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Reports and Manager in same row

  • February 28, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 54 views
M

Hi,
I want a table with employees and their direct reports and have the manager be automatically determined. I had this working using an intermediate table and cross-linking, but then the org chart block didn’t work since it must be a self-referencing link. Now I’m trying to figure out a way to get the same result but using a single table with self-referencing links.

Employees:

Joe

  • Direct Reports [Bill, Ed]
  • Manager = None

Bill

  • Direct Reports [None]
  • Manager = Joe

Ed

  • Direct Reports [None]
  • Manager = Joe

When using the table in this scenario, you only need to add Direct Reports, Manager would be calculated

My current workaround is of course to have just another single field called Manager and the user manually selects the manager but it’s easy to make mistakes this way.

Possible?

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    2 replies

    W
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    • W_Vann_Hall
    • Inspiring
    • March 1, 2019

    As far as I know, even after the recent enhancements to self-linking fields, Airtable still does not create a reciprocal link for self-links. That is, when you create a Manager -> Direct Report link using two tables, Airtable automatically creates a back link from Direct Report -> Manager. However, when you make the same sort of link — Manager -> Direct Report — in a self-linked table, no corresponding back link is created: Hence, there is no way to calculate Manager. If you’re going to use a self-linked table — which you will, if you wish to use the Org Chart Block — you’ll have to make explicit bidirectional links…

      M
      • McSteve
      • Author
      • New Participant
      • March 1, 2019

      Got it, thanks. That’s kind of what I figured. I went round and round trying to come up with every possible way to make it work and it didn’t seem possible. :frowning_face:

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