What Managers Really Do At Work: Scientifically Explained

From the “they got funding for this?” department, a new study has conclusively determined what it is, exactly, that your boss does all day.

Unsurprisingly, s/he is mostly sending e-mails and going to meetings.

The study, by Rebecka Arman from the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, entailed Arman shadowing ten managers in the health care sector. Arman found that some managers engaged in 111 activities per day, mostly “communication activities or meetings…they spent most of their days putting out fires and responding to decisions made by managers higher up in the organization.”

The managers also said that they’d much rather be reflecting and strategizing over long-term issues.