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Is Management for Me?: The Downside of Being a Manager Your Guide to Management. The Downside of Being a Manager Nobody likes the boss and it's lonely at the top. You're the person who always has to make the decision, right or wrong, and somebody is always out for your job. On top of that there are legal liabilities that non-managers don't have as well as financial restrictions.  Lonely At The Top You are not as close to the employees in your group when you are the boss. You can't afford to be. A manager needs to be a little removed from the employees in order to objectively make the hard decisions.  Many first time supervisors, promoted from within the group to supervise it, are amazed at how quickly former friends become cold and distant. Even an experienced manager, brought in from outside, finds the employees more aloof than they are with each other.  No Immediate Reinforcement A painter gets almost immediate feedback on whether or not he's doing a good job.  Is the paint the right color; is it going where it should. A programmer also finds out pretty quickly whether or not a new sub-routine runs. Management isn't that way. Goals are usually more long-term, quarterly or even annual. The real measure of a manager's success, an improvement in their people management skill is even more long term and more difficult to manage.  If you want immediate feedback on how well you're doing, try widget manufacturing. If you can wait months or longer for feedback, management may be for you.

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