I was forced today

[soldierant]

75. If one can't keep track of what one's workers are supposed to be doing

in at least enough detail that one knows what kind of results to expect and be able to see from the results what is getting done and who is doing it, I don't consider that a competent manager.

And if the department is so big that no one human could do that, then the department is too big - it needs to be divided into smaller groups, each with it's own manager, and the overall manager needs to get that information from the junior managers.

If you thought I meant you, not your bosses, I apologize. That was not what I meant at all. I meant up the chain where managers need to have workers to tell them every week what they do. As a manager, I preferred to have workers working, not collecting statistics. (And when I was a worker - we all start somewhere - I preferred working to keeping a diary on what I was doing. Collecting the information would have taken time away from work and made me less effective)