Becoming a Manager

I am now officially a manager! My job title hasn't changed. I wasn't granted a pay raise. I didn't even change positions! Rather, my department finally decided to give me more than one assistant!

One assistant, while usually helpful, is not necessarily a net-gain. Once I figure in the management overhead for delegating, reporting and training, I may gain a few hours a week. Maybe. Now, my training is more effective, as training one assistant can train them all! Maintaining a reporting system now makes economic sense, as more people use it. And, best of all, the network effect begins to serve my purposes as my support team begins to work together for our goals!

I now have funding for 40 hours of student labor year-round, with 20 more over the summer. This is enough to cover a first-level support desk from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, with useful overlap of schedules!

I finished the hiring process two weeks ago, and wow! What a difference several capable assistants can make! I've already begun to make headway in my backlog of support tickets. They are taking initiative and puzzling out good solutions for issues, without much direction from me. All the while, I've had longer spans of time to focus on planning, projects, processing orders for computers, writing documentation and other administrative tasks.

I just feel good. Life is sane again!

I also have realized that I like leading people! Yes, this isn't new to me. But I've never had direct authority over other employees before. I've always been the appointed, or elected, or de facto leader of peers. Having direct authority changes the equations a little. It also means that my efforts for egalitarian, open team work are easily sold and genuinely appreciated.

There will be challenges, of this I'm sure. But, for now, I'm very happy with the results. My team is awesome!