Everyone's A Manager!!

When I first started at Lingua.Ru, I was amazed by the shear number of students that were managers. "So what is your job? " "I'm Manager." "Wow! That’s great! So many Managers here."

It was remarkable. In fact too good that it sounded too good to be true. However as I found out later, it is true. In fact, every single employee is a Manager. Technically, Everyone in Russia is a Manager. With such a top heavy Management Structure, its surprising that the whole thing stays upright. It reminded me of the Fundamentals of Management cartoons. Where two boats were in a race. One boat had one manager yelling and 8 crew paddling. And the other boat had 8 managers, all yelling at one Crew member.

But this isn’t really the case either. Eventually it dawned on me. Supposed “Sales Managers” were in fact, “Sales Assistants”. The word “Manager” is has a somewhat different meaning in Russia. Australian “Sales Managers” organize a team of Sales People. In Russia, a Sales Manager manages sales. So everyone in a retail style shop is essentially a Sales Manager, albeit the Cashiers. They are Financial Managers. They manage money from customers’ wallets and purses into the company cash registers.

Everyone in a factory is a Production Manager and essentially “manage” their individual production stations. Even the Babushkas that clean the Metro Stations are Presentation Managers. They “manage” the presentation of the station. Why, when I started at Lingua.RU, I became a Manager of Education. I “manage” the process of Education.

It must be very demoralizing for Russians to work overseas when they are no longer referred to as “Managers”. I’m sure I will be disappointed that I am unable to retain my title as Education Manager upon my return to Australia.