other person without whom you can easily survive, just pass a smile and move on. You don’t need to know the details about what’s going on in their life. But on the contrary, there are people like your Boss, who can really turn your world upside down and you really really wanna know what's going on in their mind.

So, coming back to my initial point of discussion of the types of people; in my experience, it's easier to deal with people who are vocal about their feelings, it may hurt or sting a little bit but they have no baggage or Pandora box that’s going to get opened in your annual reviews. I have had an experience of working with both type of people as my Boss, the ones who had something to say after every meeting;  if I did well it's all praises in front of the whole damn floor and when I stumbled, they were the first ones to point out.  My other type of Boss was equally supportive but least vocal and at first, I thought I am the only one he is treating special as I was new. But then one day he said out front “I only come into the picture when the situation is out of control so if you are not hearing anything from me that means you are doing good..”  in short “No News is Good News”. This type of management is very common these days so you might wanna go through the rest of the article.

Won’t deny it I was a bit disappointed initially as it was like working for a blank wall that is only there to scream or damage control and that too covertly. Down the lane, I got to understand more about this type of management and found my ways to get more out of it.

The bright side is you get your space to do your work your way, to put your ideas into a reality without any hurdle of approvals. There is no micromanagement asking you for updates every hour, you are responsible for how you do your work and they only are interested in results. Until you got the results covered it's your show and your hell are running it!

The downside is the same black wall that actually is only there to intervene when necessary; meaning your boss is still unaware of all of the miraculous work you are doing until being told. This is a fundamental problem as no one would appreciate your work until they know about it.

On that note, I recall one of the incidents that happened with me when I fixed thousands of lines of code and that actually saved crucial man-hours but I being used to my boss recognizing my discoveries on their own didn’t tell my new boss who happens to be the other type one. So, in a team meeting when one of my colleagues was explaining his achievement of saving a few man-hours it slipped out of my mouth how my work saved triple of man-hours that he was just explaining.

What happened next was interesting and unexpected, my the manager stopped me in between and asked me

 “ You did what? “

“And I explained again this time with more details “

and he replied, “why didn’t you told me before ?”

and again me being me “ its just nothing”

But that conversation didn’t definitely end there, he called me and asked me for specific details and got me recognized at the wider group.

Then I understood this may be the trick! No, not waiting for someone else’s achievements and then accidentally slipping out yours and then be generous enough to pretend it was casual. NO! Definitely not! But what I understood was that the person is not bad, he is there to listen but it’s me who need to step up and initiate.  

So, if your manager is busy or seems less interested in your work for whatever reasons you still keep him updated about your work, your achievements, and even your failures. If it’s a success then it's better he hears from you rather than someone else as it will make him look like a person who is not updated with his people’s work. If it’s a failure then he would be your best bid to survive so you should better prepare him for the upcoming disaster.

In terms of “how”, it can be any casual conversation like a normal walk, a coffee break, or any professional option like a team meeting or an impromptu meeting invite. Also, there are ways of telling without even telling!