Who’s Got The Monkey
The article “Who’s Got The Monkey?” by William Onken, Jr. and Donald L. Wass is how to manage management times. A manager must understand the content of his work and do not attempt to take all the monkeys that not belong to him; otherwise, he will soon discover that he is not only drowning with the responsibilities but also robbing his subordinates the experience of learning. In the article, it clearly defines the three types of times that one needs to manage. First, the boss-imposed time is the time for accomplishing activities that assigned by the boss. Second, the system-imposed time is the time for supporting peers. Third, the self-imposed time consists of subordinate-imposed time, which is taken by his subordinates, and the discretionary-imposed time that is the time of his own. The key is one need to learn how to shorten the subordinate-imposed time and enlarge the discretionary-imposed time. By doing that, he can leverage his discretionary-imposed time to have the boss-imposed and the system-imposed time under control. One way to eliminate the subordinate-time is to ensure the subordinates initiate and take on the responsibilities. The subordinates shall schedule weekly meeting to review the status or any issues that arises together with the manager and other stake holders. The manager’s job is to provide assistant to the subordinates but not to perform the job for the subordinates. In this article, monkey is an analogy of responsibility.
Like many parents, I have a responsibility to take care of my children. My husband and I brought the children into the world, hence it is our responsibility to take care of them. It is very unfair to shift that responsibility to other people or to the society. For my part, I have to make sure they are well fed before they go to bed or go to school, make sure they keep warm in the cold days, make sure they do their homework, make sure they behave and be good citizens, and occasionally take them to after school activities My ultimate goal is to ensure that they will grow up independently, healthily, and responsibly because the more independent they are, the less responsible I have to be.
My next monkey is my job, and it is fairly important because it helps to support my number one monkey. At work, I have a responsibility to perform as what the company pays me for and to perform with my best ability. Beside that I also have a responsibility with my coworkers. Together as a team, we are responsible for supporting each others, and ensuring a healthy, harmony, and productive working environment.
My third monkey is myself. It is extremely important for one to pay attention to his body and state of mind. Without taking care of this monkey, there would be no energy left to do any other monkeys. I feed my children with healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so I also deserve the best meals. Exercise is also part of my daily task as it helps to relieve the stress from family and work. On the not busy day, I like to read, and I read everything from leisure to technical materials. I like to take leisure walk to a close by coffee shop in the early Saturday morning rain or shine.
Recently I received a monkey that was not mine. A coworker first asked me to assist her debugging the packet cable feature on her test bed, but later it became mine. The reason for the boss asking me to take over it was because I was the last who worked on this feature, and she swamped with other assignments. This monkey did take much of my time and energy, but I cannot walk away. However, looking at the bright side, this is all about teamwork that once in a while we need to support each others.
In the article “Who’s the Monkey?” Corey clearly demonstrates the important of controlling the boss-imposed, system-imposed and self-imposed times. By taking responsibilities that belong to other people, the manager cannot leverage the self-imposed time to control the boss and system-imposed times . Instead of doing other people’s job, a better and more efficient way is to empower the subordinates to take the ownership and be accountable from the beginning to the end. Controlling management times is crucial, and by knowing how much he can and cannot do, it can be achieved.

Oncken, W., & Wass, D. (1999, November-December). . HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, (), 8.