Talk to any employee in any company and the boss will be the most favorite target of grumbling and complaints. Since the Neathenderal man was dragging his knuckles on the ground and drew a bad picture of his boss on the cave walls, employees have been bent at their bosses. With over 70% of employees not liking their job (Gallup report), the first line supervisor will get the bulk of the blame for problems.
According to many employees, most bosses can be likened to the rowing master of ancient navies where rows and rows of galley slaves were pushing on the oars. The whip being cracked as he paces up and down the center aisle, sweating and shouting at the top of his lungs. Faster, faster you fools!
Others may think of their managers as a despotic dictator that is only interested in using the employees for his or own purposes. For these bosses, employees don’t have feelings or personal lives. Work is the only focus in life and sleeping is an incredible waste of time. Of course, you should be 100% devoted to your job!
Old style bosses like to review their troops at 8:00 am where rows of rows of employees sit at their desks waiting for the bell to signal the start of their work. Like the start of a NASCAR race, the bell rings and the employees start pounding on their keyboards. Oh, the delicious sounds of clacking keys!
The manager goes back into his office beaming that his troops are out there pounding through the work. Each employee is muttering about how they would like to take that keyboard and jam it somewhere unpleasant in the bosses’ anatomy. The manager is proud, the employees are furious.
Perfect Managers
There are those manager gems that are able to combine a wonderful personality together with a drive to be successful. These managers build a wonderful relationship with their employees, know the right things to say, and have a fantastic working environment. They make a very attractive workplace.
Managers Shorten Longevity
Since the immediate supervisor is most responsible for your day-to-day activities, the boss shapes the attitude of the whole company. I am convinced that people who resign from a position do so because of their immediate boss. The benefits and other employee factors in the company will affect the decision for employees to stay or leave. But, the activities of the immediate manager has a huge impact.
Sometimes your manager is so bad you need to just walk. I would say it is rare but there are some bosses that are just looney. If you are forced to stand and sing a song of allegiance to the boss, get on your track shoes. If you are forced to clean the stairs with a toothbrush, head for the hills! I have never had a crazy boss but I have heard about them.
The biggest problem is that you and your boss will do things differently. Neither of you are bad, just different. It is common to think differently than the boss and the resulting conflicts will be hard to take.
Serving the Boss
This is where serving the boss comes in. It is a hard lesson I had to learn many years ago but it turned out to be a vital rule. Your manager is responsible for delivering products, services, or other activities. They need their team to achieve certain activities to meet those goals.
In reality, the manager gets to call the shots on how it is to be done. You can give a different opinion on how to meet those goals but, in the end, it hs the boss’s decision that you need to meet. As a young, hardheaded twit, I fought back with my manager about how to get things done thinking I knew how to do everything better. Regardless whether I was right or not, I didn’t get the final say on how things got accomplished. I should have just shutup and got my work done.
The best method is to provide, calmly and civilly, your opinion on how it should be done. Once you have expressed your view, if the manager disregards your advice wants it done another way, your only answer should be: Yes.
In a future post, I will talk about the extra issues that the manager will know about that you don’t. Therefore, a decision that seems bad to you, might make sense if you knew all the factors.
Happy working!