Ivy says:
As I’ve said here about 50 million times, Mr. Ivy is a restaurant manager. One of the common themes in our conversations is how other people manage the restaurant and how it meshes (or doesn’t mesh) with his own management style. Within your own household, you and your significant other will have different management styles as well. So let’s look at a few types of management styles and what works best together.
Want to learn more about personalities? Check out Personality Plus: How to Understand Others by Understanding Yourself
The Micromanager: The micromanager is the sort of person who is on top of everything. I know a woman who you could ask anytime, any place, how many cans of peaches she had in her pantry and she could tell you exactly how many she had and exactly where they were. Heather’s a good example of a micromanager. She sets you to a task and keeps on top of whether or not you’ve done the task. Micromanagers are best paired with idealists.
The Idealist: The idealist is good at figuring out better ways to do things. Idealists tend to be scattered, however, and sometimes fall down on the actualizing part. When paired with a micromanager, who plows through and gets tons of things done, they can accomplish miracles. I’m a perfect example of an idealist. I come up with ways to organize things, or a new method of laundry doing. I just don’t always get the actual work of it done. With the help of my minions children and Mr. Ivy though, I do get a lot done.
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.The Steady One: The steady one has a set routine. They don’t work particularly fast, they don’t work particularly slowly. When a decision needs to be made, they may deliberate far too long when an answer needs to come right away. But they are like clockwork with getting things done and making sure others do their fair share as well. They are best paired with firemen.
The Fireman: Yeah, I’d like to be paired with a fireman, too. Oh, wait. Not that sort of fireman. Like real firemen, these people spend a lot of time lounging around until an emergency happens. When the emergency (aka surprise mother-in-law visit) happens, they spring into action. They make quick decisions which means they are paired well with the steady one.
And finally:
The Slacker: Identified by piles of junk in the closet, cupboard, or just out in plain sight. The slacker can usually be turned around and made to work hard, but it takes a real taskmaster to do it. Best paired with: Nobody
So, Home Eccers- I must ask you, what is your management style? What’s your partner’s style?
Send your domestic questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.
I’m the micromanager married to the idealist. Miracles are an understatement my friend. (built 3 houses in 10 years).
I can say, without hesitation, that I am an Idealistic Fire(wo)man MicroManager type.
I am great at making plans and coming up with ideas. Occasionally, I get things implemented for a whole week at a time! But I usually get things done on a putting-fires-out basis.
However, I am one hoopy chick who knows where her towel is, as well as the rest of her stuff. If you use my stuff, (which I do not mind) you’d BETTER put it back where it goes, coz not knowing where my stuff is at drives me crazy. (And you wouldn’t like me when I’m crazy.)
Other people don’t know exactly how many cans of peaches there are in the pantry at a given time? I’m. . . a bit bewildered by this news, actually. I guess I’m a micromanager. Interesting.
I honestly couldn't even tell you if I have a can of peaches or not…I'm sure I do?
I’d say I’m an idealist who’s a little worse at actualising than most. (Housework doesn’t count if it’s only done in my head?!) I do, however, know where everything in the mess is, unless someone moved it behind my back. But I think that has more to do with my excellent spatial memory and less to do with actual micromanaging.
My husband is a steady one. So a little does get done.
I’m a steady micromanager, but I can be idealistic at times and have put out my fair share of fires. My husband is always an idealist, but depending on the day he’ll also be steady or a fireman.
I would say I am the Idealist, I am rally good at thinking up ideas and even half finishing ideas. I am married to a Idealist too… it makes life very interesting sometimes.
I’m an idealist and I’m married to a slacker. Yes, I am eternally frustrated and my house is frequently a disaster area.
Lets see: i know where everything is — unless the children ask for something of theirs then it’s ‘i don’t know, maybe i ate it’ — of course i know where it is, but the point is that they need to take better care of their stuff!!!!!!!!!
i’m an idealist/firewoman/slacker — the worst kind of manager to be and i’m paired with children 🙂
depending on whether or not Im working outside the home or not im either the steadyone or fireman/slacker (contradictory I know) and my husband….is a slacker (identified by the piles of random stuff all over his desk)
when I have the time I have a routine and stick to it. unfortunatley when im working most of the time my apartment gets out of control untill I invite people over and then i go into the apartment must be clean 2 days ago mode! (just experience this yesterday actually as my inlaws really did come for a visit)
I do have my idealist moments as well, i have great plans for getting my whole apartment actually organized and not just clean (there is a difference) but never seem to get past the initial stages of implementation. I’m working on that however
Uh, I think the spouse and I are *both* slackers/firefighters. This is trouble. 🙂
I think I'm tied with the Micromanger and the Steady One. I have to be completely organized or the world comes to an end. If I don't know where something is I have a mini break down. But, I'm very methodical with how I clean. I do every chore the same way, all the time. That's just how I've always done it. My parent or another family member taught me how to do it one way, and I never questioned another way. I clean thorough, when I clean, but I have to know where all my cleaning supplies are before I get started LOL I'd say my boyfriend is an Idealist. Although he does help far more than I expect him to really. The only conflict we have is that the way I do things is sometimes (most of the time) not the easiest, and I get frustrated when he has a new (and mostly better) idea of how it should be done. This throws years worth of practice away LOL
I'd say im a idealist/fireman: I try to keep things smoothly because i live with a slacker, but every once in a while the usual routine has to be amp periodically because i have to take up the slack of said Slacker.
Idealist with a Slacker boyfriend. SIGH. I have very high expectations for my home… he doesnt. Not a recommended combination.