Does Your Boss Hate You? Here’s Why
Five ways you’re annoying your boss without knowing it
Every day you work with your boss, is this inner monologue running through your head?
“I have an attitude problem? Are you kidding me? You can’t even say hello without coming off as a total *insert insult here*. And how did you get promoted anyway? All you do is sit in an office all day and come out once an hour to yell at us…”
Easy there, soldier. While you might be correct about the insult you chose to insert, you might also be jumping the gun a little. Your boss’s job depends on you doing your job. That means even something minor, like being late or cutting corners, can end up getting them in trouble, and they’ll take that frustration out on you.
So how can you make your manager smile (and make your life a lot easier)? Don’t do these five things.
Be late to work: If an hour of your pay was the only thing lost when you showed up late it wouldn’t be a big deal, but that’s not the only thing that gets lost with your tardiness. Being a few minutes late means your manager has to scramble to find coverage, which means disgruntled employees, which means customers get annoyed, which means sales go down.
So someone else has to work an extra hour at the end of their shift. Who cares? Besides the fact that you’d be really upset if it were you, employee morale is high on your manager’s priority list. Constantly being asked to fill in for co-workers won’t make for happy employees.
Call out all the time: Even worse than being late is not showing up at all. Then your manager has to call people at home and ask them to take your shift – or even cover for you themselves. Additionally, managers are usually responsible for labor budgets, and being substantially over or under budget makes them look bad to their superiors. Managers often get rewarded for this responsibility with a bonus , which they might not get if you keep not showing up for work. How would you feel if you went to cash your paycheck and found out you were short because your best work buddy called out? You would hit level ten pissivity.
Have a bad attitude: If you’re going to have a crappy attitude once you get to work, maybe you’re better off staying home. Your scowls and eye-rolling create a bad perception of the company you work for, and that reflects poorly on your manager.
Companies work hard to create a good image of themselves in their customers’ minds – that’s what “brand” means. Having a weak brand translates into less revenue. At the end of the day, your job exists to make the company money. If your bad attitude means the business makes less money, you will be seen as a liability. Harsh, but true.
Get distracted on the job: How do you spend your spare moments at work? Maybe it’s text messaging, Facebook, Internet surfing, or just a good ol’ fashioned chit chat with your co-workers. Whatever your favorite flavor of non-work related activity, it’s not what you’re getting paid to do. Even when you think your customers can’t see you texting behind the counter, your productivity is suffering.
Either the office chair is super comfy or they have a lot to do, because a good manager is always the first person to arrive and the last person to leave. So when something’s left undone because you were “liking” someone’s status update, your manager is going to have to come behind you and do your tasks the right way, which delays their post-work partying (a.k.a. dinner and sleep). No one wants to have to do the job of two people.
Take the easy way out: You figure out a quicker and easier way to halfway execute a lame policy, and you think no one will notice. Maybe it’s throwing on the cheese instead of neatly alternating slices, or maybe it’s pushing just the first box to the edge of the shelf instead of all of them when you’re restocking.
Your boss’ paycheck is signed to ensure you’re doing things the right way, so you can see why they might get mad if you don’t. Again, it doesn’t make any sense for a manager to employ someone they constantly have to check up on. Instead of having every task done twice, they’ll probably just hire someone who will do it right the first time.
What it all really boils down to is doing your job to the best of your ability every time you come into work. Even if it kills you, be nice to your boss and try to make their life easier. This is how you’ll ensure you keep your job for as long as you want it. Remember happy boss, happy employee.