So You've Been Promoted, Now What?

[cheryl]

So You've Been Promoted, Now What? - Forbes

I started my career at UPS and worked there for many years. Back then, they had a big promote-from-within culture (and they still do).

One day, I was a driver. The next day, I walked in wearing a suit and tie.

My first operations assignment was overseeing other drivers. Fortunately, the folks in the group I was supervising weren’t folks I had interacted with directly when I was an hourly employee. But six months later, that changed, and I was overseeing a group of guys I had been working with side by side less than a year ago. That presented some challenges that the average newly promoted person may not have to deal with.

 

[zubenelgenubi]

So You've Been Promoted, Now What? - Forbes

I started my career at UPS and worked there for many years. Back then, they had a big promote-from-within culture (and they still do).

One day, I was a driver. The next day, I walked in wearing a suit and tie.

My first operations assignment was overseeing other drivers. Fortunately, the folks in the group I was supervising weren’t folks I had interacted with directly when I was an hourly employee. But six months later, that changed, and I was overseeing a group of guys I had been working with side by side less than a year ago. That presented some challenges that the average newly promoted person may not have to deal with.

I had to deal with this too. It's difficult trying to transition established peer relationships to boss/employee relationships. Leads to a lot of misunderstandings and hurt feelings if you aren't careful.

 

[Box Ox]

So you can't drive until you're 21 at UPS. At age 22-23, this guy was supervising drivers he'd been working side by side with:

"Just a few months into my supervisory work at UPS, one of the older, more seasoned drivers, John, and I did our annual safety ride together. I was there to check on his driving habits and make sure he was driving safely. He was in his late 50s. I was 23."

So he had to have had very little driving experience before he went into management. Bailed out, just like that. Probably couldn't cut it on the road.

No wonder it was super awkward for the drivers he was evaluating.

And what was he doing wearing a suit and tie as an on car supervisor?

 

[zubenelgenubi]

So you can't drive until you're 21 at UPS. At age 22-23, this guy was supervising drivers he'd been working side by side with:

"Just a few months into my supervisory work at UPS, one of the older, more seasoned drivers, John, and I did our annual safety ride together. I was there to check on his driving habits and make sure he was driving safely. He was in his late 50s. I was 23."

So he had to have had very little driving experience before he went into management. Bailed out, just like that. Probably couldn't cut it on the road.

No wonder it was super awkward for the drivers he was evaluating.

And what was he doing wearing a suit and tie as an on car supervisor?

If you take what he wrote literally, he was a driver for exactly one day.