Who's the boss? Many workers say they have more than one, and that's causing frustration¹ and confusion in the office.

谁才是老板？许多员工表示自己的老板不止一个，这造成了职场中的困惑以及沮丧。

More than two-thirds of employees around the world say they have to consult with more than one boss to get their jobs done, according to a Gartner survey, and nearly as many waste significant amounts of time waiting for guidance from senior leaders.

Gartner Inc.的一项调查结果显示，在来自世界各地的受访者中，逾三分之二的公司职员表示自己在完成工作任务时必须向不止一个老板征询意见，而认为自己在等待上级领导指示时，浪费了大量时间的职员占比也接近这一水平。

The lack of clear goals has caused some employees to try to manage their managers.

由于缺乏清晰的目标，部分职员必须反过来尝试“管理”他们的管理者。

A few years ago at a prior² job, Girish Rishi had a boss who got distracted by every minor³ crisis or triumph, leading to "whiplash" for his subordinates, says Mr. Rishi, now chief executive of JDA Software.

JDA软件集团高管吉里什·瑞希称，在几年前的上一份工作中，他的老板总是因一些小得小失而分心，导致下属们忽东忽西，无所适从。

"If there was news about a competitor, it would take up half your day," he says. "If there was a customer win, the celebration would go on too long. Focusing on structure and priorities was missing."

他表示：“如果出现了关于某个竞争对手的新闻报道，这会耗上你半天时间。如果签下了一个客户，庆祝的时间往往持续得过长。对架构和优先次序的关注不复存在。”

Mr. Rishi says he tried his best to insulate his team from the chaos⁴. He also developed his own management system based around efficiency.

瑞希称，当时他尽全力让自己的团队避开这种混乱局面。他还围绕效率的提升创建了一套自己的管理体系。

领导的数量太多 会使得工作效率低下

At JDA, a maker⁵ of supply-chain software, he requires meetings to be intensely focused and only eight or 30 minutes long, and he asks participants to submit materials 48 hours in advance.

在JDA公司，他要求各会议高度紧凑，且只持续8分钟或30分钟，同时他要求与会者提前48小时提交材料。

While that isn't always possible, Mr. Rishi says, he finds that for roughly 70% of all meetings, "people come prepared, they've summarized their thoughts and they've given us adequate information."

虽然不可能次次尽善尽美，但瑞希表示，他发现在约70%的会议上，“大家都有备而来、阐述核心观点且言简意赅。”

Bosses now manage, on average, nine direct reports, up from five in 2008, according to Gartner, which can spread leaders so thin that they don't have a close grasp of what their employees are doing.

根据Gartner提供的数据，目前各企业管理人员平均每人管理九名直接下属，较2008年的五名大幅增长。在这种情况下，管理者们分身乏术，无法详细掌握下属们工作情况。

Only about 35% of employees surveyed in the Gartner poll last year say their manager understands their day-to-day work.

在接受Gartner调查的企业职员中，仅有约35%的人认为上司了解自己的日常工作情况。

"Managers are less likely to provide good feedback and coaching when they don't understand what that employee's workflow is," says Brian Kropp, human-resources-practice leader at Gartner.

Gartner公司人力资源管理实践负责人布莱恩·克洛普指出：“在不了解员工日常工作流程的情况下，管理者们提供有效反馈和指导的可能性有所降低。”