A supervisor’s job varies from company to company, but generally involves supervising work, training new employees, providing performance reviews, creating work schedules, and implementing management’s wishes. They may also address employee issues, be involved in hiring, and recommend employee raises. The position can be difficult and may involve unpleasant tasks, but can also provide higher pay and be a stepping stone to higher level management jobs.
A supervisor holds a job title that can vary wildly from company to company. In many companies, the supervisor’s job is to supervise the actual work the company produces, train new employees in their jobs, provide performance reviews, and create work schedules. The supervisor in some situations may do some of the work, or may simply implement management’s wishes and work on employee training and production, liaising with employees and managers, and occasionally assisting with the work as needed.
The position may have a lot of responsibility or relatively little depending on each company’s definition. Sometimes the supervisor is simply the primary person for a particular section of a company. In sales, supervisors are commonly required to sell merchandise as well, and occasionally the title supervisor is assigned to reliable staff in retail stores who handle a few more tasks than the average salesperson, such as granting returns and producing books for the night.
In larger companies, supervisors may perform numerous tasks. They may have to address employee issues directly, taking disciplinary action when necessary. They are often involved in the process of hiring new employees and may sit on a panel with managers and other supervisors to make choices about who gets hired. They implement the safety recommendations of the employees and, of course, issue the orders requested by the managers or executives of the companies.
Most supervisors cannot directly hire or fire people. At least they don’t necessarily make the decision of who stays or goes to a company. Many have the unfortunate task of passing on the news to employees that their services are no longer needed, and can deal with the last minute details associated with a person’s termination of employment.
Also, a supervisor usually fails to make decisions about employee raises, except that they can recommend an amount to managers based on employee performance. If a company decides not to make raises during a given year, the supervisor cannot override this decision, since he has no control over the budget. Sometimes employees see these “enforcers” as carrying bad messages, when a company is not doing well and workers are not given minimum wage increases.
It’s true that supervisors often have to be the “bad guys” in an organization and have to do a lot of unpleasant tasks to appease upper-level management. Even a good supervisor may not be appreciated by employees as a pawn of management and at the same time be under constant pressure from management to improve work output. In some cases it can be an unfortunate position, because it may not win many friends.
The term middle management can refer to supervisors with a lot of power, but in general this position is just one step above the average employee. He or she escalates employee complaints and tries to escalate legitimate issues to management, but that doesn’t mean the supervisor has any control over the outcome of the complaints or issues they find. It can be a difficult position in some cases, although many enjoy the duties of training new workers, job scheduling, and helping prepare or develop other employees for promotion. Pay is generally higher than that of the average employee, which can provide an added incentive to do supervisory work. The position can be seen as the first step towards higher level management jobs.
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