Letter to a Supervisor

Lise,

You have indeed always tried to help me, but usually your help is very accusatory. You frame all the problems like they are not your fault, and then keep this air of superiority when explaining the situation. I also hear that you complain to the office about how you have to deal with me. That's certainly not very polite.

You need to realize that the people you work with are all as intelligent and capable as you are. They understand the duties required of them and the way in which they do their work. You don't need to explain at length how they should finish an assignment. You hired these people so you should trust their judgment.

You should also keep a detailed account of what tasks you assign people, because you often forget. This banking issue was a perfect example. True, the school paid me my full severance. I am glad there was proof. Still, I specifically asked you to put all my severance into my KEB account. You and I sat down, and I read my account number to you. We had an entire meeting about it. Unfortunately, as it happened, you didn't relay that information to school, and I had no way to directly access the money once it was given to me. I had to FedEx my bank card to Hana, and from there I had to rely on other people to do my banking for me. The whole ordeal cost me considerable time and money, and it all could have been avoided if you would have remembered a very important piece of information as I gave it to you. And this is just the banking matter. If we wanted to delve into the excess curriculum work that we had to do throughout the year because you often forgot what you instructed us to do in the first place, we could write a ton more emails.

But we should leave the matter as it is. I appreciate you taking the time to handle this banking mix-up. In general you were an agreeable supervisor and a vast improvement upon your predecessor. I do wish you the best of luck with your career. After talking to you, it seems that you have your future well-figured. I hope it goes as you planned. Please, just remember--the people that work for you are intelligent and capable. Allow them to use their own faculties to complete the tasks you assign them. Make sure, moreover, that you are clear and concise with your assignments and that you remember exactly what it is that you assigned. I believe that's absolutely crucial to professional supervision.

Enjoy the school year,

Micah