Note from Friend Betsey
Betsey from Seattle writes in:
Ten Ways Not to Manage an Overbearing Boss
I am surely not the first administrative assistant temperamentally unfit for the job. Adding an overbearing boss to mix has only amplified my bad habits. Learn from the best what NOT to do if you find yourself in similar inexpensively stylish shoes:
1. "Yep, All Done!"
When asked for the fifth time if I've put through that change form, I just say, "Yep All Done" and then hastily perform the task. I can't say that my boss doesn't see right through me and this can only draw more overbearing behavior.
2. Come In Late
Coming in late with an egg and cheese and large coffee in hand means I've had a good morning fitting in my own writing, jogging four times around the park down the block, mopping the kitchen floor AND washing and blow drying my hair. It also means that I haven't gotten to several things in the office that should have been done "right away". Refer to #1.
3. False Cheerfulness
This is the most common tactic employed by an underproductive assistant with an overbearing boss. An uncomfortable moment may be smoothed over, but both leave the interaction feeling contaminated.
4. Dream About Work
I'm sitting in a meeting with my Boss and my Boss's Boss. They tell me I'm going to be promoted and my new position will be one level above them. I rouse from this unusual good dream about work (bad dreams about work quite common) and arrive at the office feeling groggy yet vaguely superior. After the first coffee kicks in, I feel even lower than before.
5. Flask In The Desk/Champagne At The Birthday Party
I have yet to resort to keeping a vanilla bottle in my file drawer but even articulating this idea makes me realize how easy it would be to slip down that slope. I am not a stranger to the extra glass of champagne at the office birthday party and the happy insouciance that follows.
6. Create A Thinly Veiled Blog
Though intensely satisfying not only for the creator but also for other under-employeds in the office, this public character study of one's superiors can only end in tears.
7. Become obsessed with cooking
Dream while in work of all of the wonderful things to cook and eat after work. Other interests fall by the wayside as one dreams of the immediate sensual gratification of cooking and eating steak bearnaise and petites pois a la francaise.
8. Feverishly e-mail significant other
Also along the lines of instant gratification, a daily stream of e-mails from the work account to one's beloved is dangerous. Thankfully the only e-mail I ever sent to my boss instead of my husband had to do with my other obsession. "How about cauliflower curry tonight?" I should have learned my lesson, but I haven't.
9. Make Piles
Pile making only gives one's desk the appearance of being well ordered. I'm surely not fooling my boss by stacking all of the unfinished change forms and unchecked reports on top of each other. Unspoken office rules keep her from peeking.
10. Love Your Neighbor
Having a witty friend share one's wall-less cubicle can be a blessing, when the boss is especially anxious the two of you can shoot knowing looks and e-mail back and forth. The old concern comes up – is one's sneakiness really horribly transparent?
Ten Ways Not to Manage an Overbearing Boss
I am surely not the first administrative assistant temperamentally unfit for the job. Adding an overbearing boss to mix has only amplified my bad habits. Learn from the best what NOT to do if you find yourself in similar inexpensively stylish shoes:
1. "Yep, All Done!"
When asked for the fifth time if I've put through that change form, I just say, "Yep All Done" and then hastily perform the task. I can't say that my boss doesn't see right through me and this can only draw more overbearing behavior.
2. Come In Late
Coming in late with an egg and cheese and large coffee in hand means I've had a good morning fitting in my own writing, jogging four times around the park down the block, mopping the kitchen floor AND washing and blow drying my hair. It also means that I haven't gotten to several things in the office that should have been done "right away". Refer to #1.
3. False Cheerfulness
This is the most common tactic employed by an underproductive assistant with an overbearing boss. An uncomfortable moment may be smoothed over, but both leave the interaction feeling contaminated.
4. Dream About Work
I'm sitting in a meeting with my Boss and my Boss's Boss. They tell me I'm going to be promoted and my new position will be one level above them. I rouse from this unusual good dream about work (bad dreams about work quite common) and arrive at the office feeling groggy yet vaguely superior. After the first coffee kicks in, I feel even lower than before.
5. Flask In The Desk/Champagne At The Birthday Party
I have yet to resort to keeping a vanilla bottle in my file drawer but even articulating this idea makes me realize how easy it would be to slip down that slope. I am not a stranger to the extra glass of champagne at the office birthday party and the happy insouciance that follows.
6. Create A Thinly Veiled Blog
Though intensely satisfying not only for the creator but also for other under-employeds in the office, this public character study of one's superiors can only end in tears.
7. Become obsessed with cooking
Dream while in work of all of the wonderful things to cook and eat after work. Other interests fall by the wayside as one dreams of the immediate sensual gratification of cooking and eating steak bearnaise and petites pois a la francaise.
8. Feverishly e-mail significant other
Also along the lines of instant gratification, a daily stream of e-mails from the work account to one's beloved is dangerous. Thankfully the only e-mail I ever sent to my boss instead of my husband had to do with my other obsession. "How about cauliflower curry tonight?" I should have learned my lesson, but I haven't.
9. Make Piles
Pile making only gives one's desk the appearance of being well ordered. I'm surely not fooling my boss by stacking all of the unfinished change forms and unchecked reports on top of each other. Unspoken office rules keep her from peeking.
10. Love Your Neighbor
Having a witty friend share one's wall-less cubicle can be a blessing, when the boss is especially anxious the two of you can shoot knowing looks and e-mail back and forth. The old concern comes up – is one's sneakiness really horribly transparent?
posted by thirty-year-old secretary at 4:34 PM
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