PERSONNEL POLICY MANUAL

3.2 Responsibility of Supervisors

Many persons at M.I.T. have, as supervisors, responsibility for organizing and directing the work of others. These responsibilities fall also on those not clearly designated as supervisors. While the daily responsibilities of academic staff members are primarily their professional and scholarly activities of research and teaching, many among them, especially the faculty, are also supervisors guiding the work of others, including campus research staff members, postdoctoral associates, secretaries, and graduate students.

The responsibilities of supervision include understanding and administering Institute policies governing relations with its employees, giving recognition for work well done and identifying less than satisfactory performance, being concerned with the development and realization of the capabilities of those under supervision, and in other ways seeking to increase the satisfactions of the work and the working environment.

Supervisors should seek to be sensitive to the feelings and attitudes of those they supervise and reach for a mutual understanding of the tasks, terms, and conditions of work. At the same time, they have the obligation to set high standards of performance, to require matching achievement, to reward those who perform well, and to terminate those who are unable or unwilling to meet the expected standards.

Supervisors may not require employees to work on their personal or non-professional affairs, nor may employees be required to perform personal services except where inherent in the nature of the position and defined in the position description.

Supervisors are encouraged to utilize the Institute’s resources available to them for their own and their employees’ professional growth and development, such as the employee development programs organized by the Personnel Department. (See Section 3.7, Employee Development Resources.)