Boss favoritism creates unfair and uncomfortable situations, but again the way to deal with it involves documentation, says Johnson. Keep an eye on company policies that your boss is violating or overlooking, and be ready with specifics if you ever need to defend yourself or raise the subject with someone higher up. “If you sit back and do nothing about it,” Johnson says, a boss’s favoritism toward another employee “can reflect badly on you.”
Cara’s boss never lost her temper, but she had unrealistic expectations.
“No matter what I did, it was never enough for my first boss,” she said. “She didn’t realize how many things I had become responsible for in the first year since I’d been hired.”
The Unreasonable Boss
A close relative of the boss who goes berserk is the boss who has expectations that range from unreasonable to impossible—and this is another case where documentation comes in handy.
“Some bosses see the whole picture, but they don’t see all the details,” says Johnson. “You have to show them.”
To deal with a boss whose expectations are unrealistic, Johnson advises making a work study. That is, make a list of what you work on and for how long, over a period of a few days that are representative of your typical work load. “Then you take your work study and say, ‘Look, I’m concerned about not being able to get the job done. Maybe you can help me.’”
The trick is in having the records to back up what you’re saying. “You’ve got to document your efforts to get relief,” Johnson says. Once you do that and make your boss aware of everything that is coming across your desk, the ball is in his or her court. When your boss has a better understanding of what you’re contributing, you might get yourself some relief, Johnson says, and you might even get something more. You might get greater recognition, and Johnson even knows of employees who have been given a raise after making it clear how much they were doing.
In some cases your boss might expect too much of you and your coworkers without meaning any harm, but Johnson cautions against a similar type of boss that he calls the “finger-pointer.”
“That boss doesn’t say, ‘What happened?’ They say, ‘Who did it?’” They typically look for someone to blame, instead of concentrating on fixing the problem.
If you’re a scapegoat for this type of boss, Johnson advises paying particular attention to whatever performance reviews you might get. If your boss is taking something out on you in a written evaluation, Johnson advises against signing it. “Ask for another performance review. If you don’t do that, it can become a part of your record.” Once again, the key to your credibility—and the ability to make a case to others, if necessary—will likely be your ability to document the contribution you’re making.
The Inexperienced Boss
“I thought my boss was actually afraid of me,” said Mike, who took a job with a software start-up company after graduating. “He seemed like a nice enough guy, and I never really noticed anything odd during the job interviews. But after I’d worked there awhile, I realized that he never said much during meetings or in person. But then he would send me these emails, sometimes ‘yelling’ at me and other people who worked under him for things that we never even knew about. It was especially bad because things would kind of bottleneck around this boss, and then all of a sudden everybody would get emails from him about things that needed to be done yesterday.”
Cara’s boss never lost her temper, but she had unrealistic expectations.
“No matter what I did, it was never enough for my first boss,” she said. “She didn’t realize how many things I had become responsible for in the first year since I’d been hired.”
The Unreasonable Boss
A close relative of the boss who goes berserk is the boss who has expectations that range from unreasonable to impossible—and this is another case where documentation comes in handy.
“Some bosses see the whole picture, but they don’t see all the details,” says Johnson. “You have to show them.”
To deal with a boss whose expectations are unrealistic, Johnson advises making a work study. That is, make a list of what you work on and for how long, over a period of a few days that are representative of your typical work load. “Then you take your work study and say, ‘Look, I’m concerned about not being able to get the job done. Maybe you can help me.’”
The trick is in having the records to back up what you’re saying. “You’ve got to document your efforts to get relief,” Johnson says. Once you do that and make your boss aware of everything that is coming across your desk, the ball is in his or her court. When your boss has a better understanding of what you’re contributing, you might get yourself some relief, Johnson says, and you might even get something more. You might get greater recognition, and Johnson even knows of employees who have been given a raise after making it clear how much they were doing.
In some cases your boss might expect too much of you and your coworkers without meaning any harm, but Johnson cautions against a similar type of boss that he calls the “finger-pointer.”
“That boss doesn’t say, ‘What happened?’ They say, ‘Who did it?’” They typically look for someone to blame, instead of concentrating on fixing the problem.
If you’re a scapegoat for this type of boss, Johnson advises paying particular attention to whatever performance reviews you might get. If your boss is taking something out on you in a written evaluation, Johnson advises against signing it. “Ask for another performance review. If you don’t do that, it can become a part of your record.” Once again, the key to your credibility—and the ability to make a case to others, if necessary—will likely be your ability to document the contribution you’re making.
The Inexperienced Boss
“I thought my boss was actually afraid of me,” said Mike, who took a job with a software start-up company after graduating. “He seemed like a nice enough guy, and I never really noticed anything odd during the job interviews. But after I’d worked there awhile, I realized that he never said much during meetings or in person. But then he would send me these emails, sometimes ‘yelling’ at me and other people who worked under him for things that we never even knew about. It was especially bad because things would kind of bottleneck around this boss, and then all of a sudden everybody would get emails from him about things that needed to be done yesterday.”
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